Bangladesh became the First South Asian Country to Approve Commercial Cultivation of Bt Brinjal
Bangladesh on 31 October 2013 approved the commercial cultivation of transgenic Bt brinjal. With this decision Bangladesh became the first country in South Asia to cultivate the genetically modified food crop.
National Committee on Biosafety (NCB), the highest regulatory body for GM crops in Bangladesh, officially approved the Bt brinjal varieties. With this step, Bangladesh becomes the 29th country in the world to grow GM crop. In South Asia, India, Pakistan and Myanmar grow GM crop cotton. With the NCB nod, Bangladesh becomes the first in the region to grow a GM food crop.
Four Bt brinjal varieties (Bt brinjal-1, 2, 3 and 4) have been approved by the Bangladesh Government for limited scale cultivation with some conditions. BARI (Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute) had developed these Bt brinjal varieties incorporating Indian company Mahyco’s proprietary gene construct technology.
Maharashtra-based seed company-Mahyco had transferred its Bt brinjal technology to BARI way back in 2005-06 through a USAID-funded and Cornell University-managed Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project.
About Bt brinjal
In GM crops, the genetic material (DNA) is altered for improvements in its qualities. Bt Brinjal, for instance, has been inserted with a natural bacterial protein which makes it resist pests.
Bt brinjal contains a foreign Cry1Ac gene derived from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt. This gene synthesises a protein toxic to the fruit and shoot borer (FSB), a destructive pest. The gene gives the crop abuilt-in resistance to FSB, reducing reliance on spraying pesticides.
Source: Jagran Josh
As the Bt brinjal issue in India continues to remain tangled in the political and legal systems, Bangladesh has decided to give it a green signal. While this may sound positive for the Indian industry, activists feel otherwise
The National Committee on Biosafety (NCB), Bangladesh which is the country’s regulatory authority to approve genetically modified crops, has given its approval to the commercial cultivation of the Bt brinjal. The approved varities developed by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) with the help of technology, actually transferred by the India based Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco.
This surely means a good news for Indian industry which of late has been disappointed by the continous moratorium on the Br crops. Once Bangladesh allows cultivation of GM food crops, the existing moratorium on Bt Brinjal in India will have no meaning as the transgenic variety of this popular vegetable can easily seep into Indian side through porous border. Hence, government might have to by default agree to the industry demands in the long run as in case of Bt cotton, which now is counted among the big success stories in agricultural space. This might also as well, become a good case of arguement in Supreme Court, where there is an ongoing case being batlled out between pro and anti am stakeholders.
At the same time, the anti-GM food groups based in Delhi have sought government’s ntervention under international convention and protocol to halt the Bangaldesh from doing so. The organizations believe that the move may endanger rich biodiversity of entire South Asia.
Raising their concerns, the civil society groups and NGOs like Greenpeace and Coalition for GM Free India have siad that it was the same genetically modified Brinjal which was rejected in India and Philippines. “After the failure of getting this risky Bt Brinjal released in India and Philippines, the GM industry has now turned to Bangladesh. Once the transgenic variety of this vegetable gets clearance in Dhaka, it will automatically enter India illegally through porous border”, said Rajesh Krishnan, co-convenor of the Coalition for GM Free India.
The activists have asked the government of India that it must take adequate measures under the Article 25 of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to stop any such trans-boundary movement of the GM crop in the eventual case of Bt Brinjal cultivation in Bangladesh.
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