Cultivation of Bt Brinjal begins in Bangladesh

Bangladesh formally started the cultivation of the country's first genetically modified (GM) crop--Bt Brinjal today.

As part of the initiatives, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) distributed saplings of the new crop among 20 farmers of four regions.

But, the authorities decided not to sell out the new variety in the market at present, said Jahurul Islam, chief scientific officer of BARI’s Gazipur region.

The speciality of the Bt Brinjal is that the farmers do not need to spray pesticides on it.

Usually, farmers have to spray pesticides up to 80 times in a cropping season of brinjal against a recommended dose of 25, making the vegetable highly toxic.

The new verities developed by the scientists of BARI are—BARI Bt (Uttara), BARI Bt (Kajla), BARI Bt (Nayontar) and ISD006 Bt BARI.

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury today distributed the saplings among the farmers at a programme in the city’s Bangladesh Agriculture Research Centre.

“We have decided to start cultivating Bt brinjal after different necessary tests at home and abroad. We took long time to experiment all pros and cons for introducing the cultivation of this variety”, she said while addressing as the chief guest....

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H/T Mark Lynas on Twitter