Seeds are imported without risk analysis

IT is reported in the media that foreign seeds, plants and plant products are flowing into Bangladesh without proper pest risk analysis. Reports have it that the Plant Quarantine Unit, the designated government agency, lacks technical ability and the expertise to detect the risk factors associated with the imported seeds. The agency has to depend on the exporters while permitting the marketing of imported seeds. A senior plant pathologist of Bangladesh Agriculture University opined that the quarantine officials never carried out credible tests of imported seeds. Surprisingly, the officials also admitted that they detected no destructive pests or insects in the last 14 years. They further acknowledged that the unit also checks the seeds for pests and insects without using high-powered microscopes.
We share the concerns of the plant pathologists and the environmentalists that the country is yet to organize a proper system of quarantine. And therefore, environmentally risky and health threatening foreign seeds are often illegally released for use. As a signatory of the International Plant Protection Convention, Bangladesh is bound to follow the ‘International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM)’ before releasing the seeds ISPM requires: ‘Pest risk analysis for quarantine including analysis of environmental risks and living modified organisms’ and the ‘authorities should carry out pest risk analysis of biological control agents and other beneficial organisms prior to import or prior to release’. But ISPM regulations have not been maintained in Bangladesh, so the question of following them is irrelevant. Bureaucratic mismatch, an unholy nexus among the DAE officials and dishonest importers along with the officials at the entry point must be involved doing harms to our people.
Though there is quarantine law requiring immediate creation of the authority to ensure import of safe seeds, plants and plant products, but unfortunately no independent National Plant Quarantine Authority has yet been established and put into operation. Bangladesh has 30 quarantine centers, of them only 12 are operating.
It is suggested that Bangladesh must reduce its dependency on imported seeds, plants or plant products, not for the sake of reducing economic expenses only, but to save our local variety, to retain the nutritional status of our soil and to prevent genetic defects. In case of imported seeds, we must ensure quality to protect health risks and environmental degradation, especially the risk of the soil’s fertility.