Bangladesh has taken initiative to begin cultivating genetically modified organism (GMO) cotton or Bt cotton in order to boost the crop’s production, according to Matia Chowdhury, Agriculture Minister of the country. The decision to cultivate Bt. cotton has been taken as the harmful pest bollworm is posing as an obstacle in increasing the production of the crop in the conventional method so, Bangladesh has initiated Biotechnology based BT cultivation to boost cotton production. Chowdhury disclosed this information while replying to a query that was raised in Jatiya Sangsad.
She also said that the Cotton Development Board (CDB) has set up demonstration farms to introduce the new cotton variety. Initiative will be taken to extend its cultivation after the trial period by distributing it to farmers, said Chowdhury. The ‘research development for developed variety cotton and its seed’ project is also underway to develop a variety of cotton which is high-yielding and takes relatively short time for cultivation, she added. She said that the government has provided training to 60,000 farmers on modern cotton cultivation and set-up 3,050 demonstration plots under a project for increasing cotton production the country.
Cotton is the main raw material for textile industries and the country has to import cotton for meeting the demand of the textile industries. The country has 5,000 garment factories and 450 spinning mills. Bangladesh produced 1.56 lakh bales of cotton during the last financial year 2016-17 and cotton production is gradually increasing every year.
