To start with, four types of crops would be developed soon by applying biotechnology under the National Agriculture Research System (NARS). These are drought- and saline-tolerant rice, late blight resistant potato, fruit and shoot borer resistant eggplant and pod borer resistant chickpea.

Steps will soon be taken to set up 'containment facilities' -- a safety infrastructure to prevent any jumping of modified genes to nature -- at particular NARS institutes such as Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute. It will take at least two years for commercialisation of the seeds developed at these institutes.

Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSPII), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), will support the endeavour. Cornell University of the USA is managing the project.

A donor-aided workshop on agricultural biotechnology yesterday revealed the plan under which genetic modification would be carried out to gain special disease-fighting traits in crops.

Welcoming the country's graduation from subsistence farming to technology-aided commercial farming, government representatives informed the two-day workshop that after preparation of a biosafety guideline four years back the country has now drafted a biosafety policy to remove roadblocks for pursuing biotechnology.

A handful of countries including the United States, Brazil, Argentina and China are now vigorously pursuing GM crops while Europe remains skeptic about the new technology fearing long-term side effects.

Presiding over the inaugural session of the workshop at Hotel Sonargaon, Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (Barc) Dr Nurul Alam said, "We've no choice but to pursue the new technology as ours is a country with a fast growing population and scarce arable land. What Europe can afford, we can't. It's a choice between hunger and food security."

Barc, the ABSPII and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) jointly organised the workshop titled 'Harvesting the Benefits of Agricultural Biotechnology Products in Bangladesh'.

The ABSPII, implemented by a consortium of public and private sector institutions, focuses on the safe and effective development and commercialisation of GM crops as a complement to traditional and organic agriculture in developing countries. The project will help boost food security, economic growth, nutrition and environmental quality in East and West Africa and in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Agriculture Secretary ASM Abdul Halim, FBCCI President Abdul Awal Mintoo, academic Abdul Halim Khan, Biotechnology Advisor at the USAID, Dhaka Janet Carpenter, KV Raman of Cornell University and K Vijayaraghavan addressed the opening session of the workshop.

Agriculture secretary found it unfortunate that Bangladesh's agriculture remained at a primitive stage while many countries are commercially growing biotech crops.

Abdul Halim, who also heads the national committee on crop biotechnology, said the bio-safety law was under preparation and the country now requires trained manpower and modern research facilities to pursue biotechnology.

FBCCI chief Abdul Awal Mintoo, who also heads East-West Seed company, said the advent of agricultural biotechnology would facilitate further genetic improvements of seeds.