It is regrettable that our farmers though contribute much to our national development, majority of them are deprived of minimum facilities. Many of them do not even get sufficient food. Their children lag behind in education for many limitations. Though much is told about their rights in seminars and symposia, the real picture is quite different. Still our farmers do not get the real price of their agricultural products, whereas, they pay high price for different agricultural inputs.

If we analyse the agricultural production of our country it is clearly revealed that in the last three and half decades after independence our agricultural production has increased significantly. Particularly in case of cereal crops like rice and wheat the production has increased 2-3 times. And this has been possible because of introduction of high yielding crop varieties, improvement of crop management system, creation of irrigation facilities etc. Our farmers accepted these improved varieties and technologies without any hesitation or raising any question. In this process many of our traditional cultivars have either been lost or have become rare. There has also been damage to our biodiversity in the process of adoption of advanced agro-techniques.

In the context of feeding increased population there was no other alternative. But recently a very serious question has arisen surrounding the introduction of crop varieties developed through high biotechnology such as genetic engineering. In the last two years many a writing supporting as well as opposing introduction of such crop varieties appeared in different daily newspapers. For the sake of our hard working farmers and also for national development it is urgently needed to discuss the positive and negative impacts of introduction of such genetically engineered crop varieties in a broad forum.

The development of recombinant DNA technology i.e. genetic engineering is very remarkable in the history of modern biological science. With the adoption of well-planned and highly controlled research only within one decade there has been a tremendous development of this technology and its contribution to human welfare was highly recognised. In the mean time this technology has proved very effective and established in medicine sector. The application of genetic engineering in the improvement of crops though started in early 1980s some positive results came into light only in mid 1990's. But the use of foreign genes in the genetic improvement of food crops particularly raised many questions in different countries. Because human food is a very sensitive issue. The raised questions are (i) if a crop variety is evolved by introducing genes of other wild microbes or animals, will these genes have any negative impact on human body or (ii) will these genes via crop plants will create hazardous condition in environment or (iii) are the transferred genes are acceptable to common people?

Even under such a situation some crop varieties have been evolved. Bt cotton containing Bt gene from Bacillus thuringiensis, Flavr Savr tomato developed through antisense RNA technology and golden rice carrying vit-A gene of daffodil flower are good examples of such crop varieties. Such crop varieties are known as GM (Genetically Modified) crops. A serious debate has been going on the future prospect of introduction of such GM crops in Bangladesh. It is pertinent to mention here that no such crop variety has so far been evolved in our country and yet no organised and integrated facilities could be created in any institute of our country for evolving such GM variety. And probably because of these limitations GM debate has taken such a shape.

If any crop variety plays a significant role in the advancement of our agriculture and such variety is proved to have no hazardous effect then it is quite logical to accept such variety. But if it is tried to introduce any crop variety whose evaluation technologies are not available in our country or has no significant impact on boosting food production or will go against the interest of our farmers' community that can never be introduced. In a section of press it has been published that Bangladesh has taken step to introduce GM crops particularly Golden Rice.

In fact is late 2003, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in collaboration with Bangladesh Rice Research Institute arranged Petra fair in Dhaka and there details about the genetically engineered golden rice carrying vit-A related genes of western will flower daffodil was explained. It was also said that such genes have been introduced with BR-29, the widely cultivated rice variety of Bangladesh. In addition to good the yield ability of BR-29, this GM rice variety is claimed to produce vit-A in its seeds, which can provide vit-A to poor people, who do not take sufficient vegetables. Several questions have arisen surrounding introduction of Golden Rice to our agriculture. First, is there any controlled system to evaluate any GM crops in our country? If not then how can we accept such variety? The second question, is there any full-fledged laboratory in our country to evaluate such GM variety? If not, then how can we take decision about the advantages of such variety in our own perspective? Moreover, so far the report goes, there is no organised, integrated laboratory in Bangladesh where GM variety can be developed. Then how can we reorient such variety in our own perspective? Another important question: are we going to introduce such variety through any multination company like SYNGENTA?

In the present perspective most of the above questions will remain unanswered or have no satisfactory answers. Whereas before introduction of high-tech based GM crops a threadbare analysis of such variety is a prerequisite and such analytical facility is yet to be developed in our country. It is pertinent to mention here that no question arose in the past when we introduced many a crop variety developed through conventional breeding technology. Because in such crop varieties no foreign gene was introduced about which there was any doubt of having bad effect on environment or human body. It is, therefore, imperative that after creation of proper evaluation system in our country and through proper analysis in our own perspective we should take decision about the introduction of GM crops into our agriculture. It is not wise to introduce such crop varieties based on so-called experts opinion or on the direction of multinational companies.

According to some reports a number of multinational companies have already patented Golden Rice as Colgene company patented Flavr Savr tomato. On the part of our poor farmers will it be possible to purchase seeds of cereal crops like Golden rice and wheat for cultivation?

In the present perspectives the farmers need to invest a lot for purchasing high cost inputs and the use of patented seeds will be another burden on them. We must be careful in this area. Here I like to mention some examples related to patent. Tamarind has been used in our subcontinent as spice and medicine since long. Interestingly in 1995 the grinded tamarind was patented in USA as herbal medicine for healing up injuries. In this way USA established her right on tamarind. Of course, because of serious objection by CSIR, India the tamarind patent was withdrawn from USA in 1997. Similar type of problem has arisen in case of Nim oil and Basmati rice. So we should be very careful in relation to patent plant materials.

I have been associated with teaching and research in this field of plant science for the last 25 years. Obviously I am not against the advancement and applications of such technology in our agriculture. But in the interest of our poor farmers and environmental safety I shall appeal for logical and judicious decision regarding introduction of GM crops to our agriculture. In my opinion the following points must be considered in relation to GM crops.

(i) Before analysis and evaluation of any GM crop in our country in our own perspective, it should not be introduced to our agriculture.

(ii) If necessary, every aspect of such crop should be analysed very critically under very controlled condition. For example, in case of Golden rice its nutrition quality, yield potential and adaptation ability must be analysed under controlled condition to justify the claim.

(iii) Evaluation of the acceptability of introduced foreign gene (from ethical point) by our people.

(iv) Proper evaluation to see whether such variety has any bad effect on environment.

(v) No patented cereal crop seeds should be allowed to be introduced to our agriculture. Seeds must be produced and distributed by our national institutes.

We shall have to take decision regarding GM crops only in the interest of our farmers and not in the interest of any multinational company or some 'experts'. With these considerations government can take people's opinion and involve the scientists of different central and peripheral universities and research institutes. Even the opinion of Bangladeshi scientists working in this area in developed countries can be taken for such a debatable issue. I believe our decision makers will look into the matter very critically before we jump for GM crops.

Dr SK Bhadra is Professor, Department of Botany, University of Chittagong