The long road to commercialization of Bt brinjal (eggplant) in India
نویسنده
چکیده
0261-2194/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.cropro.2010.02.016 On 14 October 2009, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of India approved the commercialization of transgenic Bt brinjal (1⁄4eggplant), transformed to express an insecticidal protein (Cry1Ac) from the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis. This was a significant decision on the long road to becoming the first genetically engineered food crop in India. According to the Ministry of the Environment and Forests of the Indian Government, GEAC is the apex body constituted in the Ministry of Environment and Forests under 'Rules for Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous Microorganisms/ Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells 1989', under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 (http://moef.nic.in/modules/projectclearances/geac-clearance). Thus, the Minister of Environment and Forests, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, considers his agency as the final gatekeeper of genetically engineered crops in India. According to Mr. Vijayaraghavan, the South Asia Regional Coordinator of the Bt brinjal project, soon after GEAC's announcement, members of Greenpeace and other anti-biotechnology NGOs sent thousands of faxes and emails to Mr. Ramesh's office urging him to ban the cultivation of Bt brinjal. Thus, Bt brinjal continues to be caught in a political hurricane in India. Its final fate may be decided by the time this article appears in print, but what that will be is not presently known. I offer my perspective on this issue for your consideration. Much of the background on brinjal and its pest complex is summarized in a recent publication by Choudhary and Gaur (2009). However, this is only part of the story in this complex situation. Brinjal, Solanum melongena (Family: Solanaceae), is a widely cultivated vegetable in India. Brinjal, along with tomato and onion, is the second most important vegetable in India and is considered the most affordable, so is consumed in a wide variety of dishes
منابع مشابه
Cultivated eggplants – origin, breeding objectives and genetic resources, a review
Brinjal eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an agronomically important nontuberous crop of Solanaceae family, native to southern India, and widely grown in Americas, Europe and Asia. Its close relatives: S. aethiopicum (scarlet eggplant) and S. macrocarpon (Gboma eggplant) are of African origin. Brinjal eggplant is a new vegetable in Poland. Until recently it was grown only in glasshouse conditi...
متن کاملPerception of the risks and benefits of Bt eggplant by Indian farmers
Several researchers—most notably Lennart Sjoberg and his colleagues—have proposed that the moral aspects of risk provide a better explanation of risk perception than the psychometric paradigm or Cultural Theory, neither of which accounts for moral concerns. This study is possibly the first to assess empirically the perception of the risks and benefits of a transgenic food crop—transgenic Bt (Ba...
متن کاملWho Adopts What Kind of Technologies? The Case of Bt Eggplant in India
Agriculture has been the engine of economic growth in developing countries, and will continue to be so in Africa and South Asia in the next decades. More than two thirds of the population live in rural areas and derive their livelihoods from agriculture. To meet the increasing food demands with declining per-capita arable land, increased agricultural productivity and product diversifications ar...
متن کاملAn Ex-Ante Economic Impact Assessment of Bt Eggplant in Bangladesh, the Philippines and India
....................................................................... ......... ii Acknowledegements ............................................................... iii
متن کاملProspects of Transgenic Food Crops in India
Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) eggplant may become the first transgenic vegetable crop to be commercialized in the Indian subcontinent. This exploratory study conducted in Maharashtra, India suggests that vegetable farmers are generally receptive to the technology primarily for its pest resistance and cost saving attributes. While economic issues dominate the farmers’ perception of Bt eggplant, et...
متن کامل