Plant Biotech Blog

Check out the interesting article below. Anti-GM groups in India are coming out of the woodwork now because GM crops are starting to see some success. Bt Brinjal (an insect-tolerant vegetable) continues to do well in India, as do many other insect-tolerant vegetables around the world.

Dr. C Kameswara Rao

Tremendous scope for vertical growth in biotech crops
Sify.com
May 09, 2008

Mumbai: With trials of India’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop, Bt. Brinjal (insect-tolerant vegetable), progressing well, the anti-biotechnology lobby seems to have become active.

Those opposed to biotechnology in agriculture are spreading disinformation, according to Dr Usha B. Zehr, Joint Director of Research with Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (MAHYCO), pioneer in, brinjal the country’s foray into agbiotech.

Indeed, Bt. Brinjal is not the first GM vegetable crop. Globally, as many as 23 vegetable crop species (excluding potato and sweet corn) have been genetically engineered. China grows tomato, papaya, petunia and sweet pepper, while the US grows squash (a variety of gourd) and papaya.

Currently, over a dozen biotech crops are being field-tested in different parts of the world. These include three major staples (rice, maize and wheat) as also potato, tomato, soyabean, cabbage, peanut, melon, papaya, sweet pepper, chilli and rapeseed.

China’s agbiotech

Talking about China’s advances into agbiotech, Dr Zehr said the country has planted about one quarter of a million Bt. Poplars and in 2006, started to commercialise an approved virus-resistant biotech papaya (a fruit/food crop) developed by a Chinese university and grown on approximately 3,500 hectares.

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Everyone should take a look at the following article from the International Journal of Biotechnology. Bt maize is doing great things for farmers in the European Union!

Dr. C Kameswara Rao

Navigating the genetic engineering maze

Alpha Galileo

May 8, 2008

In the decade since genetically modified strains of maize resistant to insects have been grown in the European Union, crop yields have gone up, farmers’ reliance on insecticides has fallen significantly and the quality of maize has improved. That’s the message from research published this month in the International Journal of Biotechnology from Inderscience Publishers.

Agricultural economist Graham Brookes of PG Economics Ltd, based in Dorchester, UK, has reviewed the specific economic impacts on yield and farm income as well as the environmental impact with respect to a lower reliance on insecticide usage since the introduction of GM maize in the EU in 1998.

So-called “Bt” maize carries genes for a highly specific insect toxin from the soil-dwelling microbe Bacillus thuringiensis. This toxin kills the European corn borer and the Mediterranean stem borer, which would otherwise damage maize crops without insecticidal spraying.

Brookes’ analysis reveals that profits have risen by more than a fifth for some farmers who previously used synthetic insecticides to control these pests. He points out that GM technology has reduced insecticide spraying markedly, which also has associated environmental benefits. He also points out that the quality of the maize produced is higher because the GM crop is less susceptible than non-GM maize to infestation with fungi that produce mycotoxins, hazardous to human health.

Bt maize was planted for the first time in 1998 in Spain and in 2007 the total area of this crop in Spain was about 75000 hectares. In total, the EU plantings of Bt maize in 2007 were 110,000 hectares, with crops also in France, Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Poland. This represents 1.3% of total EU grain maize plantings in 2007.

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