Understanding the impacts of biotechnology: a survey among the university students in chittagong

Abstract

Biotechnology, a field of science dealing with modifying living organisms for various purposes, remains a subject of curiosity and uncertainty for many individuals. This study endeavors to shed light on the perceptions and understanding of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) among tertiary-level students in Chattogram, Bangladesh. Through a comprehensive survey conducted among 319 students across diverse academic disciplines in Chattogram, this research seeks to unravel the intricacies of public awareness and attitudes towards biotechnological innovations. For the study 109 Chittagong University (public university), 104 from Asian University for Women, and 106 from the University of Science and Technology (private university) participated in this survey. With due permission and following the standard procedures, the survey was carried out face-to-face in the institutions through a pretested questionnaire. While almost every major student (96.2% ) was aware of the term Biotechnology, the study highlighted that the educational majors had a great influence on the participants while responding to the questions, only 57.69% students of Physical Sciences and 71.56% students from other majors reported familiarity with GE/GMOs. Maximum students from all the majors demonstrate a comparatively lower understanding between the difference of hybrid and GM crops. The study showed that a maximum of the participants had good familiarity and knowledge about the biotech products used in the health sectors, whereas a large proportion of the participants from non-biological subjects had either slight familiarity or no familiarity with biotech products of the agriculture and food industry. In cases of the applications of biotechnology in both healthcare, agriculture, and food sectors, they showed agreement, while a good number of participants were neutral about the statements. But when they were asked about the negative impacts of biotechnology on health and the environment, the majority of the respondents were in dilemma while many of them disagreed and few agreed. Overall, the responses were mostly affected by the sources of information related to biotechnology while the scientific articles remain the primary source favored by today's students when seeking information about biotechnology.