USAID Supports Cornell's Feed the Future South Asia Eggplant Improvement Partnership

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded Cornell University a US$4.8 million, three-year grant to strengthen capacity to develop and disseminate Bt eggplant in Bangladesh and the Philippines. The award supports USAID's work under the Feed the Future, the US government's global initiative to fight hunger and improve food security using agricultural science and technology.

Dr. Anthony Shelton, and international professor of entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell will direct the project. According to Dr. Shelton, because of infestation by the fruit and shoot borer, or FSB, as much as 70 percent of the eggplant crop in South Asia never makes it to market. Bt brinjal (eggplant) has been developed over the last 11 years and uses a gene from a naturally occurring soil bacterium to produce a protein that causes borers to stop feeding.

"Bangladesh faces food shortages, increasing population, and decreasing amounts of arable land," said Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam Mondal, director general of BARI. "Genetically engineered crops developed under the Feed the Future South Asia Eggplant Improvement Partnership will enhance the quality of life for Bangladeshis by increasing income, improving nutrition and health, and fostering a safer environment."

The Feed the Future South Asia Eggplant Improvement Partnership addresses and integrates all elements of the commercialization process — including technology development, regulation, marketing, seed distribution, and product stewardship. It also provides strong platforms for policy development, capacity building, gender equality, outreach and communication.

For more on the story, visit the Feed the Future website.