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Bt brinjal: Alliance for Crooked Science & Corporate Lies

8Dec

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics, Uncategorized

Bt brinjal: Alliance for Crooked Science & Corporate Lies

Farida Akhter || Tuesday 08 December 2020 || READ BY SUBJECT: Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics IntroductionBrinjals, locally called Begun (in Bangla) by the people of Bangladesh, are the most common and favourite vegetable. On 17 May, 2020 the New Age, a national daily of Bangladesh published an article of mine [Akhter, 2020] titled “Aubergine Story: Local varieties exists, not GMOs”. In the article, I argued that in the month of Ramadan (month long fasting of the Muslim communities), the demand for brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) is the highest, because it is the main component of the most popular Iftar item, the Beguni. From the rich to the poor, Iftar is incomplete without chola-peyaju-beguni on the plate. In the market, local varieties of brinjals were amply seen, but not Bt bri...

Bangladesh: Community Seed Wealth Centers and stress-tolerant crop varieties

Nayakrishi Andolon || Sunday 04 October 2020 Brief history and functions of community seedbanks In the late 1980’s, small-scale farmers practicing monoculture and chemical-based agriculture experienced loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation. The costs of production were rising beyond their capacity. In search for alternatives to chemical fertilizers and pesticides, farmers in the Tangail area of the country started Nayakrishi Andolon, a movement to support biodiversity-based ecological farming. The Tangail area was severely affected by the flood of 1988 causing severe loss of standing Aman crops (monsoon rice crops). The situation was similar in other parts of Bangladesh. Nayakrishi, initiated by the non-government organization UBINIG (Policy Research for Development...

Tobacco ruins soil and water along Matamuhuri River, Bangladesh

Farida Akhter Tobacco cultivation in Bangladesh has always been river-based to exploit the fertile soil. Tobacco, mostly Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) and Barley variety, is a company sponsored crop grown since the last five decades. According to official data for 2016, tobacco is grown on 46,472 hectares of land, producing 87,628 tons of tobacco leaf. Bangladesh ranks 14th for area under tobacco, 12th for production in quantity, and has a share of 1.3% of global tobacco production (FAOSTAT 2018). Tobacco cultivation has been expanded in Bangladesh, not due to increased interest of the farmers, but to appropriate fertile lands, source of fuel woods and water accessible for the tobacco industry. Fertile soil condition is an important factor for quality tobacco leaf production. Briti...