India: Joint study to develop virus resistant vegetables

The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan will jointly conduct a study to develop varieties of tomato, green gram and chillies resistant to Begomovirus which damages these crops.

"These viruses are transmitted by certain types of white flies known to destroy a vast amount of the green grams in farmlands. The damage this causes to tomatoes and chillies is on the rise," said N Manikanda Boopathi a TNAU scientist. They cause a series of diseases which affects growth and destroys them. Many solutions which have been tried have not been successful. The combined study aims to develop a series of measures to tackle this challenge.

At present, farmers resort to the use of pesticides to tackle them. However the use of pesticides after a certain period will create viruses which are resistant to these pesticides.

The study hopes to come up with crop varieties which could overcome the viruses. R Srinivasan, an entomologist with the World Vegetable Center says that they will mix genes from their crop varieties with the local crops to develop the resistant crops.

Source:Indiatimes.com