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BT Brinjal
Taking it to the Farmer
Ronnie Coffman
International Professor of Plant Breeding
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Borlaug & Brinjal
• Resistance to Bt brinjal is reminiscent of
the Green Revolution
• People were suspicious of the new wheat
varieties. They seemed unnatural.
• Dr. Borlaug, Dr. Swaminathan and others
overcame this and the result was
dramatically higher wheat production.
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A Major Challenge Today
• Pesticides are pervasive
• The World Health Organization (WHO)
estimates that pesticides poison 2-3 people
per minute worldwide
• The WHO estimates tens of thousands are
killed annually
• Agricultural workers account for most of
the deaths
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Pesticide Use in Bangladesh
• Acutely toxic pesticides are widely used
• Pesticides banned in the developed world
are dumped in Bangladesh
• Farmers fail to protect themselves
• Farmers work barefooted; no gloves; no
shirt; no hat; no mask to avoid inhalation
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Gopalganj, Bangladesh
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Health and Environmental
Effects Widespread
• Short term: headaches, dizziness, and skin
irritation are common
• Longer term: leukemia, lung cancer,
aplastic anemia, fetal death, hormonal
changes, DNA damage, and birth defects
• Environmental effects: fresh water
pollution & accumulation in the food chain
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Brinjal is Pesticide Intensive
• Needs to be sprayed almost daily
• Might be sprayed 150 times during the
entire growing season
• Children are reported to be employed
dipping the fruit in buckets of pesticide
• Even so, losses to insect pests, particularly
the fruit and shoot borer, exceed 50 percent
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Brinjal Fruit & Shoot Borer
Exterior fruit damage Stem damage Shoot damage Fruit flesh damage
Adult moth Destructive larva
Most destructive insect pest of brinjal (60-70% yield loss)
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Bt Brinjal is the only
effective solution
• Bt brinjal protects itself by expressing a
naturally occurring insect control protein
• Called Bt because it originates from a soil
bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis
• The protein is denatured by acid and is
harmless to humans and other organisms
with an acid stomach
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Advantages of Bt Brinjal
• Pesticide application will be reduced
70-90 percent
• Farmer income will rise dramatically
due to higher yields and reduced costs
• Net economic benefit to farmers will be
$1800 USD per hectare
• Reduced prices and healthier fruit will
benefit brinjal consumers
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Ex Ante Assessment
Source: S.M. Fakrul Islam and George W. Norton, Bt brinjal for Fruit and Shoot Borer resistance in Bangladesh published in a book on Economic and Environmental Benefits and Costs of Transgenic Crops; Ex-Ante Assessment. TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
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Bt Brinjal Partnership
Bangladesh Agricultural
Research Institute (BARI)
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Results of BARI Backcrossing
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BARI is the primary partner
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Borlaug would be dismayed
by Bt Brinjal opponents
• He would understand that opponents share
the agenda of the pesticide companies
• He would be disgusted with the fear and
superstition created by the anti-science
activists who disregard empirical evidence
• Finally, and most of all, he would not want
science to bypass the poor
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Facts about Bt brinjal are
available at
http://btbrinjal.tumblr.com/
