The dangers of Bt brinjal farming in India

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />India is the second largest brinjal producing country in the world after China. Others are Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Iraq and Japan.  Brinjal, which is known as eggplant or aubergine, is cultivated by a total of 14,00,000 poor and middle-class farmers on over 5,50,000 hectares annually in all the eight vegetable growing zones throughout India. It's a very popular vegetable across India.

The poor and middle-class farmers transplant this cash crop from nurseries at different times of the year to produce two or three crops, each of 150 to 180 days duration. Farmers start harvesting brinjal at about 60 days after planting and continue to harvest for 90 to 120 days, thereby earning a stable income from market sales for most of the year

According to the latest statistics available, of the total global annual production of 32 million tons brinjal produced on 2 million hectares, India produces 84,50,200 tons or 26% of global production.  Though it is not definite and scientifically proved well beyond any doubts about the origin of brinjal, I would like to find reasoning and logic  of the origin of brinjal as India. The nature of cultivation and the highest wild species of brinjal seen in India represent a broad range of genetic diversity which I believe has surely migrated from India to other countries including China, South-East Asia, Africa, Europe and the South and North America. A more complex, historic, scientific and comprehensive study on this will certainly shed more light and can establish the origin of brinjal.

Overview of brinajl cultivation

Brinjal is a wonderful crop that gives good yield under different weather conditions including drought. The yield of brinjal has increased from 12.6 tons per hectare in 1987-88, to 15.3 tons per hectare in 1991-92 to 16.5 tons per hectare in 2005-06. It is a known fact that brinjal is prone to the attack of many insects and pests and diseases; by far the most important of which is the fruit and shoot bore (FSB), for which resistance has not been identified and thus it causes significant losses of up to 45% to 50% in commercial plantings and in certain cases sometimes more. Damage starts in the nursery, prior to transplanting, continues at  harvest and is then carried-over to the next crop of brinjal.

FSB damages brinjal in two ways. First, it infests young shoots which limits the ability of plants to produce healthy fruit bearing shoots, thereby reducing potential yield. Secondly, and more importantly, it bores into fruits making them unmarketable at harvest - it is this decrease in marketable yield, as opposed to total yield, that is the most important yield loss caused by FSB. Due to the fact that FSB larvae remain concealed within shoots and fruits, insecticide applications, although numerous, are ineffective.

Farmers usually spray twice a week, applying 15 to 40 insecticide sprays, or more, in one season depending on infestation levels. The decision to spray is influenced more by subjective assessment of visual presence of FSB rather than guided by the more objective science-based methodology of economic threshold levels. This reliance on subjective assessment leads to gross over-spraying with insecticides, higher insecticide residues, and unnecessary increase in the farmers’ exposure to insecticides.

For example, for the more productive hybrid brinjal plantings, 54 litres of formulated insecticide per hectare is sprayed, compared with a requirement of only 16 litres when economic thresholds are used to trigger spraying. Similarly, for the less productive open-pollinated varieties, 26.7 litres of insecticides per hectare are used, compared with only 4.9 litres per hectare as required by economic thresholds. On average, 4.6 kg of active ingredient of insecticide per hectare per season is applied on brinjal at a cost of Re. 12,000 per hectare; this is the highest quantity applied to any vegetable crop with the exception of chilli, which consumes 5.13 kg of active ingredient per hectare; okra consumes 3.71 kg of active ingredient per hectare.

To illustrate the importance of FSB, of the 15 recommended insecticides for brinjal more than half, or eight are prescribed only for FSB. Typically, farmers indiscriminately apply a cocktail of insecticides on brinjal, including insecticides such as monocrotophos that are restricted or banned for use on vegetable crops. In a survey of pesticide residues in vegetable crops taken at the farm gate and markets from 1999 to 2003 confirmed that of the 3,043 samples, two-thirds were found to have pesticide residues, but these were within accepted tolerances, whereas 9% contained residues above the minimum recommended levels. The increasing amount of insecticide residues in vegetables and fruits has been a major concern to consumers who currently have no choice except to buy brinjals with high insecticide residues, but despite the application of many insecticides the brinjal fruits sold in the market are still of inferior quality, infested with larvae of FSB.

The above is the overview of brinjal cultivation in India.

 Now enters a private sector company as a cartel with vested-interests to save brinjal farmers in India some eight years back, i.e. in 2001. Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Limited or in short Mahyco started working in partnership with world's largest seed company Monsanto based in the USA.  Monsanto and Mahyco lobby is very powerful and have immense hold and influence in the power corridors of central-state governments including the media.  Mahyco and Monsanto claim to provide Bt brinjal to India which will give more yields and require very less pesticides treatments.

What is bt brinjal?

Bt brinjal is a transgenic brinjal created by inserting genes from the soil bacterium bacillus thuringlensis into brinjal. The transformation was carried out using genetic engineering techniques viz. Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated method Bt brinjal contains three genes namely:

1. The cry1Ac gene derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to produce an insecticidal  protein, which is driven by a viral promoter, the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter.  \

     2. The nptII gene for an antibiotic resistance marker, neomycin phosphotransferase.

     3, The aad gene for another marker O -aminoglycoside adenyl trans ferase

                                                   Successful lobbying

Despite the hue and cry from scientists, NGOs, economists, researchers, activists and international bio-safety experts and reports and studies published in national and international media it is sure that the danger of BT brinjal farming is going to happen soon in India. We have to see when the official fiat is coming out, whether in February or March, 2010. The formal government nod is pre-planned with vested interests from certain corners.  According to the information received from certain sources, the government is deliberately keeping a low pace and Sonia Gandhi has specifically told Jairam Ramesh to delay the official announcement.

In the world's largest democracy, a policy-matter affecting over 110 crore people is going to be decided single-handedly by one minister of state (independent charge) for environment and forests i.e., Jairam Ramesh, who is very much adamant and enthusiastic to give the official sanction for Bt brinjal farming in India without any foresight.  Armed with a report by the so-called 'Expert Committee II' consisting of 16 people including bureaucrats, now the minister will give the final approval.            

The Supreme Court of India directed the central government on 12th February 2008 to include the Father of the Green Revolution in India Dr. M.S. Swaminathan and former Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology Dr. Pushpa M. Bhargava as special members of a technical panel that examines the pleas for allowing open-field trials of genetically modified foods and crops in India. However, government considered only Dr. Pushpa M. Bhargava to become an observer and calculatingly ignored his advice and opinion in whatever possible manner and hastily the so-called "Expert Committee" approved the commercial farming of genetically modified (GM) brinjal in India.

No crucial and mandatory tests were conducted by the expert committee. Nevertheless based on mere reports submitted by Mahyco the 'Expert Committee' blindly approved them. The entire tests were carried out by either Mahyco or they submitted test reports from the accredited labs of Mahyco's choice.  Similarly all samples were provided by Mahyco and no efforts were taken by the 'Expert Committee' to verify the authenticity of the samples submitted and to test other samples by collecting through other sources. So Mahyco, 16-member so-called 'Expert Committee' and a mock Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) who had virtually no power to take the unbiased right decision in the interest of over 110 crore Indians.

The 'Expert Committee' did not bother many any criticisms and the dossiers of objections raised by Greenpeace and Kerala Bio-diversity Board never found a place in the report. Renowned French scientist Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini of the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN), who carried out the first ever independent assessment of Monsanto-Mahyco's dossier on toxicity tests and submitted the report to the Indian regulatory authorities mentioning the release of Bt brinjal into the environment for food, feed and cultivation may present a serious risk for human and animal health and unfit for consumption. However, the 'Expert Committee' totally ignored his report.

The current brinjal industry is estimated above Rs. 8,500 crores (above US$ 1,700 million). Some of the major hitches of Bt brinjal are monopoly supply of seeds from Monsanto at a high rate, which would be whimsical and unquestionable, fixed by them, seed money for minimum 120 times cultivation or more, no preservation of the initial seed for next cultivation and spoiling the natural culture or biodiversity of soil. The recurring profit from seeds sale and forced and disguised dependence are the major deceive goals of Monsanto.

After introducing the Bt brinjal in India Mahyco and Monsanto are planning to introduce it in Bangladesh and Philippines. Also Mahyco and Monsanto will introduce Bt potato, Bt tomato, Bt wheat and Bt rice in India soon. If the information received from some sources is true, our minister Jairam Ramesh will help Mahyco and Monsanto to succeed in their venture.

When will we learn from the bitter experiences of Bt cotton farming in India?