By Jessie R. Valdez
The eggplant, which is now considered as the country's top vegetable crop,
will be commercially produced and genetically modified, University of the
Philippines Los Banos-Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB) announced
recently.
The plant covers about 20,000 hectares and yielding about 179,000 tons
annually and valued at about P2 billion, the new GM eggplant is projected to
be the answer to the fruit and shoot borer (FSB), which UPLB considers the
most destructive pest attacking eggplant in Asia.

"The eggplants were transplanted inside the 1.5 hectare fenced
experimental area at the UPLB complex last December 21 and the seeds from
the eggplants to be harvested will be used in the subsequent multi-location
trials, which constitute the next phase of the multi-stage research
process," Dr. Desiree Hautea of UPLB-IPB said.

The experimental project was assessed recently by representatives of
international and local agencies from New York-based International Service
for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), Agricultural
Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP) II-Southeast Asia, PCARRD, among
others.

The UPLB-IPB is undertaking the research with the Indian Maharahtra
Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd. (Mahyco) and supported by USAID has established
the 1st phase seedling inside a greenhouse. The 1st trial in the 2 season
multi-location experiments will be done in three to four selected areas in
Luzon while the 2nd phase will be conducted in about 10 sites also in Luzon,
Visayas and Mindanao.

The GM eggplant is expected to be commercialized by 2010 upon approval
by the Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Plant Industry. This
high-resistant biotech eggplant was developed with the help of Monsanto
Company and this has been used as a source of production of biotech
eggplants in India, Philippines and Bangladesh.

For biotech papaya, the UPLB expects it to be harvested by November or
December this year and will be followed by the multi-location trials in
Luzon and Visayas then to be commercialized.

UPLB also reported that the new plant type is resistant to papaya
ringspot virus which has destroyed the papaya industry since l982 except in
Mindanao is also expected by the research agency to boost papaya production
in the country.


[www.pia.gov.ph]