Despite the suspension of cultivation of Bt Brinjal in India and a ban on its field trials in the Philippines, Bangladesh has released four controversial varieties of the genetically modified vegetable.
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has developed four Bt Brinjal varieties namely BARI BT Begun – 1, 2, 3 and 4 from local varieties for commercial cultivation. “The new variety of vegetable is not health hazardous. It has been released after proper examination by the scientists at both home and abroad,” Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury has said after releasing the Bt Brinjal sapling yesterday.
The minister said Bt Brinjal is insect resistant, which reduces the production cost.
“The farmers will be able to conserve and produce Bt Brinjal seeds,” the Agriculture Minister said.
The farmers can harvest the crops within two months of planting saplings and the yield is expected at 30-70 tonnes per hectare, scientists claimed.
The National Committee on Bio-safety (NCB) formed on October 30 last year by the Environment and Forest Ministry has approved the BARI’s application attaching some conditions that calls for cultivation of the vegetable on a limited scale.
Bari developed the Bt Brinjal varieties after seven years of experiments with the technical support of Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco), in which the American seed giant Monsanto has 26 per cent stake Mahyco’s Brinjal varieties, developed with the financial support of USAID, were banned in India in 2010 after their harmful effects were exposed.
Farida Akhter, organiser of Naya Krishi Andolon, a rights body, and Sakiul Millat Morshed, executive director of Shishuk, an NGO, filed the writ petitions on July 29 last year, claiming that the modified Brinjal is harmful to public health and environment.
Rejecting the two separate writ petitions on September 23 last year, the High Court allowed the government to release the Bt Brinjal for the first time in the country.
-With The Independent input
