The government has taken an initiative to develop genetically modified (GM) cotton varieties, in a bid to increase cotton yield.
The Cotton Development Board (CDB) has already signed an agreement with Huazhong Agricultural University, which will provide technical assistance for developing the variety, said Md Tasdiqur Rahman, deputy director of the board.
Another agreement is set to be signed with a Chinese financial agency that would provide Tk120 crore as soft loan in the project as investment, he added.
Tasdiqur said the agreement for developing the GM variety was being processed for approval by the agriculture ministry and would be sent later to the Economic Relations Division for final approval.
For developing the GM cotton varieties, the CDB would emphasise on developing its existing two popular varieties CB 12 and CB 14 by inserting soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, popularly known as Bt, which is patented by American seed giant Monsanto.
The CDB authorities have said the Bt variety would increase the yield of cotton, as it is highly capable of preventing American bollworm, one of the biggest pest threats to cotton.
However, seeking anonymity, an official told the Dhaka Tribune that introducing Bt cotton in Bangladesh would not bring any good result as the American bollworm’s tendency to attack cotton had been reduced remarkably in recent years.
According to Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, the country requires 3.5m to 4m bales of raw cotton to run approximately 363 textile mills and meet the spinning demands of the country’s garment sector.
Against the demand, the country produces only around 150,000 bales by using around 40,000 hectares of arable land, said sources at the CDB.
Only around 2% to 3% of the national requirement has been fulfilled through local production, while the rest is fulfilled by importing raw cotton from Uzbekistan, India, USA, Australia, Pakistan and different African countries.
The CDB is also reportedly trying to temporarily import seeds of the Bt cotton, as developing the GM variety may need at least five years.
CDB Deputy Director Tasdiqur said a Chinese seed production agency has expressed interest to the board for supplying Bt cotton seeds in Bangladesh.
The approval for importing the seeds was currently waiting at the law ministry for vetting, and would be sent to the national bio-safety committee for final approval, he said. Tasdiqur added that authorities were hoping to conduct a “confined trial” of the Bt variety from next season during June-July.
Muhammad Solaiman Haider, member secretary of the National Committee on Bio-safety under the environment ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune that the committee would look into the matter after getting the application from the agriculture ministry.
However, there had been much controversy surrounding the introduction of Bt cotton in India, with many farmers reportedly being forced to kill themselves because of crop failures. Genetically modified crops are “transgenic” crops, and need special approval from bio-safety authorities for field trials.
The government had also recently approved the decision of holding “confined trials” for two other GM crop varieties – golden rice and potato – which are being developed by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) respectively.
Earlier on October 30, the government released four GM brinjal varieties at farmers-level on a limited scale, amid concerns by environment activists that the health impact of Bt brinjal was yet to be scrutinised.
