Genetically modified brinjals for your bhartha and bagara baingan! In less than two years, the GM version of the ubiquitous brinjal, or aubergine or eggplant, call it what you will, may enter Indian kitchens after clearing environment and health safety standards.

"Once we have cleared the required trials and safety parameters, we are looking at 2006-07 for commercial release of the new genetically modified eggplant," said Raju Barwale, managing director of Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyaco).

"The large-scale trials can be completed by next yearend before going to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) for commercial release. The economic advantage data will also be generated within the next six to eight months," Barwale said at an interaction in this Tamil Nadu town for media from all countries participating in the ongoing field trials.

Grown year round, a significantly large percentage of the brinjal crop is damaged due to high infestation of fruit and shoot borer.

Even the undamaged crop that reaches dining rooms is contaminated by repeated use of toxic pesticides, say leading agriculture scientists engaged in the development of the transgenic crop.

Partnering the effort are universities and research bodies in India, Philippines, Bangladesh and the US based Monsanto, which is a seed partner in Mahyco.

The public-private partnership is the mode adopted to develop and commercialise bio-engineered crops to complement traditional and organic agriculture approaches.

The project, Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSPII), is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by Cornell University. The consortium is managed in South Asia by Sathguru Management Consultants and in Southeast Asia by the University of Philippines.

The nine transgenic varieties of eggplant currently under second year of field trials in different regions of the country have all been developed using biogenetic material from Monsanto, which has licensed it to the consortium partners.

"Mahyco is currently carrying out field trials in several regions in India. Comprehensive food and feed safety studies on animals like cows, goats, chicken and fish are being carried out in accordance with the national regulatory guidelines," said K. Vijayaraghavan, director of Sathguru.

"The national regulators have asked for additional testing of alkaloids," he said.

Besides eggplant, the ABSPII consortium comprising 30 partners from Asia, Africa and America is also exploring the transgenic route for development of drought and salt tolerant rice, late blight resistant potato, ringspot virus resistant papaya, multiple virus resistant tomato, black sigatoka and nematode resistant banana among others.

Work is also on in India for developing tobacco streak virus resistant sunflower and groundnut, both of which are sources of edible oil.

"Differing from commercial technology transfer, the collaborative knowledge sharing is the essence of the partnership in which every partner owns responsibility for the product it will deliver to farmers for commercial cultivation," said Vijayaraghavan.

In the case of the eggplant, the biogenetic material being used is cry1Ac protein, which has already been established to control bollworm in the transgenic or Bt cotton, the only genetically modified crop being cultivated in India for the last couple of years.

In a departure from the past when not much was made public about the field trials of Bt cotton, the new effort is seeing partners like Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) taking all stakeholders on board in an effort to address fears and share knowledge.

"The farmers will find more acceptability with the involvement of the universities and the public sector," said C. Ramasamy, professor of TNAU.

"We can expect significantly good acceptance from farmers who would be spared the cost of repeated spraying of pesticides to protect the brinjal crops. The yield loss due to fruit and shoot borers in India alone is estimated to be about $221 million," he said.

The scientists said the disbursement of certified seeds would be done through the university partners and authorised channels in India.