Lift ban on Bt brinjal: Scientists

Brinjal is not used for Indian systems of medicine and no one should prevent it from becoming the world’s first commercially available genetically modified food, scientists said.
Hence, the moratorium on Bt brinjal should be lifted, they argued on Tuesday.

“One of the objections to genetically modified brinjal is based on the claim that it would tamper with the vegetable that is used for medicinal purposes. After a three-month study, I’ve found that raw brinjal is not used in any system of medicine.

Other wild species in the Solanum group are used but not brinjal. Therefore, fears that commercial cultivation of genetically modified brinjal would jeopardise the vegetable's use in Indian systems of medicine are baseless,” said Prof Kameswara Rao of the Foundation of Biotechnology Awareness and Education.

He released a special report on the ‘Use of Brinjal in alternative systems of medicine in India.’

Genetically engineered crops are rigorously evaluated, they undergo stringent testing and are completely safe for consumption.

Ideology, bias, fear of multinational companies and misinformation are to blame for Bt brinjal not being accepted. There is no scientific basis to reject it.

Rao clarified that genetic modification was not an exclusive solution against pests but part of a package.

“No crop contains the terminator gene. That technology has been shut,” he said.

The consumer benefit goes up by 60%. Marketable yield will go up to 200% and pesticide application will be reduced by 77%. Also, it is not a private sector product. The public sector component has been ignored,” Rao said.

The scientific community wonders why there is opposition to incorporating a gene from the Bacillus thuringiensis  — a naturally occurring bacterium in the soil — in the plant when it is widely used in pesticides.

“Instead of external application, it is incorporated in the plant. It is very difficult to understand why activists are against this,” said Dr TM Manjunath, consultant, agricultural biotechnology.

The protein this gene produces is capable of killing only one kind of insect. It is insect-specific and order-specific. The bacterium discovered in 1901 is being used in sprays.

The shoot and fruit borer insect that attacks brinjal resides in the shoot and, therefore, is inaccessible to pesticides. They cause 50%-70% crop loss. The loss to the consumer is about 15%-20%.

The Cry1Ac protein Bt makes is capable of controlling pests that ravage brinjal plants, the scientists asserted.

So far, 63 lakh farmers have taken to Bt cotton. Bt brinjal too would become popular if the moratorium was lifted, the scientists said.