UP Los Banos: Borer-free GM eggplant in RP by Q4 2011

From Business Mirror

The FSBR eggplant will be the “first public-sector GM/biotech crop product in the country” and the “first GM/biotech food crop to be cultivated in the country,” Dr. Desiree Hautea, research professor of the University of the Philippines Los Baños and FSBR eggplant project leader, noted its significance in the workshop and study tour for media practitioners in Bicol held in Central Bicol State University of Agriculture (CBSUA) in Pili, Camarines Sur. The workshop had the theme “Creating Awareness, Knowledge and Understanding of Biotech Crops.”

At the same time, she said that since the crop will be borer-free, it would increase the income of the farmers by 200 percent, or P50,000 additional income per hectare of production, thus reducing poverty among farmers.

“If there is no problem in the schedule, if there is no major disaster or typhoon, we hope we can submit the data from multilocation [testing] in Luzon by January or February 2011. If it is approved by the regulators by the middle of 2011, we will produce the seeds and the earliest [they] will be available [in the market] is in October 2011,” Dr. Hautea said.

From: http://ping.fm/KOLbh