Pakistan
June 29, 2009
By Ahmad Fraz Khan,
Dawn via
Pakistan Biotechnology
Information Center (PABIC)
Punjab may be moving towards a cotton crisis as about 70 per
cent of its six million acres are sown by untested and unfit
seeds, most of them having out-lived their stipulated life.
This year too, the same ratio prevails while some farmers’
bodies estimate that at around 80 per cent of the cultivated
area may come under 33 varieties being sold with the name of BT
cotton. This is happening despite the fact that a recent study
conducted by the Punjab government has concluded that only eight
of 33 varieties include BT gene expression..
Still, all these varieties are being sold because the provincial
government neither has any list of officially approved varieties
of BT cotton nor enacted laws to check the fake ones. The
officially approved 16 traditional cotton varieties are sown
only on 20-30 per cent of the total area where the government
can check seeds and take punitive measures.
In these circumstances, cotton yield continues sliding every
year. The government seems resigned to the situation and is not
taking steps to correct it.
The Punjab government recently revived “Cotton Control Board” --
a punitive body which can impose a fine on farmers and even set
the crop on fire for seed violations – but only to realise that
varieties and varietal standards that the body is supposed to
enforce are simply missing.
It tried to approve eight varieties, which, according to its
reports, have the BT gene expression. But the entire effort lost
steam mid-way. A recent meeting of the board delayed the
approval process because “it realised that it did not have
required data on these varieties.” Another reason was that since
sowing was nearing completion, there was no urgency to “approve
the varieties right now.” The official approval of new varieties
is a long process in which the owner has to prove that the
variety is “distinct, uniform and stable.” These three essential
elements take years to prove in the field tests. Once these
three elements are proven, then comes farming protocol – need
and timing for fertiliser, irrigation, plant population, pest
position and pesticides etc.
On the top of it, the province needs around 30,000 tons of seed
for its six million acres (five kilogram per acre) under cotton
crop. How many seasons it would take the owners of new varieties
to produce that kind of tonnage is not hard to imagine.
Critics, however, claim that some bureaucrats and influential
people are pushing the case of multi-nationals and discouraging
local compa nies.They are struggling to conclude agreement with
a multinational before allowing local companies into business.
The idea of National Seed Commission, which the federal finance
minister floated last year in his budget speech, was in fact a
“strategy to hand over cotton crop to multinationals.” That is
why, approval of all eight indigenous varieties, which had BT
gene expression, according to local scientists, has been
delayed. If approval does not come by February 2001, another
year would also be lost.
They also believe that an equally powerful import group which
had taken over the official machinery during President
Musharraf’s re gime, is still influencing decisionmaking. Some
influential individuals had always been advocating import of
whatever is in short supply Their interest lies in promoting
mercantilism.
It is because of this group, the imports of food items have gone
around Rs200 billion. Now the same group is out to harm the
production of cash crop. The local textile industry needs some
15 million bales, and production dipped to 12 million bales in
2007-08. The gap needs to be imported.
Both these powerful groups have joined hands to hamper
development of local BT seeds, and keep the country permanently
dependent upon import and multinationals.
No one knows what is being sown in the name of BT cotton. There
are no protocols of any seed, and farmers do not have any
training on how to grow and protect their crop. The BT gene
normally disappears from seeds in three years, exposing the crop
to every kind disease, and no one knows for how many years the
crop is being sown by farmers. All these factors have made the
size of crop uncertain.
The authorities need to approve new varieties, train farmers
into their protocol and draw the owners of new varieties into
extension service.Till such time, uncertainty about cotton crop
yield will continue.
Courtesy Dawn |
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