New eggplant promises to raise farmers’ income

Farmers may earn more with an eggplant whose genes have been modified to resist a destructive worm.

The Bt eggplant contains the Bacillus thuriengensis (Bt) bacterium that is toxic to the fruit and shoot borer worm, a major pest that can destroy up to 70 percent of the crop.

Farmers would have earned over P4 billion if the Bt eggplant was available for planting since 2011 when it was expected to be commercialized, said an economist at the  University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

The Supreme Court is expected to rule anytime soon whether to uphold a Court of Appeals decision to stop the multi-location field testing of Bt eggplant. The ruling is not likely to affect current Bt eggplant research. 

Eight multi-location field trials, started in 2010, have been completed with the biosafety data submitted to the DA's Bureau of Plant Industry which will decide on the crop's commercial release.

If only 10 percent of the area planted to conventional eggplant is planted instead with the Bt eggplant, farmers would have earned P879 million, said Dr. Cesar B. Quicoy, an Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Economics and Management, UPLB. 

At a 30 percent adoption rate, he said, that's P2.638 billion in “lost cost”; at a 50 percent adoption rate, that's P4.397 billion in lost income.

Dr. Quicoy based his numbers on the assumption that the potential income earned 1 percent per year interest “as if deposited in the bank” from 2011 when Bt eggplant would have been available for planting until 2013, the year his study was concluded.

Dr. Quicoy has conducted surveys in Southern Leyte, Davao City, North Cotabato and Iloilo, in a study showing that worms damage more than 60 percent of eggplants.

That's a lot of damage, even at the average price of P15.71 a kilogram—the average price received by farmers at the time of the surveys. The price is very conservative; after Typhoon Glenda hit farms in Southern Tagalog provinces in early 2014, eggplant was selling at P80/kg in Central Luzon.

Without the delay in the commercialization of Bt eggplant, farmers would have earned P130,000 more by planting the gene-modified crop, Dr. Quicoy said in a public dialogue between scientists and farmers at UPLB. 

Eggplant is the most widely planted vegetable in the country: a fourth of vegetables harvested are eggplants. From 1990-2013, 19,447 hectares of eggplants yielded 170,124 metric tons, or an average yield of 8.67 metric tons per hectare, mostly harvested by poor farmers. 

A major source is Pangasinan which produces about 59,223 metric tons; the yield is highest in the Southern Tagalog provinces at 15.67 mt/ha. 

Nationwide, the average production is 7,326 kg per farm, or 27,478 kg per hectare.  This is the average production per farm of respondents in surveys conducted in Southern Leyte, Davao City, North Cotabato and Iloilo.  The national average is 8.67 mt/ha from 1990-2013. (SciencePhilippines)