Bt Binjal in India

[fbaeblog]

In his latest blog, FBAE Biotech Blog (http://www.fbaeblog.org/), Dr. C Kameswara Rao, lauds Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco), an Indian-based seed company, for its effort to promote private-public sector partnership in biotech research in the country.

Mahyco is involved in the development of Bt Brinjal, a vegetable delicacy common India, and has offered to share this with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore (TNAU) and the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad.

Mahyco will transfer the basic breeding material of Bt Brinjal to the two institutions, but will retain the ownership of GE event EE-1 – the transgenic gene in the Bt Brinjal.

This partnership arrangement will be extended to the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi, University of Philippines, Los Banos, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute and a private seed company, East West Seeds, Bangladesh.

These two institutions will not commercialize the Bt Brinjal unless they pay a royalty to Mahyco.

Mahyco must be commended for this private-public sector partnership.