RANGPUR, April 07, 2018 (BSS) – Experts at a farmers’ field day function here have laid emphasis on expanded cultivation of pests’ attack resistant ‘Bacillus Thuringensis (BT)’ brinjal to earn more profits and save public health.
They put importance on adoption of the latest technologies for production of breeder seeds of the human-health friendly BT brinjal varieties evolved by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) to get maximum production.
Rangpur Regional Agriculture Research Station (RARS) of BARI organised the function on ‘Breeder Seed Production Technologies of BARI-evolved BT brinjal’ at its Burirhat Farm in Rangpur on Friday, said a press release today.
More than 100 male and female farmers participated in the function and visited the BT brinjal field there.
Chief scientific officer (CSO) of the Seed Technology Division of BARI Dr Md Abdul Khaleque attended the event as the chief guest.
The experts said BARI scientists introduced BT bacterium using gene engineering technology to get desired DNA character that kills harmful pests and insects while farming to produce the spot-free and clean BT brinjal vegetable.
The chief guest said cultivation of the traditional brinjal varieties requires repeated application of costly imported insecticides to save the tender brinjal from the attacks of soot and fruit borers making the produced brinjal unhygienic for human health.
“The nation spends millions of Taka in foreign exchange annually in importing insecticides for cultivation of traditional brinjal varieties. But, no insecticides are required for cultivation of BT brinjal,” he said.
He suggested the farmers to go for large-scale BT brinjal cultivation.