Matia defends Bt Brinjal, experts do not agree

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury Wednesday criticised the people who were speaking against the cultivation of the genetically modified organism (GMO) variety, Bt Brinjal.
The minister at a programme in the city titled 'Global perspective of biotech/GM crops and their contribution to food security and poverty alleviation' said that those who were opposing the cultivation of Bt Brinjal were working for pesticide traders.
Opposing the minister's speech, experts present there termed her words lame excuse to safeguard the Monsanto-Mahyco company's genetically engineered seed business.
The programme was held at the auditorium of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), organised by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and BARI (Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute).
The minister claimed that they had released the GMO variety after taking all safety measures.
She mentioned that a survey had been carried out by International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), which said pesticide use is reduced after cultivating biotech food grains --- which is the main headache of the pesticide companies.
Biodiversity will be saved with the cultivation of biotech food, and biodiversity of insects and other species will be saved with the new type of cultivation, the minister said.
Dr Rafiqul Hoque, vice chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Dr Md Rafiqul Islam Mondol, director general of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute,  Professor Dr Lutful Hassan, president, Bangladesh Association of Biotech Genetic Engineering, among others, were present at the function
Dr Clive James, founder and Emeritus Chair, ISAAA, Dr Randy A Hautea, Global Coordinator of ISAAA, Bhagirath Choudhury, director of India BIC, ISAAA, presented papers on the success of GMO crops.