TEXT: Liho Kim Sebastian Guzman Olmos Wies Van Den Maagdenbrg Zoa Rosenkraz

BANGLADESH'S EGGPLANT CASE STUDY

GENETICALLY MODIFIED

CROPS

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Since the 1990's, genetic engineering has experienced massive growth. But only in the last ten years, genetically modified organism (GMOs) have become one of the most po-larized subjects and to this date ir remains highly controversial. Unfortunately, such a so-phisticated and well-studied technology has received an extensive and fervent campaign of misinformation, especially when it comes down to crops. So far genetically modified crops have been proven to be harmless to human beings as the result extensive re-search and the consensus of major health and science institutions.

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In fact, we have been modifying our food since the invention of agriculture, the earliest indication of artificial selection or crossbreed-

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ing in crops, a slow and rudimentary way to alter DNA (precursor to the modern process-es), dates back to 7800 BCE. A significant breakthrough in GMO technology happened in 1973 when Herbert Boyer and Stanley Co-hen successfully developed a method to very accurately cut out a gene from one organism and paste it into another. Nowadays re-searchers have a far broader understanding of genetic engineer; it has become plausible to fasten evolutionary process by introducing genetic modifications into plants and animals in the lab.

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The questions is how sustainable, efficient and promising is this technology and how is going to influence our health and environment. One of the most emblematic and relevant alterations in plant genetics has occurred through the improvement of the Bangladesh eggplant.

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Eggplants are one of the most consumed vegetables in Ban-gladesh and the agriculture is one of the most important sectors of the country. So it has quite a big impact on the general health and lives of the people in Bangladesh, to the point that farmers have to use a lot of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides copiously .

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They have to spray every five days or even more when the pest pressure is high to not lose their crops to the pests. Many of the pesticides they are using are banned in west-ern countries because of their toxicity. And they often don’t use proper protection while spraying because they can’t afford it. In developing countries, about 300.000 people died every year because of pesticide misuse

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The number of people on Earth is expect-ed to increase to 9,2 billion from the current of 7.4 billion. Bangladesh is one of the most populous countries by the year 2050. They need to feed 40 Million people extra in the coming decades. But what is the best way to produce enough food to feed all the people?

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If we feed these people with current farming practice, global warming will increase. Vast amounts of wilderness will be lost, millions of birds and billions of insects will die, farm workers will be at increased risk for disease, and the public will lose billions of dollars as a consequence of environmental degradation. So when we have to feed even more people, we have to find a way to make it as efficient as possible, and still, think about the glob-al warming. So we need to combine all the good ideas, from organic and local farms or high-tech and conventional farms, and blend the best of both.

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One of these ideas propose that GMOs could do even more, they could improve our diet by

and exposure. Bangladesh's most conse-quential enemy of the Eggplant farmers is a worm, even with spraying pesticides they lose 20 to 40 percent of their crops to this parasite. In 2013 the government chose 250 farmers to plant a new BT crop variety of an Eggplant to reduce the need of pedecieds.

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This crop contains a bacterial gene which enables the plant to produce a compound that kills the worm, but the bacterial gene is harmless to other animals and humans. This is lowering the need for pesticides which can be reduced to by 80 percent and often down to zero.

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Farmers earn more money because they have to spend less money on pesticides, have higher yields, less expenditure and they can sell the GMO eggplant for a higher price at the market. So on the example of the Bangladesh eggplant, you can see how to improve the lives of the poorest.

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Currently the world is no longer able to increase food production through agriculture expansion. Deforestation is not a solution any more to make agri-culture more profitable. So we have to have to find different ways to feed the growing population and make the agriculture more efficient. Beginning in the 1960s, the Green Revolution increased agricultural produc-tion in Asia and Latin America, but environmental costs are also increased. The development of commercial agri-culture aims at the application of fertilizers and pesticides more effectively.

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Improving nutrient and water supplies will yield a total of 58 percent increase in global food production. The rest of the crops are supplied to feed cattle. Therefore, meat-lim-ited diet and efficient cattle farming are very helpful in increasing the availability of food. 25% of food calorie and 50% of food weight are lost before being consumed. Especially in the case of poor countries, unstable of stor-age and transportation are the main causes of food loss. Considering these aspects can reach double food sup-plies around the world and dramatically reduce the envi-ronmental impact of agriculture worldwide.

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Bangladesh is the first developing country which com-mercializes BT Eggplants since 2013 and provides it to small farmers. However, serious pests such as EFSB have destroyed more than half of the crops and farmers

had to use toxic pesticides. How-ever, BT Eggplants have dra-matically reduced farmers' use of pesticides by over 80%, therefore improving farmer’s health and local environment.

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Rahma, a Bangladesh farmer who introduced in The New York Times and the BBC documenta-ry, is getting the maximum pro-duction with using BT eggplants, while harvesting for more than a decade. T

These BT crops are stored for seed storage at Plan-Research Division of Bangladesh Agricul-tural Research Institute so farm-ers can save seeds themselves and share each other. They also do not have to pay royalties because public department own crops.

a change of nutrient in the plants. For example, the Eggplant will have a higher antioxidant lev-el or more vitamins. We could even modify the plants to be more resistant to climate change and to become super effective carbon collectors. Scientists are working on crops that can draw nitrogen from the air, like microbes. This would mean that we can produce plants that become efficient carbon collector.

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Currently, scientists are working on developing our food and plants with GMO like they changed the eggplant to be resistance against the worms. This will be even more in the fu-ture; our plants are then more sustainable for different diseases and plagues. So that farmers can reduce their use of pesticides.