MULTAN, Jan 19: Economically fatal cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV) which hit the crop badly in early 1990s in the country has re-emerged this year.

A senior scientist at the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (Nibge), Faisalabad, who did not want to be named, told Dawn that the tests carried out by Pakistani and Australian scientists had found that the current spate of the virus, which is being branded by some experts as ‘Bura virus’, had 92 per cent same characteristics as that of scientifically called ‘Jiminy virus’ that gave the cotton growers sleepless nights in early years of last decade.

The return of the CLCV is being termed ‘Bura virus’ by a section of cotton scientists primarily because it surfaced first in Burewala tehsil of Vehari district in the year 2001-2002. However, others say that by calling the CLCV ‘Bura virus’ the scientists who claimed the credit of eradicating CLCV from the cotton fields of the country wanted an escape likely criticism.

In the current cotton season of 2002-2003, the so-called Bura virus did not remain confine to Burewala only.

According to a presentation of the official Cotton Crop Management Group, hot spots of the CLCV above varying degrees of economic injury level were found in almost all the cotton districts of the Punjab.

The worst-hit areas were Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Multan, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh and Layyah districts. All the in vogue commercial varieties of cotton, including those marketed as CLCV-resistant, came under the virus attack.

The CLCV started hitting the cotton fields of the country, especially in Punjab which accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s total cotton production, from 1992-93, a year after the country harvested a record production of 12.8m bales (in 1991-92).

It raised alarm bells when the country’s cotton production came down to 9m bales in the first year of its attack followed by 8m bales and 8.6m bales in the next two years. The government allocated huge funds for research to find a remedy to the virus that was hollowing the country’s cotton-based economy.

Cotton scientists of the country succeeded in evolving CLCV-resistant and tolerant varieties remarkably within a short span of time but at the cost of fibre quality, strength and staple length.

On the other hand, as the virus resulted in high cost of production owing to the increased application of farm chemicals and low per acre yield, the growers started looking for new varieties to get better yield and quality cotton having resistance against the virus.

According to cotton market analysts, this situation gave birth to a ‘seed mafia’ which started minting money in the name of virus-resistant varieties.

Consequently, premature cotton varieties started flowing into the market year after year well before their approval by the federal seed certification department and provincial seed council.

The modus operandi of the seed mafia was that first it floated the name of a variety which was supposed to beat all the previous records of per acre yield besides being CLCV-resistant. Then, they started selling the seed at a price as high as Rs1,000 per kg in black market.

A recent example of this phenomenon is CIM-473 which was approved for commercial sowing for the first time in the year 2002-2003 but, according to the official documents, some 300,000 acres of land had already been brought under this variety in the previous year (2001-2002). But, CIM-473 has also come under virus attack in Multan and Khanewal districts.

Experts are holding the sowing of smuggled Australian and Indian Bt (Bacillus thurigensis) cotton during the last couple of years in some parts of Punjab responsible for the resurgence of the CLCV.

The name of a prominent cotton scientist is also in the air for selling the exotic Bt cotton through a Multan-based ginner and friend. Cotton growers have always remained skeptical about the source of CLCV emergence in early 1990. It may be interesting to note that CLCV attack was first spotted in the fields of a landlord of Multan in Mauza Balail in 1987-88 where some foreigners were working on an insecticide project.

It is learnt that the federal government has earmarked Rs 100m as first instalment for research to get rid of the virus. Project proposals from the scientists have been invited. However, leading progressive growers demand that the government should also look into the matter of failure of the previous research on CLCV before releasing funds for more research.

They foresee further boom to the cotton seed mafia with the initiation of research on what is being billed as ‘Bura virus’.

A progressive grower from Kabirwala, Saddiq Akbar Bokhari urged the government to check the link between official cotton breeders and the members of seed mafia to avoid exploitation of the growers through the marketing of premature and unapproved varieties.