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| Development of Fruit and
Shoot Borer/Bt Eggplant in the Philippines |
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| Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is a vegetable with worldwide importance. It can have oval, elongated and round fruits that are striped or plain-colored, ranging from dark purple, light purple, green, yellow to white. The fruits are used in many cuisines. They are boiled, stewed, roasted, pickled, fried, or baked. In the Philippines, eggplant is a popular ingredient in dishes such as pinakbet, torta, sinigang, ensalada, and kare-kare. |
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1. Why is eggplant
important? |
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• Eggplant is a good source
of vitamins, fibers, and minerals.
•Eggplant is the leading vegetable
crop in the Philippines in terms of area and volume of production.
• Small-scale farmers in many provinces grow eggplant
and depend on it for their livelihood.
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2. What are the major constraints
to eggplant production? |
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Eggplant production suffers yield
losses from pests, diseases and extreme environmental conditions.
The most destructive insect pest of eggplant in the Philippines
and other Asian countries is the Fruit and Shoot Borer (FSB).
Eggplant yield losses from 51 to 73% due to FSB have been
reported in the country.
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3. How does FSB
damage eggplant production? |
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FSB can cause significant yield loss and reduce the number
of marketable fruits. Female moths deposit eggs mostly
on eggplant leaves. Upon hatching, the young larvae, after
an hour or two of probing, feed on the leaf tissues and
tunnel inside shoots, resulting in wilting or drying up.
When the fruits are available, the caterpillar bores
inside the fruit, producing feeding tunnels. This makes
the fruits unfit for market.
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4. How do farmers control and
manage FSB? |
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The majority of farmers still rely
on heavy use of insecticide sprays, which are mostly effective
only against newly-hatched FSB caterpillars that have not
yet tunneled into the plant. Farmers can also use different
ways to control the pest such as:
• follow regular crop rotation or intercrop the eggplant
with other vegetables;
• use nylon net barriers to protect plants from the
insects;
• trap male insects using pheromones to prevent insect
mating;
• grow eggplants in a screenhouse before transplanting
into the field;
• judicious pesticide use to keep populations of natural
enemies of FSB; and
• harvest fruits frequently.
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5. How can biotechnology
offer a better alternative to traditional control methods? |
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Because of time and resource constraints,
smallscale farmers desire pest control methods that do not
require additional labor and material inputs. Labor intensive
control methods such as manual removal of infested shoots,
trapping of insects and application of netting are usually
ineffective. Intensive pesticide use often leads to environmental
and health issues, and increases the total production costs.
There are no existing commercial varieties of eggplants
with high resistance to FSB in the Philippines, and FSB-resistance
is difficult to produce using conventional plant breeding.
By using biotechnology to introduce FSB-resistance in eggplant,
farmers may benefit from high yields of good quality fruits.
They may also save on production and labor costs as less
pesticide will be necessary to control the FSB.
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6. What is FSB-resistant
eggplant? |
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FSB-resistant (FSBR) eggplant is
an insect resistant eggplant developed with the help of
biotechnology. Also called Bt eggplant or Bt brinjal, it
produces a natural protein that makes it resistant to FSB.
Once the FSB caterpillars feed on plant leaves, shoots and
fruits, they stop eating and eventually die. The Bt protein
in the biotech eggplant only affects FSB and does not affect
humans, farm animals, and other non-target organisms.
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7. What institutions are working
on the development of FSBR eggplant? |
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The Indian Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds
Company Limited (Mahyco) has developed a highly resistant
biotech eggplant. These eggplant lines have been used as
source of FSB resistant trait of biotech eggplants in India,
Bangladesh and the Philippines. The Institute of Plant Breeding
at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (IPB-UPLB)
is currently developing FSBR eggplant for the Philippines
through partnership with Mahyco and Cornell University,
and with support from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) through the Agricultural Biotechnology
Support Project II (ABSP II), the International Service
for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA)
and Department of Agriculture of the Philippines.
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8. Is FSBR eggplant safe to
eat? |
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Before the FSBR eggplant is approved
for commercial use, scientists andregulators ensure that
it passes through many tests and safety assessments. In
the Philippines, biosafety is evaluated in four stages:
(1) contained research in laboratories and screenhouses;
(2) small confined trials;
(3) multi-location field trials; and
(4) commercial release.
The National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines
(NCBP) is responsible for evaluating the safety of FSBR
eggplant under contained and confined conditions. The
Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and other regulatory agencies
under the Department of Agriculture take charge of the
safety assessment and monitoring during large field trials
and prior to and after commercial release. In addition,
the reduced use of chemicals on Bt eggplant will mean
that less pesticide residue will remain on the fruit when
it is brought to market.
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9. Is FSBR eggplant
already available in the market? |
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In the Philippines, this biotech
eggplant is not yet commercially available. The promising
varieties are still under the multilocation field trials
and tests are continually being done to ensure safety and
good performance of the product.
Once it is approved for commercial release, seeds will
be made available to farmers. In India, similar FSBR eggplant
varieties are near commercialization, and are in the later
stages of evaluation and safety assessment.
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