Mother of all culture is agriculture; surprisingly agriculture is neglected in all developing countries in their development strategies and plan. India and Bangladesh are also not exceptional. Mr. Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India will be arriving in Bangladesh- a member of SAARC countries with whom India shares its longest land boundaries for a 2-day visit. It is expected that some 20 bilateral agreements will be signed on various issues like land boundary, trade and the protocols on Dhaka-Shillong and Kolkata-Agartala bus service, water transit, cultural cooperation, etc, but the list does not include issues on cooperation in agriculture which influenced most to each other. If agricultural policies of both the countries are not aligned on issues like crop varieties, GMO of food crop varieties, Good agricultural practices and sharing of research information, both the countries will suffer in long run. I would like to flag two issues that are being debated largely 1. Biodiversity and 2. Genetically Modified Organisim (GMO). India is a big nation which is considered as subcontinent having a strong agricultural research base through its Indian Council of Agricultural Research having about 100 research institutes. You name a commodity such as field crop, oilseed, pulses, fibres (cotton, Juit, allied fibbers) , vegetables, fruits, spices, flowers, plantation crops, Medicinal and aromatic plants, goat, cow and buffalo, camel, equestrian, dairy, inland fishery, freshwater aquaculture, marine fishery, etc you will find an institution dedicated to do research on that commodity. In addition it has 78 All India Coordinated research Projects 62Agricultural Universities, 5 Deemed to be universities and 8 Zonal Project Directorate to oversee the activities of Krishi Vigyan Kendras in each district. On the contrary, Bangladesh is a small country. Although it has Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) but they are so small in size and resources which cannot cater the need of biodiversity that Bangladesh has. The crop varieties developed in India are illegally pouring in Bangladesh which cannot be stopped. Under these circumstances best approach would be to have an mutual understand between the countries to share the crop, animal and fish varieties freely keeping the intellectual right of the country from where it has been developed. This one act will facilitate the progress of Bangladesh agriculture in incremental speed. Second issue is more important and sensitive. Every country has its sovereign right to take decision in favour of the country. But since we are not living in isolation and a decision of one country may adversely influence not only the other neighbouring countries but beyond. And some decision will influence the future generations of these countries. One such is in the field of Genetically Modified Organism as food. The idea of producing food with desirable qualities lead the way for the development of genetically modified food worldwide. Scientists were able to isolate genes with favourable traits and insert them in crops to produce food that can resist drought, pests, toxic chemicals and even could be more nutritious. It started by developing a tomato variety with a longer shelf life in 1994 named Flavr Savr. But subsequently, it was found that consumption of this Gentically modified tomato caused lesions in stomach of rats, thus, raising an eyebrow on issues of its safety of genetically modified food in general. Since then, the debate raise on the disadvantages of consumption of genetically modified food. Below are just some examples of the long list of disadvantages of such practice;
- The safety of these GMO products is not yet verified with long term research, in fact, we are becoming the lab rats to test the safety of such technology. It is unfortunate that some of the developing countries have released these GM varieties for cultivation and without thorough research of its potential threats on human health.
- Genetically modified ingredients can cause cancer. A consultant histopathologest at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Dr Stanley Ewen, raised the concern that food and water contaminated with genetically engineered material could increase the growth of malignant tumours upon contact with humans.
- It could raise new allergy outbreaks in humans. It was found that a genetically engineered soya bean containing Brazilian nut protein was allergenic to humans and was withdrawn from production.
- Under-Developed countries becoming the victim of such developments. This was raised when developing the golden rice, a genetically modified rice that contains larger amounts of vitamin A, which can be beneficial to poor people in developing countries. However, it is usually the large companies of the developed world that can produce such crop engineering which will increase the dependency of poor counties on the Wild, Wild West!
- It is un-natural way of producing food. There will always be unknown long term effects to the ecosystem and biodiversity when inducing unnatural ways to change the natural traits of crops.
- Adverse effects on the immune system.A study in 2008 showed that feeding mice engineered food for 30 days caused an immune reaction and altered the number of cells that regulated the immune functions in the body.
- Bt gene impregnated crops can lead to create super-creatures! It’s not a joke or imagination, modified genes in engineered crops that resist pesticides can transfer to insects and pests; making them pesticide resistant. These super-organisms would not be controlled easily and these may create problems in managing their numbers and to crop production in future.
All the disadvantages mentioned above are probably irreversible, especially the harmful effects on the environment and human health which is an inevitable outcome to the fast pace development of biotechnology and genetic engineering. In India there was a year long public debate against the release of Bt Brinjal and finally an Indefinite Moratorium on Bt-Brinja was imposed and the scientific institutions were advised to generate more data on health safety as well as environment safety. Unfortunately, promotion of GM crops and foods were started by Monsanto. In USA Monsanto influences its laws by planting Monsanto employees that work for the government and government workers that work for Monsanto. Some examples: Clarence Thomas was Monsanto’s lawyer before becoming a supreme court judge. Linda J. Fisher, former Assistant Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, also became Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for Monsanto Corporation. In European countries, GM food is not permitted for the most part and when it is, the food has to be labeled GMO. They are often using the similar tactics to influence the research in developing countries by giving them foreign trips and some other fringed bebefits. Many researchers are vocal in favour of this technology saying that this technology would help to eliminate hunger problem in the world when in fact it is not. Poverty is not due to shortage of food but it is due to huge wastage of harvest due to lack storage facility in one hand and lack of affordability of people to buy in other hand. Bangladesh has taken a decision to allow Bt Brinjal to be cultivated in its land. And slowly it will cross the boundaries and spread over India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma. The pollen and seed will not bother for VISA to enter in others territory. These issues that have a long lasting effect on the health not only on human but also on animals must be discussed in SAARC meeting and these bilateral agreements. There is a saying that if you want to destroy a nation capture their agriculture. I wish that Bangladesh should not proceed further on Bt Brinjal without discussing its pros and cons with its neighbouring countries. This issue should find a place in bilateral discussion on top priority. __________________________________________________________________________________
Author: Satyabrata Maiti, Ph. D.
