Bright days ahead for eggplant growers

By Dr. Sosimo Ma. Pablico

IN MANY RAINFED FARMS in Ilocos Region, the wet season rice is followed after a short fallow period by hybrid corn and vegetables, as the farmers can no longer produce another rice crop during the dry season.

Among the few vegetable crops raised by the farmers is eggplant, which they claim gives them a comfortable income even as the area devoted to the crop is relatively small. It is very seldom that farmers in this area would devote half a hectare for eggplant, as they don’t cultivate large tracts of land.

Eggplant is an economically and nutritionally important crop in the Philippines. It is widely cultivated and consumed by almost all ethnic groups in the country, including Muslims. In a recent report in Experimental Agriculture, it was learned that the national value for eggplant in the Philippines is 115 million US dollars.

Like other farmers elsewhere, Ilocos Region farmers say they are bothered so much by a destructive insect that bores into the terminal shoots, rendering the shoot to wither and, hence, delaying the vegetative development of the plants. This pest also bores into the young fruits and feeds inside, making the fruit unmarketable. This pest is so serious such that a farmer can lose about a 70 percent of his crop and as high as 90 percent of the fruits could be damaged under high infestation.

Eggplant farmers rely extensively on the application of chemical insecticides, every other day, to combat this insect when they are already harvesting. Damaged fruits are hardly sold. This practice of frequent insecticide application has resulted in widespread misuse of pesticides, causing a multitude of side effects that include increased cost of production as well as exposure of farmers and consumers to pesticide residues. More than these, the excessive use of chemical pesticides has destroyed natural enemies of eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB), resulting in a continuing resurgence of the pest population.

Plant breeders say there is no conventionally-bred eggplant variety yet with resistance to this notorious insect. Attempts were made to crossbreed eggplant varieties with EFSB-resistant wild varieties but were not successful. True enough, some successes have been achieved through integrated pest management approaches, but their implementation can be impractical for small scale farmers in remote areas, according to experts.

Cornell University scientists now lead a project on the research, development and delivery of bioengineered EFSB varieties for South and Southeast Asia. Financial support is provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Called Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSP II), the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) in the University of the Philippines Los Banos was selected as its partner institution in the Philippines. Funds are provided by the ABSPII to its partners.

The project explores the possibility of developing and marketing Bt eggplant or bioengineered eggplants with a transgene obtained from the soil-borne bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that provides resistance to the eggplant fruit and shoot borer.

A major advantage of this technology is that it reduces the use of chemical pest control, thereby reducing environmental risks, according to a team of scientists led by Dr. Peter Gregory of Cornell University

According to them, the US Environmental Protection Agency in its safety tests has found no human health hazards related to Bt use. Thus, it is safe for resource-constrained farmers to cultivate crops using Bt.

In this project, the hybrid Bt eggplant developed by Mahyco, a private Indian company, is converted through conventional breeding into Bt eggplant varieties for the Philippines, India, and Bangladesh. Mahyco used the Bt gene Cry1Ac under license by Monsanto. This was the same gene used by Monsanto and later Pioneer in the development of corn borer resistant hybrids.

Mahyco sublicensed the cry-gene technology on a royalty-free basis to IPB-UPLB and the project partners in India and Bangladesh.

According to plans, the IPB initially will sell the seed of its Bt eggplant directly to farmers. The Institute can guarantee that its hybrid Bt eggplant will be of high quality since it is using its experimental hybrids as its parent materials. It is estimated that 75 percent of eggplant farmers now use hybrid seeds. For the remaining 25 percent of the eggplant farmers who plant OP varieties, IPB will also develop and sell such varieties.

Eventually, licensing agreements will be negotiated with commercial seed growers who will wish to participate in the distribution of Bt eggplant.

It’s no longer a farfetched possibility. The Bt eggplant is coming.

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