Biotech Gets the Go Ahead from Bangladesh Agriculture Minister

Biotechnology is an indispensable tool to meet the world's growing demand for more food. It is a useful tool to fight hunger, poverty and malnutrition when biosafety requirements are strictly followed. Bangladesh Minister for Agriculture Begum Matia Chowdhury made these remarks as Chief Guest during the launch of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) report on the global status of commercialized biotech/GM crops for 2009.

The Minister mentioned that the food demand of the country is expected to be almost double during the next 20-25 years. Additional production has to be achieved from the ever lessening land and water resources. By 2015, population is estimated to be 165 million. Bangladesh has 14 million hectares of arable land, where 1.5 million ha are flood prone, 5.05 million ha are susceptible to drought and 3 million ha have salinity problems.

Dr. Randy Hautea, global coordinator of ISAAA, presented the 2009 report noting that a record 14 million farmers in 25 countries planted 134 million hectares. This is a significant increase of 7% or 9 million ha over 2008. Dr. Wais Kabir, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) presided over the launch and said that the present government and public in general are for modern technology and for the adoption of biotech crops as long as proven safe.

ISAAA organized the seminar in collaboration with BARC and Bangladesh Association for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (BABGE) on 11 March, 2010 at BARC auditorium. It was attended by around 150 academicians, scientists and journalists.

For more information about crop biotechnology in Bangladesh email Dr. Khondoker Nasiruddin at nasirbiotech@yahoo.com. The Executive Summary and Highlights of the ISAAA report are available at http://www.isaaa.org