Bangladeshi regulators recently agreed to commercially introduce GM Bt cotton into the country. With low yields, the country's conventional cotton varieties produce only 3 tons of cotton per hectare. The two Bt varieties that regulators initially approved will produce more than 4 tons per hectare. Farmers will also save costs on cartridge caterpillar pesticides.

The Bangladesh National Crop Biotechnology Technical Committee (BNTCCB), at a recent meeting, gave the green light to two varieties of Bt cotton, both developed by the Indian company JK Agri Genetics, based in Hyderabad. Bangladesh has to pay up to $5 billion a year to import cotton, a key raw material for the apparel industry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently designed that Bangladesh would have to import nearly 9 million bales of cotton in 2022-23 against negligible domestic production of 155,000 bales.

Once introduced, Bt cotton will be Bangladesh's second commercial GM crop after the successful Bt eggplant was introduced in 2013. Approval of another similar product, gold rice fortified with vitamin A, has been pending with regulators for the past four years. Field experiments by the Cotton Development Board (CBD) found that farmers would earn more than An extra $1,070 per hectare of Bt cotton compared to its earnings from traditional varieties, bengali media reported.

In a document recently issued by india's Minister of State to the Upper House of Parliament, the government official acknowledges that GM Bt cotton has doubled cotton production since its adoption in 2002. farmers," he said. "Bt cotton hybrids have helped minimize worm damage, reduce pesticide use, increase farmers' production, income and net income," he said.

Source: Agrolink