BELA demands halt to cultivation of Bt brinjal for sake of biodiversity

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (BELA) demanded halt to Bt Brinjal cultivation in the country due to its biodiversity related risk issues.
The BELA chief Syeda Rezwana Hasan also demanded disclosure of the treaties between BARI (Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute) and the multinational seed giant Monsanto which was kept secret for last eight years.
She placed her demand while presiding over a civil society dialogue styled "open cultivation of Bt Brinjal causes environmental and health risk" held at the Bishwa Sahitto Kendro (BSK) auditorium in the city organised by BELA jointly with the Anti-Bt Brinjal Ganamorcha (a people's platform).  
Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed, academician and president of Bishwa Shahitto Kendro was present as chief guest while founder of Ganashatho Kendro Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury as special guest, among others.
Ms Rezwana said, "After making several efforts under 'the Right to Information Law', we failed to get 'the treaty' between BARI and Monsanto regarding Bt Brinjal research and its open cultivation," she said.
"We have got the copy of the treaty from the media persons and became clear after scrutiny that the agreement is contradictory considering both the domestic and international laws," she said.
She said: "According to international biodiversity laws, a specific Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) variety would not be grown at its source country."
"So, cultivation of Bt Brinjal in Bangladesh is illegal as the country is one of the origin territories of brinjal," he said.
Agricultural scientist Dr M A Sobhan said brinjal has 7000 genes and BARI has brought change to one of the genes.
"The organisation has to remember that it is not a building made of brick and cement that you can replace it. It is a life, bringing change in a single gene can be devastating for the indigenous variety of the vegetable, other plants and animal including humans," he said.
He said the logic for introducing Bt Brinjal is that it can resist insects like fruit and shoot borer, but there have other 37 insects whom Bt gene cannot encounter.
Former director of BRRI (Bangladesh Rice Research Institute) and agricultural scientists Dr ANM Reazul Karim presented a paper which showed brinjal fields consume 348 tonnes of insecticides while total use of pesticide was nearly 22,000 tonnes in the vegetable fields in FY'13.
He said Integrated Pest Management (IPM) pesticide use could be reduced by 98 per cent.
"IPM based or organic farming---these are the solutions to avoid pesticide use, but not by inserting poison to local plant variety," he said.
"To avoid insecticides, sprayed for the fruit and shoot borer, we are going to make our variety poisonous and are giving its right to multinational companies when countries like India and Philippines are rejecting it. Are we such a fool nation?" he poised a question.