Bt brinjal is almost on your table, tests cleared for tomatoes, bhindi

It also cleared proposals for pollen flow/biosafety studies for other food crops — bhindi (okra), rice and tomatoes.

After a protracted case in the Supreme Court, the regulatory body has been extra cautious and has introduced a host of safeguards to be followed while testing.

The Bt brinjal has the same Cry1Ac gene from Bacillus thuringiensis as cotton. The gene makes the plant tolerant to the fruit and shoot borers, pests which attack it throughout its life cycle. The yield-loss due to fruit and shoot borers in India alone is estimated to be about $221 million (Rs 900 crores).

The first large-scale trials would be done under the supervision of director, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research at Varanasi. This is a major departure from other large-scale trials done on cotton in the past. The Genetic Engineering approval Committee (GEAC), the regulatory body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, has forbidden any company from conducting trials in farmers’ fields as per the recent Supreme Court order.

Brinjal has two seasons — the trials are expected to be done during June-September this year and January-April next year monitored by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TANU ), Coimbatore. The trials will evaluate their agronomic performances as well as their efficacy in controlling fruit and shoot borer, the most common pest for brinjal. The trials are also meant to see if they impact beneficial insects.

The Mahyco brinjal hybrid has been locked in a long battle between activists and the government. After the biosafety data was put on the Ministry website, an expert committee was set up to evaluate comments from various stakeholders on the data and suggest further studies required to ascertain its safety.

The committee concluded that the biosafety data generated by the applicant is in order. “However, Bt brinjal being the first GM crop to be released in India and the first to be released globally, the committee was of the opinion that a cautious step by step approach needs to be taken.”

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