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At least three banned varieties of cotton and an unapproved variety of rice paddy under widespread cultivation in Pakistan

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Islamabad,
Pakistan
April 27, 2009

Source: Dawn -e paper, Pakissan News Channel via Pakistan Biotechnology Information Center (PABIC)
By Sher Baz Khan


The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has said at least three banned varieties of cotton and an unapproved variety of rice paddy were under widespread cultivation in the country.

Cotton varieties (S-12, S-14, NIAB-78) and paddy (Basmati-386) are still being cultivated despite the fact that these varieties have been banned.

The practice is not only keeping the country away from producing these crops according to its potential but also damage the soil and results in huge losses to growers.

The food ministry has sent a written reply to the National Assembly Secretariat in which it has explained as to why the authorities concerned at the federal and provincial levels were not able to discourage the cultivation of unapproved and illegal varieties of cotton and rice, the country’s two major crops.

The Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD), an attached department of the Ministry of Food, is responsible for regulating market quality-control system of seeds of approved varieties only as envisaged in the Seed Act, 1976.

However, according to its capacity, the FSC&RD through its nominated seed inspectors/analysts regularly monitors the seed quality of approved varieties in various parts of the country.

The food ministry expects that with the approval of the new legislation (Seed Amendments Bill 2008 and Plant Breeders Right Bill 2008) in department shall be in a better position to efficiently restrict the spread and cultivation of unapproved varieties of various crops.

The ministry has said that it was also the mandate of the provincial governments to check cultivation of banned and unapproved seed varieties.

Similarly, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), the Ministry of Environment has also the mandate to check the illegal release of genetically modified crop verities like the unapproved and illegal Bt cotton.

Pakistan, which is self-sufficient in cotton, still does not produce according to its potential.

According to the figures of the food ministry, the country this year has 7.994 million tons of surplus cotton. Pakistan had 4.971 million tons of opening stock this year, while production was around 11.3 million tons, which took the amount of total stocks available to 16.265 million tons. Pakistan’s total consumption this year is expected around 14.271 million tons.

 

 

 

 

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