Cultivation of BT Brinjal

Hello friends,

Bt Brinjal is a transgenic brinjal created out of inserting a gene from the soil bacterium "Bacillus thuringiensis" into Brinjal. The insertion of the gene into the Brinjal cell in young cotyledons has been done through an Agrobacterium-mediated vector, along with other genes like promoters, markers etc.

Brinjal has been cultivated in different parts of our country for the last 4000 years & more.INDIA is the center of origin for Brinjal or Eggplant. Bt Brinjal is being developed in India by M/s Mahyco [Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company]. The company wants to take up large scale field trials with the permission of the GEAC in 2006-07.

Promises and claims:-

• It is reported that the average shoot damage in Bt Brinjal hybrids ranged from 0.04% to 0.3% as compared to 0.12% to 2.5% in non-Bt Brinjal hybrids.

• The percentage of damaged fruits reportedly ranged from 2.5% to 20% in Bt Brinjal to 24% to 58% in non-Bt counterparts

• No significant difference was noted between Bt Brinjal and Non-Bt Brinjal, as per the company which did biosafety tests like acute oral toxicity, sub-chronic oral toxicity in rats, allergenecity of protein to rats, germination, weediness and aggressiveness tests, soil micro-biota studies etc.

• This will help small and marginal farmers from having to use 25-80 sprays of pesticides which are ineffective.

• The company claims that human health concerns due to pesticide use can be addressed with this transgenic Brinjal with its in-built tolerance

• Company promises that through this in-built tolerance, there would be substantial increase in marketable yields. Higher yields would result in higher incomes for farmers.

• The pricing of the seeds will be based on a cost-recovery model, making it affordable for all farmers, whether the seed comes from the private sector or the public sector.

• Farmers will be able to continue to save and re-use their seed for the hybrids and varieties because of this arrangement.

Possible Hazards:-

Health Hazards:-Useing Bt crops India shows adverse human health impacts in farm and factory workers with allergies caused by Bt Cotton. Itching skin, eruptions on the body, swollen faces etc.correlated with levels of exposure to Bt Cotton.

Environmental Hazards :- Using of Bt. Cotton reduces soil productivity to a great extent. It also creates an ample oppurtunity of cross pollination.

Thank you.