Islamabad, Pakistan
January 9, 2008
Source:
Daily Times, by Atif
Khan, via Checkbiotech.org
A genetically modified cottonseed,
with inbuilt resistance against pests that is significantly
expected to increase production of the crop will be introduced
next year, a top official said here on Tuesday.
Deputy Director of National
Biosafety Centre (NBC), Afzaal Ahmed, told Daily Times that Bt
cottonseed would be available in the market from 2009, which
would tremendously increase per acre production of the cotton,
accounting 10 percent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 55
percent to the foreign exchange earnings of the country.
Mr Ahmed said that Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a genetically
modified cottonseed, developed as an effective biological
control against a variety of insect pests that destroy important
crops including cotton. Bt cottonseed has an inbuilt capacity to
destroy intestinal walls of pests and any pesticide, which
attacks it dies within a small fraction of time.
Explaining the decreasing per acre production and recent
shortfall of cotton crop, he said that usually major factor of
poor cotton crop is pesticides attack, which not only reduces
per acre production of the crop but farmers spend quite sum of
money on cure.
He said that due to the resistance against the most common
disease of cotton like leaf turn virus and other pesticides, Bt
cottonseed would not only increase the production but also
farmers would save on pesticides.
The NBC Deputy Director said that although Bt cotton is
available in the market, it is illegally smuggled from the West.
It might not produce the desired results, as it is not modified
according to the climatic and soil conditions of Pakistan, he
added..
“Every area has its own climatic and soil conditions, even one
type of seed producing excellent results in Sindh may not
produce the same results in Punjab, that’s why scientists do
research and genetically modify the seeds to produce the desired
results. As the research is still going on, so farmers are
advised in their own interest not to use imported Bt cottonseed,
available in the market,” Mr. Ahmed said.
Earlier, farmers of the country, using imported Bt cottonseed
available in the market had failed to get the desired results
and they spread rumors that Bt cottonseed has been flopped in
the country.
Explaining the misconception in this regard, he said that this
Bt seed was developed and genetically modified by Pakistani
scientists according to the conditions of the country, and the
local companies would market it. “How can you flop a product
which is still under research,” he argued.
“National Institute of Genetic Engineering (NIBJE) has been
developing the seeds under the same technique but has nothing to
do with international brand Bt cottonseed; NIBJE would most
probably appoint some local company to market the seed in the
local market in 2009,” NBC official said.
Scientists opposing Bt cotton express their fears that pests
could develop a resistance against the seed in long run, “Bt
cotton will become vulnerable to pest attack in the long run as
pests would develop resistance, also Bt genes escaping from
pollen grains will harm neighboring crops’ bio-diversity,” said
an agricultural scientist at the federally operated National
Agricultural Research Center in Islamabad.
Answering the criticism Mr. Ahmed said that research is going on
and Bt seed would be approved after accessing all the bio safety
parameters. Even after it is launched in local the market, the
scientists would closely monitor its results and later if some
resistance is developed, the seed can be further genetically
modified, Afzaal explained.
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