by Ijaz Ahmad Rao, The Nation via Checkbiotech

Saying that “Cotton is an important cash crop for Pakistan” would be an understatement. It accounts for 8.2 per cent of the value added in the agriculture sector and about 2% to GDP, adds over $2.8 billion to the national economy.

Livelihood of the millions of farmers and of those employed along the entire cotton value chain is dependent on this single crop. Their entire lifestyle and socioeconomic parameters are shaped by the performance of cotton sector - meaning, it is “The life line of the national economy”.

Textile industry in the country has undergone an ambitious expansion plan making room for incremental 3 M bales in year 2008. The country needs to bulk up its cotton production to meet that demand. According to an estimate “increase of one million bales in cotton production interprets into half a percent increase into GDP”.

Although the area under cultivation of cotton has been increasing in the last few years - around 7.65 million acres in 2005-06 as compared to 7.25 million acres in 2002-03; but cotton production remains still below the target. The country being the world’s fourth largest cotton producer, third largest exporter of raw cotton and a leading exporter of yarn we need to improve in many areas to meet not only the export demand but also domestic requirements. One would like to list down some of the predicaments our cotton crop is faced with, which is really a perturbing situation:

• Pakistan’s yield per acre ranks 10th in the world

• High price of agriculture inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc)

• Higher intensity of insects and pests attack

• Shortage of good quality and varieties of seeds

• Deficiency of water for irrigation

• Lack of advance technologies

• Awareness and agro-professionalism

• Adulterations in pesticides, fertilizers and seeds

• Moreover, natural factors like unexpected rain, drought, and floods especially in southern Punjab and Sindh

All of this have added unbearable burden on the cotton growers. Additionally, the absence of a proper cotton crop insurance system or any support system in the shape of subsidies by the government is resulting in frustration and lack of motivation in cotton growers to spend resource in their fields in order to improve cotton yields.

According to our Economic Survey 2005-06 measuring from a high base of last year, cotton crops registered a decline primarily on account of a 13.0 percent less production of 12.4 million bales as against 14.3 million bales last year whereas the area under cotton crop since last two decades has been hovering on an average between 7.12 and 7.42 millions acres; as a result Pakistan annually has to import 1.5 - 2.00 million bales of cotton to meet growing demand from local textile mills. In this backdrop one would be deluding if one does not believe that the country urgently needs to increase its cotton production. Government seems to recognize the significance of this and is now looking into number of concrete options to materialize “Cotton Vision 2015” - production of 20.70 million bales; which is only possible by continuous endeavors in research and by increasing the lint yield per acre.

One option government may consider is to increase area under cotton cultivation but presently no sizeable area under cotton farming can further be brought in the two major cotton growing provinces of Punjab and Sindh as they are already at their maximum level. However, in Balochistan particularly in Sibi, Nasirabad, Kalat divisions and D.I. Khan districts in NWFP do provide a window of opportunity where cotton crop could be promoted. In these areas it is likely that yields and the quality of cotton would be also better due to most suitable climatic condition; however, main obstacle is the shortage of water beside lack of agro infrastructure and geopolitical uncertainty in these areas.

So what is the 2nd option? Pakistan presents a compelling case to adopt modern cotton technologies. The technologies, that have successfully been adopted in many developed and developing countries to improve crop yields with better pests and weeds resistance crop varieties like cotton, soybean, canola, and corn etc. Today, 8.2 million farmers in 17 countries of whom 90% belong to the developing countries choose to plant biotech crops. The use of biotech crops has significantly reduced pesticide usage while increasing yields. The impact of economic benefits can be gauged from the fact that their farm incomes have increased to the tune of US$ 27 B in crops such as cotton, corn and soybean.

Many Asian countries including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan and Vietnam are giving high priority to plant biotechnology research in the hope of addressing the pressing challenges related to improving productivity, farmers livelihoods, driving rural development, and meeting food security demands. Many of these countries focus their biotechnology research on food crops and non food crops and crops of high commercial value in the hope of meeting increasing food requirements and reducing use of pesticides and poverty alleviation in rural area.

In Pakistan, there are two major types of pests that are damaging our cotton crops - sucking and chewing; to certain extent it is easier to control sucking pest by strong pesticides but is very challenging to control chewing pests - American bollworms, Army, Pink and Spotted - causing major devastations in the cotton crop fields.

Bt Cotton first introduced in 1996 in the United States and Australia has since then proved to be an important tool to control chewing pests. Pakistan after surpassing the major obstacle to adopting biotechnology by enacting the Biosafety Rules in April 2005 has paved the way for producing plant biotech crops; however, none have been commercialized unto now. In global scenario, private sector led by multinational companies has invested heavily in the field of agricultural biotechnology. Due to their sizeable investments they are bound to ensure that they get a fair return on their investments, and the only way they can protect their interests on a sustainable basis is through protection of their intellectual property rights.

In a market with inadequate intellectual property protection and untried biosafety rules multinational companies are shying away from committing resources. It is therefore imperative for government to guarantee effective enforcement of IP laws especially when it has already done that in case of software, entertainment, and to some degree for pharma industries. The national biosafety rules which are still at an infancy stage need to be enforced in a transparent and a scientific manner to safeguard against environmental and health hazards. The process of scientific based assessment of any agricultural biotechnology before commercialization ensures that the technology is as safe as its conventional counterpart and provides confidence to users and consumers of the technology. Pakistan has a good opportunity to set the appropriate standards early in the process of biotech adoption.

In my previous articles I have repeatedly discussed (now) widespread cultivation of illegal Bt Cotton. As Illegal seed is not subject to regulatory assessment, it can damage confidence and the long term adoption of agricultural biotechnology. Illegal seed can be of variable quality. This can reduce the effectiveness of the technology and limit the benefits that farmers receive, which can further erode confidence in the technology. Illegal seed also reduces the attractiveness of a particular market for investment by private sector particularly multinational companies. Without effective control of illegal seed, a country is less likely to benefit from new technologies that result from R&D spending. With national biosafety regulatory framework in place, so far public sector R&D centers, such as, NIBGE (National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering) Faisalabad, and CEMB (Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology) University of the Punjab Lahore, have come forward and submitted applications to the National Biosafety Committee (NBC) - a directorate being established in the Ministry of Environment for commercialization and field trial approvals of their versions of Bt Cotton respectively.

NIBGE applied for commercialization of their Bt Cotton variety “IR-FH-901”. It is worth to know that NIBGE had sought special permission in 1997 from the Ministry of Environment under “Voluntary Code of Conduct for release of GMO into the environment” to conduct field trials to check and analyze many safety tests on various cotton varieties which contain genetically modified Bt gene “cry1Ac”, that is deadly to the Bollworms known as “Sundies”; its results have been documented as desirable.

Similarly CEMB has also submitted an application to NBC for the permission of GM cotton variety “MNH-93” and “CIM 482” with bacterial pesticidal Bt genes e.g. ‘cry1Ab’ and ‘cry1Ac & cry2A’ respectively to conduct field trials with the collaboration of a local and a multinational company.

Currently National Biosafety Committee (NBC) is considering the two applications under the Biosafety Rules 2005, whatever transpires, the potential benefits of biotech crops to the agriculture in Pakistan are unquestionable. However, how we go about obtaining these will determine our success factor. We will have to act responsibly and ethically. If we choose to ignore regulatory frameworks that govern the safe introduction of biotech crops in an attempt to provide a speedy access of technology to the farmers, one feels that we could end up losing the benefits from the technology in the long run by undermining it. We ought to ensure effective, stringent, and transparent enforcement of Biosafety Rules 2005, Seed Act 1976, and Punjab Cotton Control Ordinance, to encourage the introduction of technology through legal means with its complete package of benefits.

Copyright 2007 The Nation