Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) Director General Kamal Uddin told bdnews24.com on Monday: “We’ve identified the barrier to making jute usable as the alternative to cotton. Now our task is to get over the barrier.”
Last Sunday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced at a press conference that Bangladeshi scientists, led by Dr Maqsudul Alam, have sequenced the genome of the local variety of jute having already unravelled the genome for ‘Tosha’ jute.
Dr Alam, a microbiology professor at Hawaii University in the US, and his team shot to global fame after they discovered the genome sequence for ‘Tosha’ jute -- the Jute Plant Draft Genome – in June, 2010.
Their triumph continued as they sequenced the DNA make-up of a fungus, Macrophomina Phaseolina, which reduces yield of more than 500 species of crops including jute, soyabean, cotton, tobacco, maize and sunflower.
BJRI convened a press conference on Monday to divulge the discovery in its jute research.
After the press meet, Kamal Uddin told bdnews24.com that Bangladesh, which met 97 percent of its cotton need from overseas markets, was the second largest importer of cotton.
He expects Bangladesh’s import of cotton to reduce to a large extent when jute can substitute for cotton.
Claiming that BJRI succeeded to make different products using equal percentage of cotton and jute, Kamal said a new horizon would open up following the genome sequencing.