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Pakistan's Ministry of Agriculture seeks approval from ECC on Bt cotton

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Islamabad, Pakistan
May 3, 2008

Source: Daily Times via Pakistan Biotechnology Information Center (PABIC)
By Ijaz Kakakhel


The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) is preparing a summary to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet for approval to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Monsanto for provision of Bt cottonseed.

After approval from the ECC, the MINFAL would sign a MoU with Monsanto for increasing the cotton production across the country. Monsanto is a leading provider of agricultural solutions to farmers worldwide to help secure future of agriculture. The country witnessed a declined cotton production of 11.6 million bales against the target of 14.11 million bales last year due to multiple factors. One of the main reasons of low cotton production was contributed to the use of fake Bt cottonseed besides attack of mealy bug, CLCV and others.

Bt (Bacillus Thuringiensis) cotton is an economic incentive for the poor farmers due to lower usage of pesticide and lesser damage to the crop. Bt cotton is developed by Genetic Engineering techniques (Biotechnology) and world eight countries commercially grew Bt cotton including USA, Australia, China, India and other countries.
Some Bt cotton varieties may have lower expression of Bt toxin proteins and can lead to the development of resistance in chewing pest. In Pakistan, experts said most of the Bt cotton varieties were marketed with wrong notation of resistance to all pests. In some instances Bt cottonseed was mixed with non-Bt cottonseed and affect the yield.

According to a survey by National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) in Sindh and Punjab, it was observed almost 80 percent of cotton growing area in Sindh has become under unapproved Bt cotton (Ausralian Bt) with high incidence (60-100 percent) of Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) infection.

In Punjab, unapproved varieties of Bt cotton was grown with different names, however, Bt-121 has occupied major area with a range of segregation (10-20 percent) in the fields of Bt cotton, not Bt. As in other parts of the world, environmentalists and consumer rights groups in Pakistan have mounted protests against the introduction of transgenic crop varieties into farmland, fearing such crops will have severe impact on the environment and human health.

Monsanto claims that Bt cotton is genetically enhanced to resist major caterpillar pests, including tobacco bollworm, bollworm and pink bollworm, among the most damaging insect pests worldwide. Food rights activists claim multinational companies are in Pakistan to capture lucrative seed markets, upsetting traditional farming systems in the process. They say the country’s food security lies in empowering farmers and giving them more control over natural resources rather than facilitating foreign companies to market products that have unknown impact.

 

 

 

 

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