GMOs are NOT NEEDED

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Farmers say No to Genetic Engineering in Rice: Stop it

Introduction

The effort to introduce genetic engineering in agriculture, particularly in rice is resisted by farmers. There are many genuine grounds to resist gene manipulation in rice. At a simple level farming community argued against the aggressive introduction of genetic engineering by saying ‘it is not needed’. They have heard of ‘Golden Rice’ and followed the arguments put forward by the government, scientists and corporations promoting the variety. Idea of eating huge amount of yellow colored rice to solve Vitamin A deficiency while it can easily be solved by growing and consuming leafy vegetables is ridiculous; so the idea of genetically modified rice simply sounded stupid to them. Soon they learned more about the fact that yellow color is not the original trait of the variety, it came from a flower that does not even grow in Bangladesh. They are also surprised to learn why some one on earth should try to insert the gene of a bacteria into the rice variety to control pests while maintaining biodiversity in the farming landscape is the sure shot to prevent pest attacks and diseases. Biodiverse agricultural practices, planting appropriate variety in suitable ecosystems, has been historically practiced in Bangladesh to ensure gene expression of a variety farmers were eager to cultivate for yield, nutrition, scents or other agronomic values of importance. It was obvious to the farming community that genetically modified rice is designed to benefit Corporations and not farmers. So, when Bangladeshi farmers say that ‘genetically modified rice is not needed’ – the premise of rejection is grounded on the biodiversity-based ecological practices that are hardly known to industrial food production through corporate control.

Bangladesh is a country of diversity in cultivated and uncultivated crops. The biodiversity-based agrarian basis of the country supports the survival of the people as well as the economic prosperity. If the agricultural system that has historically developed in a biogeographical zones contributing to the ‘origin of diversity’ it has also developed unique agrarian technology and knowledge practices beyond the grasp of modern industrial paradigm. Bangladesh can provide healthy food including wide range of rice, vegetables, fish and fruits. It is clear that the effort to introduce genetic engineering in agriculture is certainly not for supporting the farmers or for solving the food problems of the people. It is only for the establishment of control by the multinational corporations over food production. The questions are now raised over the efforts to introduce and aggressively promote biotechnology in rice. It would be disastrous for Bangladesh both ecologically and economically if it blindly transform its agriculture into industrial food production and render environment totally unsafe by introducing GMOs. A country that sustains large number of population, who survive not only on cultivated but also on uncultivated food sources GMOs, pose a serious threat for Bangladesh [Mazhar, 2006]

The Bangladesh government formulated Environment Policy in 1992 which clearly states that “all steps taken and technologies adopted for agricultural development and attainment of self sufficiency in food are to be made environmentally sound’. The National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for Bangladesh (NBSAP), 2004 sets ‘to conserve and restore the biodiversity of the country for well being of the present and future generations’ as its main goal. With all these promises to protect biodiversity, the Government of Bangladesh has formulated the National Biotechnology Policy in 2006 ‘to ensure sustainable development of agriculture – food and other crops, nutrition, health, environment and livelihood of people” etc. [ GOB, 2006] The USAID supported Biotech Activities in Bangladesh is trying to promote 1. Fruit and short Borer Resistance Eggplant, 2. Late Blight Resistance Potato and 3. Drought and Salinity Tolerant Rice. The GM Papaya is also on the list of being imported [ Mazhar, 2006] Golden Rice or Vit. Fortified rice is aggressively promoted on the grounds of helping people against night blindness.

The three major areas where biotechnology claims to offer solutions in Bangladesh are i. improvement in resistance against pest and diseases, ii. Improving the resistance against abiotic stresses like salinity and drought and iii. improving nutritional quality of seeds, fruits and vegetables. [ Sarkar, 2006]. These are the arguments of the scientists supported by USAID and multinational biotech corporations and remained only at the level of claims. Experimenting with GMOs is also potential risk for biodiversity rich country. In all these areas biodiverse ecological agriculture has more promises to offer and there are plenty of scopes to integrate advance in the modern biological science is within the paradigm of indigenous and local knowledge practices without manipulation at the gene level. However, manipulation at the gene level is becoming the dominant corporate agenda because it ensures their control over the food production both technologically as well as through intellectual property rights. Rather than enhancing ecology, environment and biodiversity introduction of GM rice is geared by profit and control and not at all match with the considerations of environmentalists and the farming communities. Farmer’s argument that Genetic Engineering in agriculture, particularly in food is not needed is grounded on substantive scientific evidence in contrast to the profiteering motive of the corporation cloaked in claims in advance in science and technology.

Rice is life

Why Rice is targeted for genetic engineering? It is not needed at all. Cultivated Rice (Oryza sativa) has been grown in Bangladesh for thousands of years. Rice is unique among cereal crops and the most important agricultural crop in that it is grown standing in water. Rice is the staple food for the people in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, rice varieties used to exist in large numbers, over 15,000 varieties in the early part of the twentieth century. Even now after the assault of Green Revolution on local rice varieties, the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has a collection of over 6000 varieties. Nayakrishi Andolon, a biodiversity-based farmer’s movement, has collected and regenerated about 2300 varieties. More rice varieties can still be found among the farmers in different parts of the country. Bangladesh is the fourth largest producer of rice in the world with an annual production ranging from 17 to 19 million tons covering 70-75% of the total planted crop area in the country. Rice provides 95% of the cereals consumed, and supplies 68% of the calorie and 54% of the protein in the diet of the population.

Bangladesh is a small country with only 147570 sq. km and gross cropped area of 29990 thousand acres. The country is diverse in terms of agro-ecological situation and varies significantly from north to south, from east to west. However, being the deltaic region, every corner of the country is suitable for growing rice. The differences in varieties and intensities of cropping are found in different areas. And that ensures the wide diversity of rice varieties.

Rice is not just a crop in Agriculture and the economy of the country; it is an essential part of culture, life style and livelihood. It is difficult to think of a farming family who do not produce rice. There are about 11798242 farm households, of which 52% are small holdings i.e. operating less than 3 acres of land, 11.65% operating less than 7.5 acres of land and only 2% who have more than 7.50 acres of land (BBS 2001). It can be said that most of the farm holdings are engaged in rice cultivation, particularly the small and medium holdings because they cultivate rice for their own consumption. Even the sharecroppers are also engaged in rice cultivation. Rice is vital as livelihood. However, it was interesting to find that in the official statistics there is information about land under rice cultivation but not number of farmers. Even after enquiring in the BRRI, Agricultural Extension and Monitoring Cell they could not any information on the number of farmers engaged in rice cultivation [UBINIG, 2004]

In Bangla, unhusked rice or the paddy is called Dhan and husked rice is called chal. Dhan is very close to the other Bengali word called Dhon, which means wealth. In that sense Rice is nothing but wealth for the farmers. Rice also expresses the relationship in the society between the landowning and non-landowning households, between men and women in the families and between families and the livestock, particularly cows, bullocks, poultry. The rich and middle farmers engage the land poor and landless farmers for working as labors and also engage them as share croppers. Rice production has very clear division of labor between men and women in the mainland areas. Men carry out activities for ploughing, planting and harvesting. Once the Rice is harvested and brought to the household it becomes the responsibility of women, particularly for post harvesting activities of drying, husking and most importantly for seed preservation. Women’s knowledge, skill and experience in rice processing and seed preservation are the most valuable asset in farming household. The rice farming also makes a relationship between human beings and domesticated animals and birds. Without cows, bullocks, goats and poultry birds, a farming household is incomplete. While rice cultivation provides for the fodder of cattle and poultry, they in return give service for ploughing, cow dung for manuring and poultry gives food (meat and egg) and extra income for the family.

The farmers over years have been cultivating different varieties of rice for different soil types, climatic conditions, different needs and taste. The needs of feeding the people as staple food, requirements of nutrition, cultural and social needs are also ensured through collection and production of diversity in the rice varieties.

The local variety paddy has beautiful names according to the description as how it looks, smells, taste, nutrition, its capability for resistance against flood, drought etc. The naming of the local varieties happens over a number of years as community practice. The names of paddy can vary from one area to the other. Some names are different only because of variation in dialect and differences in pronunciations. Also the naming of paddy according to different characteristics was also very interesting. For example, the 'Holdimoni" rice variety in Tangail is called Sonadigha in Sirajganj. Haldi is yellow, and sona is golden. In a way it refers to same color characteristics.

Rice under First Attack: The High Yielding Variety (HYV)

The Bangladeshi farmers did not ask Rockefeller and Ford for the new technological innovation in rice in the early fifties of twentieth century. The farmers did not ask for the ‘Green Revolution’ either. They came on their own initiatives and promoted HYV rice production as a prescription with conditions of grants and loans given by the World Bank and USAID. It came with many promises of solving problems of feeding people. But now in 2008, it can be said without doubt that the Green Revolution failed to feed the people.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was set up by Rockefeller and Ford in 1962 and promoted the dwarf variety with height reduced from about five feet to three, so that when fertilizers make for heavier panicles, or clusters of rice grain. It was called High Yielding Variety without referring to the high ‘inputs’ associated with it. In order to promote the new technologies in rice, affiliate institution of IRRI was set up in 1970 called Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and it has been actively working on developing high yielding varieties. BRRI has so far developed 31 modern rice varieties for cultivation in different rice growing seasons. BRRI varieties are grown both under rainfed and irrigated condition. Due to extensive promotion by the government with foreign donor support BRRI varieties cover 52 percent of the rice area and 70 percent of the total rice production in Bangladesh. The Agricultural Extension Department of the government supports farmers only when they cultivate high yielding varieties developed by BRRI. There is no support for research on the local varieties which have similar yield level and also do not require the package inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water. The BRRI varieties that are made ‘popular’ are BR 11, BR 3, BR 10, BR 4, BR 14, and BR 1. Other such ‘popular’ modern rice varieties are Pajam and IR 8. Pajam was developed in the mid 1960s by a collaborative effort of Pakistan, Japan and Malaysia while IR 8 is a variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1967.

The HYV rice could show better performance in the early days of introduction because the land was still fertile and additional inputs designed for the new varieties acted in favour of showing higher yields. But it had its own limits. The yield performance has gradually declined, while increased in the input. According to Stefano Pagiola, of World Bank, “Unfortunately, there is increasing evidence that intensive agricultural practices may be degrading the natural resource base on which agricultural production depends. Yields of modern varieties, far from increasing, may actually be declining despite higher input levels. [Pagiola, 1995]

According to government statistics, the HYV Aman productivity has declined from 1.06 ton/acre in 1970-71 period to 0.98 ton/acre in 2002-03, HYV Boro from 1.33 ton/acre to 0.82 ton/acre in 2002 – 03 and HYV Boro from 1.38 ton/acre in 1970 – 71 to 1.31 ton/acre in 2002-03. During the same period the productivity of local variety Aman was 0.40 ton/acre.

The failure of the modern HYV ‘varieties’ are being expressed by those who want to promote Hybrid rice. According to study on Hybrid Rice Adoption, the authors said, ‘Although modern high-yielding varieties (HYV) of rice were adopted beginning in 1968, the rate of adoption remained low till 1975-76. The rapid diffusion of rice HYVs took place after mid-1980s with the liberalization of policies regarding the procurement and distribution of agricultural inputs, and reduction of import duties on agricultural equipment’ (Hossain and Akash, 1994).

While the rice production became more and more dependent on fertilizers, the affect on the genetic diversity of rice was severe. According to BRRI’s own documents, the genetic diversity of rice disappeared from the farmer’s field and by 2002 the national gene bank of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has ‘registered in accession’ only 3661 local variety out of the total accession of 5025 ( BRRI 2002). In nearly 40 years of aggressive promotion of modern varieties, BRRI has introduced only 40 HYV varieties in the farmer’s field (BRRI 2000).

The modern varieties were substituted for traditional varieties and boro rice was substituted for aus rice. In the early seventies more than 85% of the total acreage under rice was used to grow traditional varieties while the remaining 15% or so were used to grow HYV. Likewise of the total output of rice, 30% constituted HYV and 70% traditional varieties. By the late nineties, more than half the acreage under rice was used to grow HYV, while the rest were allocated to traditional varieties. In terms of output while more than 70% constituted, less than 30% were traditional varieties. The substitution of boro for aus rice meant that aus which accounted nearly 28% of total rice production in the seventies now accounts for less than 10%. [Acharya et al, 2002]

Rice under Second Attack: The Hybrid brands

The admittance of the failures of HYV rice came mainly for the introduction and promotion of Hybrid rice – a new attack on the traditional varieties. Instead of trying to find out the causes of failures of so-called modern varieties of rice, the company interest continued to dominate and the government with the support from the donor agencies promoted the Hybrid rice. The research was initiated at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) during 1983 but only for academic purposes. In 1993, a few female parental lines (CMS-lines) and experimental rice hybrids from IRRI were evaluated at BRRI research farms but in an unorganized way. Systematic efforts were initiated only in 1996 (BRAC, 2001) and to support such initiative, the commercial seed sellers influenced the government to formulate the new seed policy of the Bangladesh Government to encourage the private sector to participate in the rice seed market by importing hybrid rice seeds from abroad and try them with farmers. According to BRAC, an NGO extensively promoting Hybrid rice seeds through its micro-credit programme, states, and ‘One special evaluation committee was formed under Seed Certification Agency of National Seed Board (NSB) to evaluate the results of these on-farm trials This special committee recommended the release/introduction/import of seed of rice hybrids, although based on the results of limited trials only for one season. The Government of Bangladesh permitted four private seed companies and one NGO to import 2200 metric tons of hybrid rice seed for the 1998-99 Boro season, in response to the recommendation of the NSB and also to cover up the shortage of rice seeds after the devastating flood in the 1998 Aman (monsoon season rice) season. A total of about 600 metric tons seed of four varieties from India and one variety from China were imported. Among various hybrids, 75% of total imported seed was of Alok 6201 from India followed by Sonar Bangla of Chinese hybrid. It is estimated from the seed sales data that about 23,700 ha of area was planted with the hybrid rice in the 1998-99 Boro season (BRAC, 2001). Although more than 44 Hybrid rice brands have been imported from China and India, only 10 brands are found in the seed market.

UBINIG studies on Hybrid rice found that, the Hybrid brands were promoted more in the Boro season and it is mainly done taking the opportunity of damage of Aman rice by floods or cyclone. The Boro season is immediately after the Aman season and most of the farmers cultivate other crops particularly winter vegetables, lentils, mustard etc. Boro local variety and some HYV rice are cultivated in low lying areas. But the governments after the flood of 1998, 2004 and in 2007 promoted Hybrid brands of rice through covert coercive means through micro-credit programmes and through Agricultural Extension Department. The failure of hybrid in 2007 – 08 period was quite widely reported in the newspapers but the government overlooked such problems because of the involvement of the multinational corporations such as Syngenta and ACI and giant NGOs like BRAC (UBINIG, 2004).

One significant difference between promotion of HYV modern varieties and the Hybrid brands is the use of dry season called the Boro season for rice production. Usually rice farmers grow winter crops such as lentils, pulses, oil seeds and wide range of vegetables after the harvesting of Aman rice until the next Aus rice season. However there are traditional varieties of Boro rice, which are only grown in low-lying areas in the riparian areas of the Shurma, Kushiara, Meghna and Brahmaputra including greater districts of Sylhet, Mymenshing and Comilla. These areas go under water in the rainy season. Water recedes at about the end of Kartik (October). It becomes suitable for transplanting Boro Rice from Agrahayan (November). Land races of Boro Rice have been selected for this situation. These genotypes match the prevailing temperature, day length and such other agro-ecological amplitude.

According to UBINIG-Nayakrishi Andolon research (Sobhan 2008), Boro rice cultivation itself was interference into the traditional agricultural system of producing a variety of crops suitable for particular seasons. During the Boro season, the traditional areas of pulses, oil seeds, spices, vegetables, potato, sweet potato and minor cereals were taken over for Boro Rice cultivation. This reduction has become more visible. In 1991-92, Boro Rice was cultivated in 6511,000 acres land, which increased to 9500,000 acres in 2002-03. On the other hand the decline of pulses is from 1783,000 acres to 1108,000 acres and oil seeds from 1334,000 acres to 988,000 acres.

Hybrid Boro rice is still new and was given to farmers under special circumstances in SIDR affected in southern districts, and in anticipation of shortage of rice production, hybrid rice was promoted in the northern districts of the country. During April, 2008 there were reports about the Bacterial Leaf Blight disease attacks in the Boro Rice crops. Newspaper reports were compiled to see the trend of the BLB attack on locals, HYV and Hybrids. It has appeared in severe epidemic form especially in areas where hybrid rice was grown. The case of total loss of crop has taken place where hybrid rice has been grown. However, the loss to the farmers on account of hybrid rice cultivation at national level should be estimated by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), but they have not done so.

Despite the fact that farmers were systematically bluffed by seed companies about the yield performance of hybrid seeds in the past, the government allowed commercial promotion of Hybrid rice seeds without taking into consideration its feasibility from the farmer’s perspective. So far, no data and evidence with regard to positive performance is available. The Government is also promoting monopoly in the seed market of Bangladesh for only four to five companies allowing them to import hybrid seeds and they are: (a) leading micro-credit lender BRAC. (b) Supreme Seed Company, (c). Syngenta, and (d) corporate entity ACI. The brand names of the Hybrid seeds imported are Hira(Supreme Seed Company), Aloron (BRAC), Jagoron(BRAC), Sonar bangla (Mallika Seed Company) and ACI-2 Moina (ACI). Among the four companies two are multinational corporations, mostly involved in pesticide production. Syngenta is one of the top Biotech companies in the world and with other gene-giants BASF, Monsanto and Du Pont are stock-piling hundreds of monopoly patents on 'climate-ready' genes in plants to provide techno-solution to address climate chaos created by the world's richest nations (UBINIG, 2008).

Rice under Third Attack: The GE rice

The corporate interest in Bangladesh continues to attack the rice in Bangladesh. The latest attack is by the efforts of the Biotech companies through introduction of so-called Genetically Engineered Rice in Bangladesh. The genetically engineered rice which is in the research stage is for Abiotic Stress Resistance such as salinity, drought and flood conditions. These are 1. Salt Tolerant Rice for Coastal region, 2. flood-resistant rice, 3. drought- and cold-resistant varieties of rice, and on the grounds of nutritional traits accumulate pro-Vitamin A (beta-carotene) in the seed endosperm tissue.

The saline-resistant variety is called Saltol, the flood resistant variety uses the Sub1 gene in the domestic high-yielding BR11 rice and the vitamin A fortified rice is called the Golden Rice using the BR29 rice. Both BR11 and BR29 are developed by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute as High yielding variety of rice, but now being given to biotech companies for genetic modification. According to Reuters report 2 June, 2008 quoting M.A. Salam, research Director at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), ‘the new types of rice, developed in cooperation with experts in India, the Philippines and the United States, have passed field tests and have been approved by Bangladesh's agriculture ministry for use by farmers’. [Reuters, 2008]

But Why Hybrid & Genetically Modified Rice?

Bangladesh does need neither the hybrid rice nor any genetically modified rice on grounds of ‘higher productivity’, facing stresses such as flood, salinity, droughts and on nutritional fortification. The traditional varieties have many examples of having equal level of productivity or more in comparison to the HYV varieties developed by BRRI for the Aman season.

Table 1: Comparing BRRI varieties with local Aman Variety

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BRRI Varieties	Seasons	Productivity ton/hectare	Local Varieties	Seasons	Productivity ton/hectare
BR-23	Aman	5.5	Chand maloti	Aman	5.32
BR-30	Aman	5.0	Rasun bhog	Aman	5.17
BR-33	Aman	4.5	Mohini shail	Aman	4.75
BR-34	Aman	3.5	Hizol Digha	Aman	3.51
BR-39	Aman	4.5	Jhulan	Aman	4.78
BR-40	Aman	4.5	Nil-kumari	Aman	4.47
BR-04	Aman	5.0	Ganga Sagar	Aman	5.26
BR-5	Aman	3.0	Fulkadi	Aman	3.19
BR-10	Aman	6.5	1. Nunia shail/  2. Khaman	Aman	6.37
BR-11	Aman	6.5	Baowal	Aman	6.91

 

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While a lot of inputs are required to get the productivity, the local varieties do not require any cash cost except labour. So in terms of net productivity calculation, the local varieties are much higher than the modern varieties.

There are also local varieties of Boro Rice having equal or more in terms of productivity compared to the modern BRRI brands.

Table 2: Comparing BRRI varieties with local Boro Variety

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BRRI varieties	Seasons	Productivity ton/hectare	Local varieties	Seasons	Productivity ton/hectare
BR-2	Boro	5.0	Shete boro	Boro	4.80
BR-3	Boro	6.5	Sonali boro	Boro	6.85
BR-6	Boro	4.5	Shete boro	Boro	4.80
BR-7	Boro	4.5	Golapi boro	Boro	4.60
BR-8	Boro	6.0	Balanga	Boro	6.30
BR-12	Boro	5.5	Boro digha	Boro	5.30
BR-15	Boro	5.5	Kalo sayta	Boro	5.45
BR-28	Boro	5.0	Turfan	Boro	5.10
BR-29	Boro	7.5	Topa boro	Boro	6.93
BR-19	Boro	6.0	Bowali boro	Boro	5.85
BR-45	Boro	5.5	Kalo sayta	Boro	5.45

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The HYV boro varieties need extensive irrigation support which requires use of diesels as well as electricity along with fertilizers and pesticides, while the local varieties are grown in the low lying areas therefore do not require any extra input.

The local varieties also include varieties resistant to drought, flood, and salinity. According to Nayakrishi farmers collections, there are at least 22 varieties of drought resistant varieties grown in drought prone areas, 17 varieties which can remain in submerged conditions grown in flood prone zones, and 23 varieties which are saline resistant still grown in the coastal regions. For nutritional purposes, there are rice varieties as well as various uncultivated plant and vegetables, which have good nutrient values. in terms of iron content, vitamin C content, Vitamin A and Zinc.

Farmers in Bangladesh have been practicing their wisdom on rice cultivation for hundreds of years. The experiences of the Nayakrishi farmers who are growing local variety rice shows that the cultivation of rice depends on the water level in the rice fields. There are no homogeneous land, water and soil characteristics which determine the variety of rice to be planted. In one area, there is no water, in another area there is constant standing water. For example, in village Chandai of Pabna district the standing water level is 4 – 5 ft, while the village Majhpara there is scarcity of water. In the Char areas, the soil is covered with sand deposits. The HYV varieties cannot be cultivated in these diverse land, soil and water conditions. Therefore, the farmers have been cultivating local variety suitable for each specific geo-ecological conditions.

Aman rice is generally sown broadcast on low lands. The local variety rice is usually long stemmed as there as standing flood water in most of the villages. Aus rice requires land of a higher elevation. The varieties are mostly of coarse and the plants grow to a height of about 3 to 4 ft and land has to be selected on which the depth of water at the beginning of the rains does not exceed 2 ft. Boro rice is a spring or summer, mostly grown on the side of beels and chars.

Nayakrishi farmer Abul Hossain (65) cultivates three local varieties Ajoldigha, Dol digha and Pakri. The cultivable land which, he owns is low lying land and usually under 3 -4 ft deep water. He also cultivates some varieties of rice in the Padma char land, which are usually dry. He uses drought resistant varieties for such land.

Nayakrishi farmer Sukhchan is young (35). He lives in Beel area. He cultivates only local variety rice because in this area HYV variety cannot be grown. A farmer was asked how you decide which rice you want to grow. In reply, he said, “I don’t decide on the basis of the rice characteristics but on the basis of land level and soil quality that I have.” In the family both men and women discuss about the variety to be cultivated. They talk about the situation of water level, soil quality and accordingly decide about the particular variety suitable for that piece of land.

The season of the rice is also very important. There are three different season for rice such as Aus, Aman and Boro. For the farmer each rice season plays a different role. During Aus season only local variety rice are cultivated. Farmers call it ‘scarcity reduction variety’ because the cost of production is minimal.

During Aman planting season (monsoon season) local variety rice are grown because in most of the land are under water. During this season, there are chances of floods. Therefore they need to think of the rice variety which is flood water tolerant.

In the following, several rice varieties are referred which are selected for particular purposes and are based on community wisdom for such selection.

Bahari is found in Lakmikhola village. This variety does not need much water. In this village there is also scarcity of water. In terms of productivity it performs better than Pakri. But another quality of this variety is that the paddy leaves can be cut as fodder for cows.

On the other hand, Ajol digha, Dol digha and Pakri can tolerate standing water of 3 to 4 ft high. These varieties are also free from diseases. Farmers also have to consider the harvesting time for each variety. The varieties which can stand deep water but if the water do not recede at the time of harvesting, then there is a problem. There are some varieties which take longer time to ripe and are harvested in Poush (mid December) when the water goes down even in the low lying areas. Verilota, Hasaboron and Madba are particularly suitable for such low lying areas.

Kala bokri and Dudhe Kotki are Aus varieties grown in Char areas. The farmers’ knowledge on these varieties is very specific to the situation of char land. In Padma char no other varieties can be grown except these two varieties. No inputs are needed. Labours are employed to transplant the varieties and to harvest. More importantly these are good for the poor people. “These are so tasty that we do not need any curries. Warm rice is good enough as a meal’

Farmers cultivate another variety of rice called Jhinga shail (an Aman variety) because it can be mixed cropped with Aus variety. Same plot of land delivers two crops which is very good in terms of total productivity.

Pankhi Raj and Pube Digha varieties are grown in Chalan beel, low lying land turned into marshes and swamps. Chalan beel is the largest of the beels covering an extensive area of 140 square miles on the northern districts of Rajshahi and Pabna. The principal feeder of Chalan beel is the river Atrai and eventually finds its way into the Jamuna. Farmers in the Chalan Beel area happy to grow Panki raj and pube digha which grows along the with the rise of water.

Conclusion

The farmers in Bangladesh never asked for modern varieties, nor for Hybrid and genetically engineered seeds of rice. The farmers do not call the new introductions as varieties, as these are “numbered” and do not contain any name by which one can know its characteristics. For them these are brands of rice which companies are promoting for their own interest.

Bangladeshi farmers want to be free from unnecessary and harmful interventions of Hybrid and GE rice.

References

Mazhar 2006 GMOs, Biosafety and biosecurity in the context of Biosafety Protocol, by Farhad Mazhar, UBINIG presented at the Inception workshop of the Development of the National Biosafety Framework (NBF) for Bangladesh organised by Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment and Forests, 23 April, 2006. Dhaka

GOB, 2006 National Biosafety Framework of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment and Forest, GOB, 2006

Sarker, 2006 Principles of Genetic Engineering and its Applications, By Dr. Rekha Hari Sarker, Deptt. Of Botany, University of Dhaka, presented at Inception workshop of the Development of the National Biosafety Framework (NBF) for Bangladesh organised by Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment and Forests, 23 April, 2006. Dhaka

Pagiola, 1995 Environmental and Natural Resource Degradation in Intensive Agriculture in Bangladesh by Stefano Pagiola, Environmental Economics Series, May 1995, ESD, The World Bank, Washington D.C. USA)

Acharya et al, 2002

Sustainable Agriculture, Poverty and Food Security edited by S.S. Acharya, Surjit Singh and Vidya Sagar Vol. 2 Asian Society of Agricultural Economists, Rawat Publication, India 2002

Hossain, M., and M. Akash. 1994,

Public Rural Works for Relief and Development, IFPRI Working Paper on Food Subsidy, No. 7, Washington. D.C.: IFPRI. Cited in Research Monograph Series No.18 “Hybrid Rice Adoption in Bangladesh: A Socio Economic Assessment of farmer’s experiences’ by AM Muazzem Hussain, Mahbub Hossain and Aldas Janaiah, BRAC, March 2001, Dhaka, Bangladesh

UBINIG 2004 Undesired Promotion of Hybrid Rice in Bangladesh, by UBINIG, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Sobhan 2008 ‘Bacterial Leaf Blight Disease infection on Boro rice in Bangladesh 2008’ Report by M. A. Sobhan, June, 2008. UBINIG-Nayakrishi Investigative Report

UBINIG 2008 Hybrid Boro Rice: Profit vs Ecological Concerns, By UBINIG, 2008

Reuters 2008 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/Bangladesh_to_launch_flood resistant_rice_in_2009/articleshow/3093176.cms

28 October, 2008

 

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