Biotech Updates

Revised Pocket K 35 on "Bt Brinjal in India" Available in 8 Indian Languages

November 6, 2009

On 14th Oct 2009, India's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in its 97th meeting recommended the commercial approval of Bt Brinjal Event EE-I in India which at present is under consideration for commercial release by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF), Government of India. Bt Brinjal hybrids and open pollinated varieties are developed locally by Mahyco in collaboration with the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore. Brinjal or eggplant is an important vegetable crop in India. It is planted to 550,000 hectares in the country. Brinjal cultivation, however, is often input intensive, especially for insecticide applications. It is prone to attack from insect pests and diseases, the most serious of which is the fruit and shoot borer (FSB). FSB-resistant brinjal varieties expressing Bt proteins have been developed. Results of studies submitted to regulatory authorities in India confirm that Bt brinjal offers the opportunity to provide effective control against fruit and shoot borer, and decrease insecticide input by as much as 80%.

To know more about Bt brinjal in India, the revised Pocket K No. 35 on "Bt Brinjal in India" produced by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications can be downloadable from http://www.isaaa.org/kc/inforesources/publications/pocketk/default.html#Pocket_K_No._35.htm It is also available online in 8 major Indian languages including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Oriyaa, Tamil, and Telugu.

More information about biotech developments in India contact b.choudhary@cgiar.org and k.gaur@cgiar.org