eggplant – Ubinig

India asks about Btbrinjal: what Bangladesh can say?

5Nov

By testNo Comments

India asks about Btbrinjal: what Bangladesh can say?

Farida Akhter SINCE 2014, Bangladesh has been commercially field testing four Btbrinjal varieties. In October 2013, on its last day of the session, the 9th parliament approved the genetically modified eggplants. The timing was strategic — a very agitated political situation prior to the national election was a convenient moment to introduce an inappropriate and unsafe technology. Btbrinjal has hardly any agronomic value but threatens Bangladesh with potential biosafety risks. Btbrinjal is the first GM vegetable crop that got the government approval despite protests from environmental and farmers’ organisations. Mahyco, the Indian counterpart of Monsanto, who gave the technology to Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, has now applied seeking approval for commercial release o...

Protest Against US Ambassador Promoting Bt. Brinjal in Bangladesh

Farida Akhter Outgoing US Ambassador to Bangladesh recently wrote an article in Dhaka Courier uncritically promoting genetically modified Bt Brinjal in a country considered belonging to the bioregion where global wealth of biodiversity originated. He often expresses his love for Bangladesh, and we, as a humble nation, never failed to acknowledge his feelings. Nevertheless, his article stands absolutely contrary to the prem (love) he often likes to explicitly project. ( See 'From Iowa to Bangladesh, technology shaping the future of agriculture'.Mr. Dan Mozena must be intelligent enough to realize that promoting GMOs has all the potential hazards to destroy our agriculture and the food systyem; It may irreversibly jeopardize the livelihood of the farming communities. ...

Bt Brinjal and Begoon

Farida Akhter Bangladesh Approving Bt Brinjal !! Risk to Environment, Biodiversity and Health "Begoon" (Brinjal or Eggplant) is a very common and favourite vegetable in Bangladesh. It is even becoming an international vegetable along with okra and cauliflower because of the Indian Restaurants in Europe and North America. But for us in Bangladesh, it is not just a vegetable, it has more link with the social, cultural and economic lives of rural people, particularly women. It is cultivated in the agricultural fields sometimes as a cash crop in the commercial vegetable growing areas, but every rural household has few brinjal plants in the kitchen garden. But unfortunately, now this Brinjal is facing severe and aggressive threat from the Biotech industry with the so-called Bt. B...