BT Brinjal has dramatically reduced the need for chemical spraying to combat the difficult to manage fruit and shoot borer, whose larvae bore into the stem and fruit of the eggplant. Farmers can experience up to 80% crop loss when this insect attacks their crops. Until Bt brinjal, frequent spraying was the only way to protect against the pest. In developing genetically modified brinjal, researchers inserted a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringisensis (Bt). The fruit and shoot borer larva stop feeding once they detect the the Bt protein in the plant. Bt has commonly been used in the organic industry to control pests. Years of biosafety trials have proven the protein as safe for human consumption.
The Bangladeshi people have embraced the Bt brinjal as it is usually the first to sell out at market and often garners higher prices. Project country coordinator Jahangir Hossain noted, “farmers growing Bt brinjal in Bangladesh are seeing three times the production of other brinjal varieties, at half the production cost, and are getting better prices at the market.”
The film, produced in German, has English subtitles and can be viewed here on
You Tube.
