Scientists from the Vegetable Research Institute of India in Varanasi have successfully bred brimato, a plant on which eggplants and tomatoes grow together. Each plant yields up to 2.3 kg of tomatoes and 2.64 kg of eggplant.
The brimato was created by grafting, ProAgro Group reports, citing PiPa News.
“The tomato and eggplant grafting was successful. They are both from the same family, although they have different characteristics,” Dr. Anand Bahadur Singh, chief scientist at the institute, told PiPa News.
According to him, scientists have been working on new grafting methods for a long time, and the brimato, a combination of eggplant and tomato, has been the most successful. The scientist also noted that brimato has the hardiness of eggplant and withstands both excessive overwatering and drought.
There are already plans for large-scale cultivation of the novelty. Now they are trying to interest both Indian farmers and ordinary people, as the new plant is ideal for growing in the kitchen and on the terrace of the house: on a small piece of area you can grow two different vegetables on one bush.
Indian scientists plan to continue grafting other vegetables together.
