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

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.

Meanwhile, public sector research on Bt brinjal is close on the heels of Mahyco’s hybrid. They were accorded clearance for Multi Location Field Trials (MLFT), a step before the Mahyco hybrid large scale trials. These trials would be conducted at five agriculture research institutes in South India.

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.”

The committee said that while the data showed that the Bt version was safe, more studies specially with respect to toxicity need to be done. “Short term data generated on environment safety and socio economic aspects need to be further substantiated” said the committee. It said its benefits are to be compared to existing technologies specially with respect to methods of pest management.

GEAC, accepting the committee’s recommendations has decided that this hybrid needs to be tested at 11 locations and under the strict supervision of IIVR, Varanasi. In none of these trials, it would be taken to open farmers fields. New Studies that would be stipulated soon would be conducted in addition to the ones already required.

A beginning has been as far as the other foodcrops are concerned. They are still two steps away from multi-location research trials. Bt okra has been permitted for testing in confined field conditions in Rabi 2007 for conduct biosafety studies. Transgenic rice and Bt tomato trials have also been allowed under confined field conditions. These would be done in company’s own research farms and an isolation distance of 200 m would be maintained. A validated event specific test protocol would be specified. The name of the lead scientists responsible for the trails would be given in advance.

Though a slew of studies would be generated on the Mahyco hybrid before it is cleared, Indian seems to be closer to clearing its first transgenic crop than ever before.