Putting the ‘Bt’ in Better Eggplant

Eggplant is the leading vegetable crop in the Philippines by area and volume harvested. It is also one of the most vulnerable to pests, particularly the eggplant Fruit and Shoot Borer (FSB).

It is estimated that 50-70% of the local “Talong” eggplant yield is lost or damaged annually due to EFSB. Farmers need to take drastic measures to protect their crops, which normally involves the frequent use of pesticides amounting to almost 20-40% of the total production cost.

One of the proposed solutions for this problem comes from the UPLB College of Agriculture and Food Science, who have been developing a GMO variety of eggplant that is resistant to FSB, called simply Bt Eggplant.

Unfortunately, while Bt Eggplant has passed various safety assessments, the Court of Appeals has issued a cease and desist on the commercial and scientific propagation of the crop, asking for additional research to be conducted to ensure safety.

So, what do we know about Bt Eggplant and how safe is it? Well, aside from being granted various biosafety permits by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry deeming it fit for commercial cultivation, it has also been commercially planted in Bangladesh since 2014.
Functionally, Bt Eggplant has the same nutrition value and is as safe to eat as a traditional eggplant. In addition, the resistance to ESFB means that farmers apply less pesticide to it, lessening the residue that will remain on the fruit when it reaches consumers.

The way Bt Eggplant gained its resistance to FSB is through the insertion of crystalline insecticidal natural proteins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.This was the same method used to create Bt Corn, which has a history of safe use in the Philippines of over 20 years.