Conventionally grown brinjal is one of the most heavily sprayed crops in South Asia. Historically, brinjal farmers have sprayed as many as 84 times in a growing season to protect their crops. This prompted scientists at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to develop a pest-resistant variety as an alternative to insecticide use.
The study, prepared for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) with support from BARI and Cornell University, found that Bt brinjal has met that goal. It documented a 39 percent reduction overall in the quantity of pesticides used and a 51 percent reduction in the number of times that farmers applied pesticides to their brinjal crop.
Farmers enjoyed a 41 percent increase in net yields from growing Bt brinjal. Higher yields and lower production costs resulted in a 27 percent increase in gross revenues per hectare, with Bt brinjal farmers realizing a gain of 38,063 taka (US$450) per hectare in net profits.
This is significant in Bangladesh, where the average annual household income per capita was just $600 in 2016, the most recent year for which figures are available.
Bangladeshi farmers earned 41% more profits & cut pesticide use by 39% growing Bt eggplant, @IFPRI study finds. #GMO works! https://t.co/tLpFYCR8xT
— Alliance for Science (@ScienceAlly) September 16, 2019
SOURCES- Cornell Alliance for Science, Impacts of BT Brinjal Eggplant Technology in Bangladesh
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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This theory is right….if you are a giant panda.
In order:
That theory needs a lot of work to me:
That does raise the question of whether the Bt gets into the part of the plant we eat.
However, IIUC Bt kills insect pest that damage the plant, not microbes.
But does this mean the sensitive microbiota in our stomachs loses its beneficial microbes too? If we can’t even “wash away” pesticides because they are genetically built-in, what does that do to us? There’s a theory that part of the reason for sky-rocketing obesity is failure to digest what we eat, causing our bodies to demand we eat more, with undigested food still in our expanding guts.
According to the all knowing wiki, they still can die in the larval stage from Bt.
Where can I get some seed, or plants. I love eggplant.
I had to manually remove Colorado potato beetles and larvae from my eggplants this year. They didn’t respond to insecticides. Turns out they have become immune to everything in the arsenal including DDT prior to 1960.