Dr T M Manjunath, Consultant, Agricultural Biotechnology, and Dr Kameshwara Rao, Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education, said farmers suffer 50 to 75 per cent loss due to the pests while growing brinjal. This is despite spraying costly but poisonous pesticides on the brinjal crop. He opined that the Bt crops will help India become self-sufficient in food production.