Bangladesh green lights disease-resistant GMO potato for commercial production

High yielding varieties of potato and ‘tosha paat (jute)’ will be introduced soon for commercial production as the National Seed Board (NSB) in Bangladesh has given its approval….

According to sources, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has developed the high yield potato variety ‘BARI Alu-81’, while the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) has developed the high yield jute variant ‘BJRI Tosha Paat-8’.

“The original strain for the high yielding variety BARI Alu-81 was collected from the International Potato Center (CIP). Scientists at BARI then developed the variety through cloning the CIP-10 line. The variety developed by BARI researchers can produce very high yields,” Ashraf Uddin Ahmed….secretary of the agriculture ministry….said.

He said the field evaluation team has suggested distributing BARI Alu-81 seeds to farmers on a commercial basis. The farmers should be able to harvest the new variety of high yielding potato within 90-95 days and the potato is tolerant to viruses, he added.

Read full, original article: Commercial production of high-yielding GMO potato and jute varieties coming soon in Bangladesh