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Transgenic crops and Biosafety Issues take front row as Bangledeshi Government take steps to introduce genetically modified cotton

The use of Genetically Modified Organisms is fast gaining ground. It has been reported that the government of Bangladesh has made a move to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton varieties at farmers’ level in the country.  The seeds of the GM variety named Bt cotton would be directly imported from Indian seed producer Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco) or other companies from China. Dhakar Tribune reports.

Cotton boll.

The Cotton Development Board (CDB) has already decided to import the Bt variety and has sent an application to the agriculture ministry so that they could forward the application to the environment ministry, who will give the final approval to demonstrate any GM crop variety on farmers level. The authorities are hoping to run a “confined trial” of Bt variety from next season during June-July of 2014.

Muhammad Solaiman Haider, member secretary of the National Committee on Bio-safety under the environment ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune, they would look into the matter after getting the application from the agriculture ministry. Genetically modified crops like cotton, golden rice, Bt brinjals and potatoes are “transgenic” crops, and need special approval from bio-safety authorities for field trials.

Bt cotton is a variety developed through genetic engineering by inserting crystal protein genes taken from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, popularly known as Bt.

The CDB hopes that the Bt Cotton will increase the yield of cotton owing to its to prevent “American Bollworm,” infestation, one of the biggest threats to cotton. This is however contentious as it has been speculated that introducing Bt cotton in Bangladesh may not yield any result as the American Bollworm’s tendency to attack cotton had been reduced remarkably in recent years. So the crave for Bt Cotton becomes a debetable issue.

According to Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), the country requires 3.5m to 4m bales of raw cotton to run approximately 363 textile mills for meeting the spinning demands of the country’s garment sector. Against the demand, the country only produces around 150,000 bales by using around 40,000 hectares of arable land, said sources at the CDB.

Only about 2% to 3% of the national requirement has been met through local production, while the rest was fulfilled by importing raw cotton from Uzbekistan, India, USA, Australia, Pakistan and some African countries.

Last month (October), the government of Bangladesh released four GM brinjal varieties at farmers’ level to demonstrate on a limited scale, but environment activists have raised concerns that the health impact of Bt brinjal was yet to be scrutinised. Checks however revealed that the concerns of the activists may be grossly misplaced; a report of an expert committee (EC II) on Bt Brinjal EE1 dated October 8, 2009 by M/S Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company, India and two Indian universities submitted to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Inida shows that extensive toxiciological assessment was carried out on Bt Brinjal (see http://envfor.nic.in/sites/default/files/Report%20on%20Bt%20brinjal_2.pdf for details). The last has definately not been heard about the planned introduction of Bt Cotton.