EASY TO spot in Filipino backyard gardens is the typically elongated eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), the only purple among a sea of greens. This vegetable, known as talong, is essential to dishes like pinakbet, torta, sinigang, ensalada and kare-kare.

Not a lowly crop by any means, it is a good source of vitamins, minerals and fibers, as well as an important agricultural commodity in the country.

Eggplant farming involves 30,243 small-resource farmers, with average holdings of 0.7 hectare (ha). It is the
dominant vegetable in terms of areas cultivated and output.

Last year, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) data showed that the eggplant areas harvested totaled 21,170 hectares, with Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Cebu and Quezon as top producers.

The volume was 200,942 metric tons, valued at P 3.13 billion at current prices.

Problems in eggplant production
Even as a common vegetable, problems still hobble growers, with its yield per hectare ranked as one of the lowest in Asia.

Eggplants are battered by pests, diseases and extreme environmental conditions. The most damaging pest is the fruit and shoot borer (FSB; scientific name, Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee). FSB could ruin up to 100 percent of output, wrote Dr. Serge Francisco, Chief Science Research Specialist and Program Leader, Impact and Policy Research at the Philippine Rice Research Institute, in his economic impact assessment studies on Bt eggplant.

FSB is so named since it feeds on the leaves and shoots during the early vegetative stage, and feasts on the fruit during the fruiting stage. Eggplants riddled with holes cannot be sold anywhere.

Unhealthy, expensive, laborious pest controls
To rid farms of FSB infestation, farmers can use different methods like cultural control, host plant resistance, and judicious chemical control to keep populations of the natural enemies of FSB in the farm.

However, removing infested shoots, trapping insects and applying nettings prove too laborious and ineffective for farmers. Thus, most farmers rely on heavy use of insecticide sprays, which are effective only against newly-hatched FSB caterpillars that have not yet tunneled into the plant.

The problem with this is improper use and abuse of such pesticides.

According to a study entitled “Value of Environmental Benefits of Bt eggplant in the Philippines” by Dr. Francisco, Mr. Jason Maupin and Dr. George Norton in 2009, farmers spray about 42 times per production period (others even spray as frequently as 80 times, or every other day), using approximately more than 65 liters of chemicals per hectare.

In three of the top eggplant-producing provinces in Luzon alone, the use of chemical pesticides is prevalent. All eggplant farmers (100 percent) in Quezon use it, 96 percent in Pangasinan and 97 percent in Batangas. This was based on the recent presentation made by Dr. Cesar Quicoy, Assistant Professor at the College of Economics and Management, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) on his research entitled “Productivity and Technical Efficiency of Eggplant Production in Selected Provinces in the Philippines: Stochastic Production Function Approach.”

Apart from being dangerous, pesticides are also expensive--its use is a burden for farmers. Based on the survey by Dr. Francisco’s team, pesticides for FSB take up almost 30 percent of the production cost, or about P28,000 per hectare per cropping season.

Veering away from pesticides: The FSB-resistant Bt eggplant
With FSB-resistant eggplant, farmers would no longer be worried about the pest and the harmful and costly chemical pesticides needed to control it.

Through modern biotechnology, an FSB-resistant variety, known as Bt eggplant, was developed by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co., Ltd. (Mahyco) in India. By introducing a gene from the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a non-pathogenic, naturally-occurring bacterium found in the soil, the eggplant was rendered immune to FSB. It works in such manner that when an FSB ingests any part of the eggplant –fruit, shoot, or leaf, the pest would die due to the Bt protein.

The FSB-resistant eggplant lines developed by Mahyco have been used as source of the resistance trait of biotech eggplants in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

In the Philippines, Bt eggplant technology has been made available by Mahyco to the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) royalty-free through a sublicense agreement. This agreement allows UPLB to develop and commercialize varieties and hybrids containing Bt technology.

Currently, several promising FSB-resistant eggplant lines are being fully evaluated for safety and performance under multi-location trials across the country.

The Department of Agriculture (DA), Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Biosafety Committee, work together to impose strict regulatory controls on Bt eggplant to ensure that it is safe to people and the environment before it is commercialized. An independent body of assessors called the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP), composed of scientists and experts from different fields, also ensures the biosafety of the product.

This Philippine biosafety scheme is considered as a model by many countries.

In their study about its environmental benefits, Dr. Francisco’s team found that Bt eggplant reduces not only pesticide use, but also risks to human and animal health.

They found that Bt eggplant could cut by nearly half the amount of pesticide used. Dr. Francisco’s team wrote that a 48 percent reduction in pesticide use is expected from adopting Bt eggplant. It would only require 6.2 liters of pesticide per hectare, about half of what is used for its non-Bt counterpart (12 li/ha). The environmental impact quotient (EIQ), or the collective measure of risks related to active ingredients in pesticides, went down 19.5 percent for Bt eggplant.

Francisco said the environmental benefits brought by reduced pesticide use would save about P2.5 million in health costs and about P6.8 million in other environment categories covering farm animals, beneficial insects and avian species.

Less infestation, more yield and profit
An economic study conducted by Dr. Francisco in 2007 drew up Bt eggplant’s potential economic benefits and effects on the farm and market.

Owing to the Bt eggplant’s resistance from FSB infestation, marketable eggplant harvests were expected to increase by 40 percent. At the same time, farmers could save P13,959 from their pesticide expenses alone. They would then have the option of using the savings for other yield-enhancing inputs.

Overall, cultivating Bt eggplant could raise farmers’ income by about P50,000 per hectare as production cost is cut by 16 percent.

Consumers would also enjoy cheaper eggplants with lower insecticide residue.

Bt eggplant adoption: A win-win situation
Dr. Francisco described the Bt eggplant’s adoption as a “win-win situation” for the environment and farmers as it has “few (if any) unintended environmental effects,” better marketable yield and a lower production cost. This makes the

Bt eggplant a profitable and safer (due to reduced pesticide use) alternative for eggplant farmers.

Being a public sector product, Bt eggplant would be advantageous to the whole community.

With their eggplant no longer vulnerable to FSB, people will realize the positive economic, environmental and health effects of the biotech product.

References:
Bureau of Agricultural Statistics. 2010. CountrySTAT Philippines. http://countrystat.bas.gov.ph.

Development of the fruit and shoot borer in the Philippines (brochure). 2010.

Francisco, S.R. 2007. Ex-ante economic impact assessment of Bt eggplant crop production in the Philippines. Philippine Journal of Crop Science. Vol. 32 No. 3, (3-14).

Francisco, S.R. 2009. Costs and benefits of Bt eggplant with resistance to Fruit and Shoot Borer in the Philippines. In G.W. Norton and D.M. Hautea (Eds.). Projected impacts of agricultural biotechnologies for fruits and vegetables in the Philippines and Indonesia. International Services for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and the SEAMEO Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA): Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.

Francisco, S.R., Maupin, J., and G.W. Norton. 2009. Value of environmental benefits of Bt eggplant in the Philippines. In G.W. Norton and D.M. Hautea (Eds.). Projected impacts of agricultural biotechnologies for fruits and vegetables in the Philippines and Indonesia. International Services for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and the SEAMEO Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA): Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.

Hautea, D. 2010. Presentation of “Development of Biotech Eggplant Resistant to Fruit an Shoot Borer in the Philippines.” Presented in “Creating Awareness, Knowledge and Understanding of Biotech Crops: A Workshop and Study Tour for Media Practitioners” at Central Bicol State University of Agriculture, Camarines Sur, Bicol, May 19, 2010.

Quicoy, C. 2010. Presentation of “Productivity and Technical Efficiency of Eggplant Production in Selected Provinces in the Philippines: Stochastic Production Function Approach”. Presented in the SEARCA Agriculture and Development Seminar Series, August 24, 2010.

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Jenny A. Panopio
Special Project Coordinator & Network Administrator
Biotechnology Information Center
SEAMEO SEARCA
College, Laguna 4031
Email: jap at agri.searca.org
Tel: (63-49)536-2290 loc 169 or 406
Tele/Fax: (63-49)536-4105
URL: www.bic.searca.org