Cornell University Professor of Entomology Tony Shelton visited Haidul Islam’s Bt brinjal farm in Gazipur District, Bangladesh on 9 April 2014. The said farm was alleged to be attacked by insects, and lost 25-30 percent of the plants, with the remaining crops struggling for survival, and the owner Haidul Islam spraying more insecticides.

Shelton found that the allegations were not true. Haidul Islam is very pleased with the crop, and happily showed him the Bt brinjal farm free of pest damage. The farm owner who would have already sprayed insecticides on the plants to control the brinjal fruit and shoot borer, but did not have to since the plants resisted their attacks. The farmer was pleased to see no borer injury — and Shelton also saw this, when he inspected the crop.

For more details about this, read Tony Shelton’s article:
http://btbrinjal.tumblr.com/post/82304996926/in-bangladesh-with-bt-brinjal-farmers.

(First published on Crop Biotech Update (ISAAA Newsletter), http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=12212, April 16, 2014.)