Bt. Brinjal: Forced cultivation and poor performance!
Bangladesh is one of the unfortunate countries in Asia, where GM food crops are being forced for introduction without proper following of the rules particularly those laid down for Biosafety. Bt. Brinjal is one such crop which is a very common vegetable across class, culture and geographical location, and also known to be in the centre of origin, yet the government has approved it for field cultivation in October, 2013 through the national gene bank run by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI). Despite concerns raised by various farmers groups and environmental groups, the first trial of Bt. Brinjal started in January- February 2014 with four GM varieties – Bt Uttara, Bt Kajla, Bt Noyontara and Bt ISD 006 (known as Bt. Brinjal 1, Bt. Brinjal 2, Bt. Brinjal 3 and Bt. (Read More)
About UBINIG
UBINIG
UBINIG is a policy and action research organization in Bangladesh, formed in 1984 by a group of activists to support peoples' movement for social, economic, political and cultural transformation. It satrted as a study circles searching for alternatives to the mainstream development intervention. The objective was to make policy making oriented to people and the process more transparent and inclusive serving the interest of the majority of the people.
For us the re-search is a form of social activity that we use to achieve collective objective, and not to represent the 'other' as an object of study. We implement our observations, analysis and ideas in various community programmes. We are involved in our communit (Read More)