www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

In the year 2004, there were 14 GM mega-countries- countries growing 50,600
hectares or more of GM crops. These are nine developing countries and five
developed countries such as USA, Argentina, Canada, Brazil, China, Paraguay,
India, South Africa, Uruguay, Australia, Romania, Mexico, Spain, and the
Philippines compared with 10 in 2003.
During the period of 1996-2004 the accumulated GM crops area was 385 million
hectares, equivalent to 40% of the total land area of the USA or China, or
15% times the total area of the UK. The continuing rapid adoption of GM
crops reflects the substantial improvements in productivity, the
environment, economics, health and social benefits, realised by both large
and small farmers, consumers, and society in both industrial and developing
countries. During the period of 1996-2004, global area of GM crops increased
more than 47 folds, from 1.70 million hectares in 1996 to around 81 millions
hectares in 2004 with an increasing proportion grown by developing countries
(more than 34% equivalent to 27.53 million hectares of the global GM crop
area of around 81 million hectares, grown in developing countries.

The 10th anniversary in 2005, was just a cause for celebrating worldwide by
farmers, the international scientific and development community, global
society, and the peoples in developing and industrial countries on all six
continents that have benefited significantly from the technology,
particularly the humanitarian contribution to the alleviation of poverty,
malnutrition and hunger in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
In future, there is a cause of cautious optimism that global area and the
number of farmers planting GM crops will continue to rise. There were signs
of progress in the EU in 2004 with the European Commission (EC) approving,
for import two types of GM maize (Bt 11 and NK 603) for food and feed, thus
signalling the end of the 1998 moratorium. The EC also approved 17 maize
varieties, with insect resistance conferred by MON 810, making it the GM
crop to be approved for planting in all 25 EU states. The use of MON 810
maize in conjunction with practical co-existence policies opens up new
opportunities for EU member countries to benefit from the commercialisation
of GM maize, which Spain has successfully deployed since 1998.

The use of genetically modified (GM) crops in developing countries could
help small-scale farmers in alleviating poverty and hunger. Scientists
claimed that golden rice, modified to produce B-carotene, could help prevent
vitamin A deficiency in Asia. Small-scale farmers in China and South Africa
are already benefiting from GM cotton, modified to resist the cotton
bollworm GM bananas resist Black Sigatoka fungus. In case of non-GM bananas,
this fungus can reduce banana yields up to 70%. Currently farmers spend
one-quarter of the production costs on fungicides, and farm workers may risk
their health by applying the spray, up to 40 times per year. A genetically
modified (GM) banana, resistant to the fungus, could eliminate these
problems, reducing the amount of fungicide required and, at the same time,
increasing yields.

The UN's FAO has recently adopted a landmark agreement on assessing the
risks to consumers from foods derived from biotechnology, including GM
foods, as well as irradiated products. FAO and the WHO said the Codex
Alimentarius Commission (CAC), a subsidiary of both agencies, had adopted
more than 50 new safety and quality standards, some of them ground-breaking
guidelines, others revisions of old standards. Under these guidelines, any
country, regulatory body or other organisation or individual will be able to
compare the risk assessments of a given food derived from biotechnology with
the assessments done by other countries. Food safety systems are extended to
small and medium sized enterprises, especially in developing countries.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has postponed a ruling on a US-led
complaint against the European Union (ED) over GM foods for several days. It
was originally supposed to make a ruling few years back, but later it was
deferred keeping in view of resolving numerous outstanding questions. The
USA, Argentina and Canada complained that a European moratorium on imports
of GM foods was more about business protectionism than concern about the
health of consumers or the environment. The EU moratorium was lifted in May
2004, but those 3 countries did not withdraw their complaint because they
claim EU member states continue to block GM imports.

By 2020, Bangladesh will require 35.5 million tones of rice to meet the food
demand of its population, which is expected to increase from 132 million to
173 million. With this reality, we cannot go back to the old methods of
farming by intuition of naturalistic emotion. If we do; we will miss the
global science and technological advanced road map. In millennium era, all
categories of the people of Bangladesh will have to accept the fact that
only the scientific and technological advancement, especially in the field
of agriculture, can act as the prime-mover to feed the millions of new
mouths in Bangladesh.

With limited agricultural land resources, the requirement of food could be
met up only by successful use of scientific achievements and adoption of
advanced technologies by the farmers. Bangladesh as a member of global
village was benefited by introducing the HYV -rice technology (IRRI-5,
IRRI-8 and IRRI-20) developed by IRRI (International Rice Research
Institute), Philippines, in 1960s and development of over 47 Modern, HYV and
Hybrid (one hybrid) rice varieties keeping in view the need to feed the
population and the requirement of 270 - 280 million tones foodgrains in
2006.

The agricultural educationists, researchers in extension, policy planning
and field-level development of agriculture, NGOs and think tanks will have
to offer forward looking views on the impact of Modern rice, Hybrid rice,
Super rice, Golden rice and GM technologies in Bangladesh. We have to face
the dilemma increased need for food and shrinking land with coordinated and
collaborative efforts, because we have no other option but to feed our
population and fight poverty.

The writer is General Secretary, Seedmen's Society of Bangladesh and Member,
Seed Federation of Bangladesh.

[www.financialexpress-bd.com]