On 7 April the Financial Express in Bangladesh published a news article entitled ‘Pest-resistant Bt Brinjal comes under pest attack’, claiming that farmers who are now cultivating insect-resistant genetically-modified brinjal (eggplant) were being forced to spray more pesticides than usual because of severe pest attack. The allegation was clear - that Bt technology has failed, and that farmers are already losing out.
The article mentions the farmer Haidul Islam, in Sripur Upazila under Gazipur district, stating:
"Visiting his brinjal field on Tuesday, the FE correspondent found 25-30 per cent of the plants dead and the rest were struggling for survival.
The Financial Express journalist, Yasir Wardad, then quoted Haidul Islam as saying: “Agriculture officials told me that I am one of the 20 fortunate farmers who got Bt seeds. It will reduce cost for pesticide. But the reality is pests have attacked my plants severely. Last year I grew local varieties and made profit. This year Allah knows what will happen to me.
The article goes on to quote unnamed “experts” as expressing “their grave concern that GMO brinjal would affect biodiversity and could cause severe health hazards to humans, other animals and plants”, and implies that Bt brinjal was developed at the behest of the “multinational seed giant Monsanto”.
In reality, Bt brinjal is a joint public-sector project between the government-run Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and scientists at Cornell University, with funding from USAID. Hearing the allegations by the Financial Express, BARI’s director of research Khaled Sultan and other project officials immediately travelled to visit the farmer whose Bt brinjal plants were alleged to be dying. What they found is very different from the allegations put out in the media.
Eggplant in Haidul Islam's fieldThe BARI delegation reports that the Bt brinjal crop in farmer Haidul Islam’s field is currently “healthy and infestation-free”. The project team also spoke to the supposedly distressed farmer Haidul Islam, who revealed that the story began when two young men visited his farm and told him that he was growing a “poisonous” crop on his vegetable patch which would be bad for the health of him and his family. The two men did not reveal their identities, and moreover wore black cloth masks on their faces for the duration of their visit.
The two men, who were likely anti-GMO activists visiting from Dhaka, then tried to coerce Haidul Islam into saying that his crop had failed, informing him that he would be a “happy man” if he made a video statement (they had brought a camera for the purpose) saying that his crop was infested with pests and he felt cheated. Whether the intent was bribery or threatening physical coercion is not clear, but either way Haidul Islam refused to make the statement demanded of him as he felt there was nothing wrong with his crop.
It is not clear either whether the ‘journalist’ Yasir Wardad bylined on the Financial Express piece ever visited the location, or whether the whole article in its entirety was simply planted by anti-GMO activists. However it does seem clear that Haidul Islam’s quotes were fabricated, and that the failure of his Bt brinjal crop was also invented by anti-GMO activists aiming to demonize the technology.
The Bt brinjal project team who visited the site were initially concerned that there might have been some failure of the technology and proceeded to test over 200 individual plants for the expression of the Cry1Ac protein that protects brinjal against a specific pest - the fruit and shoot borer. All plants tested positive for the protein, indicating that Bt brinjal should be working as intended. Although other insects, especially sucking pests, are not controlled by Bt technology, there was no indication of any pest infestation.
There were signs of probable bacterial wilt on a small number of plants, however, a common problem encountered by farmers in the region when soils have a high moisture content during times of heavy rainfall. This is currently being investigated. The project team also ascertained that the seeds were sown as required for brinjal and that a mandatory border refuge of non-Bt brinjal for resistance management had also been planted and was being well maintained.
Commenting on the Financial Express article, Professor Ronnie Coffman, director of International Programs at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, said: “This article is an intolerable misrepresentation of the facts that is harmful to the hardworking farmers of Bangladesh. Fortunately, farmers are smart, practical people who understand the promise and potential of Bt brinjal and I fully expect they will prevail.”
Bt brinjal is aimed at dramatically reducing pesticide use in Bangladeshi brinjal farming by protecting against the most damaging pest, fruit and shoot borer. Recently, the Bangladeshi Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury suggested that anti-GMO groups might be receiving money from pesticides companies who are worried about losing their markets if Bt brinjal is successful.[ref]
Referring to the claim in the article that Bt brinjal would cause “severe health hazards to humans” and “biodiversity”, Anthony Shelton, professor of entomology and a world expert on Bt plants who is now in Bangladesh, said he was “appalled by the misinformation in the Financial Express piece”. He continued: “There is not one shred of credible evidence that Bt plants harm humans or biodiversity. In fact, just the opposite is true - growing Bt brinjal is far safer than the traditional method because of reductions in pesticide use.”
Original Financial Express article: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/04/07/27497
@Anti-GMO activists in Bangladesh tell lies to farmers and the media | Bt Brinjal:
TEXT OF ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Pest-resistant Bt Brinjal comes under pest attack
Farmers now forced to spray pesticides
Yasir Wardad
Bt Brinjal, introduced in the country by the government for its pest resistance, has severely been attacked by pests this season for which farmers are now forced to spray a lot of pesticides, farmers alleged.
Seeds of the genetically modified (GM) vegetable variety, which is being permitted to be cultivated at farmers' level despite huge protest from the biodiversity experts and common people, were given to farmers on January 20 this year.
The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), under an agreement with multinational seed giant Monsanto-Mahyco, developed Bt Brinjal after inserting Bt gene to nine local brinjal seed varieties.
The BARI said the variety is resistant to pests and farmers do not need pesticides any more.
The Institute got permission from the National Committee on Bio-safety (NCB) for a limited scale cultivation of Bt Brinjal in October last year.
From January 22 this year, 20 farmers from Rangpur, Pabna, Jamalpur, Gazipur and Sherpur districts in the country were given Bt Brinjal seeds.
Haidul Islam at Shaitail village under Telihati union at Sripur upazila under Gazipur district is one of these farmers.
Visiting his brinjal field on Tuesday, the FE correspondent found 25-30 per cent of the plants dead and the rest were struggling for survival.
Haidul Islam said: "Agriculture officials told me that I am one of the 20 fortunate farmers who got Bt seeds. It will reduce cost for pesticide."
"But the reality is pests have attacked my plants severely," he said.
"Last year, I grew local varieties and made profit. This year Allah knows what will happen to me", he said.
He informed the FE that his field now required more pesticides compared to that of last year.
Another farmer of the same village Mojibur Rahman has the same experience.
"Primarily, the plants grew well, then the leaves were attacked first and later the plants were attacked severely by pests", he said.
During visits to his fields on Tuesday, he told the FE that BARI officials suggested him to spray fungicide 'Bebistine' and pesticide 'Vertimec' to save the plants.
Sub-assistant agricultural officer of Telihati Union Md Shahdat Hossain told the FE that fertility of the lands has been reducing day by day in his area as farmers now cultivate only one crop---brinjal.
He said Bt Brinjal fields have been attacked by pests as they do in case of other brinjal fields.
Local farmers at Telihati told the FE that farmers, who cultivated Bt Brinjal, were given Tk 8,000 in two installments.
They said farmers were not aware about the seed. Later they knew about its controversy from the newspapers.
Shankar Chandra Roy at Khotkhotia village in Rangpur Sadar upazila said over cell phone that half of his Bt Brinjal plants have died.
The rest of the plants were attacked by 'jab' pest, he said.
He said that agricultural officials have asked him to spray various kinds of pesticides.
Chairman of Bij Bistar Foundation and crop specialist Dr MA Sobhan told the FE that a team of his organisation visited the Bt Brinjal fields at Bhoroimari and Boktarpur village under Iswardi upazila in Pabna district last week.
He said, "We visited two fields where plants have been attacked by red and white fly, jab and other pests."
He said, "It is natural. Bt Brinjal is resistant only to shoot borer, but nearly 37 kinds of pests attack brinjal. The genetic engineering might have made the brinjal variety further weak to other pest attacks."
However, the government approved Bt Brinjal in Bangladesh, but it has been banned in India and the Philippines amid massive protests from environmentalists, biodiversity experts and ordinary citizens there.
Bangladeshi experts also expressed their grave concern that GMO brinjal would affect biodiversity and could cause severe health hazards to humans, other animals and plants.
Multinational seed giant Monsanto and its Indian ally Mahyco, with the financial assistance of the USAID, developed the BT Brinjal seeds.
However, the Philippines government banned Bt Brinjal in the country at a time (October 30, 2013) when the Bangladesh National Committee on Bio-Safety (NCB) gave approval to it in the country.
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