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QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS: DEVELOPMENT OF FRUIT AND SHOOT BORER RESISTANT/
BT
EGGPLANT IN THE PHILIPPINES
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.
Click the folder icon on the left of question to expand (show answer) or collapse (hide answer).
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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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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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