26 January 2004	Monday	03 Zilhaj 1424

Plant biotechnology is helping today to provide people with more and better crops and holds even a greater promise for the future. Green revolution farming methods are coming to an end with declining yields due to environmental and soil degradation , loss of seedling varieties and high input costs.

So, many farmers the world over are turning to genetic engineered varieties (GE) as an alternative to the Green farming practices; whether cotton farmers in China, India, America and South Africa, canola farmers in Canada, soybean farmers in Argentina or corn farmers in Spain and the United States, farmers around the world are using biotech seeds to boost yields, improve their livelihoods and preserve the environment.

Not just big but also small farmers can benefit from using biotechnology in three areas by increasing yield of harvest, reducing amount of pesticides and post-harvest losses as most genetically-modified crops have longer shelf life. More than 50 per cent of vegetable and fruit produce is lost in Pakistan because of the lack of infrastructure for processing, transportation or proper storage facilities. Biotechnology can significantly alter the situation.

That's why organizations including the United Nations, American Medical Association, International Society of African Scientists and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, etc, have voiced their support for adopting biotechnological methods. Globally, genetically modified (GM) food crops have been adopted at a dramatic rate since 1995.

Worldwide, plantings of transgenic crops in 2002 totalled 145 million acres, while four countries- the United States, Argentina, Canada and China- accounted for 99 per cent of the global biotech acreage in 2002, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

Since 1996, when commercial planting of biotech crops began in six countries, the number of countries growing these crops has more than doubled to 18 in 2002. While the three most populous countries in Asia- China, India and Indonesia,- the three major economies of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico) and the major economy of South Africa, have grown commercial biotechnology crops.

Pakistan is an agriculture-based country, so agriculture remains the dominant sector of its economy. Pakistan is the world's fourth largest producer of cotton after China, the USA and India. Since cotton is the backbone of our economy it accounts for about 14 per cent of the cropped area, contributes more than one-third of the export earning to the national exchequer; cotton as it is aptly called "white gold".

Today our textile industries need more than 10 million bales of cotton and 0.5 tones of polyester fibre, besides other fibbers like viscose to meet local and export demand of cotton yarn, cotton cloth and other made-up textiles, although government institutes predicted 10.50 million cotton bales in 2003-04, but due to the severe attack of bollworms like "Lashkari Sundi" and "American Sundi" production of cotton has declined. Therefore we have to import cotton either from India or from other countries to fulfil the demand of our textile industries.

However, this catastrophe would have been prevented if we had grown Bt cotton this season. The results from India, China, America and Australia indicate that 'approved' Bt cotton varieties grown in these countries provided excellent control of "Lashkari Sundi", pink bollworm, and a high level of suppression of the "American Sundi".

However supplemental foliar insecticide sprays were occasionally required to keep sucking pests like aphids and jassids from causing excessive damage in Bt fields. It is note worthy that at present Bt cotton covers over 70 per cent of area under cotton in the USA and 40 per cent in South Africa and its share is increasing in China and India. The worldwide acreage devoted to Bt crops has grown steadily from only about 5 million acres in 1996 to nearly 200 million acres in 2003.

This trend is likely to continue with increased planting of transgenic crops in China, India and several other countries. It is worthy to know that sales of Bt cotton seeds in six provinces of India in year 2003 was 216 per cent higher than in 2002. The total market for transgenic seed exceeds $3 billion. The million dollar question remains in our farmers minds Pakistan is not giving them a chance to decide if they want to keep the current practices or to use advance technology like the Bt.

On the one hand people believe that it may be the much needed solution for more effective healthcare, as well as helping to ensure world food security through high-yield and disease resistant varieties of both plants and animals. On the other hand, there is a concern over the safety of these new organisms to consumers and their possible effects on the environment.

Because many environmentalists see biotechnology solely in terms of threat and danger, the challenges of the 21st century - climate change, poverty, disease, and demography - make biotechnology a potentially valuable tool. Perhaps the most telling fact about the safety of plant biotechnology is that there isn't a single documented case of an illness caused by foods developed with biotechnology since they first came on the market in the mid-1990s.

While a report by European countries validating the safety of biotech crops, summarized more than 15 years of research by 400 research teams funded by European governments. In this report from the European Commission, whose member states are more skeptical about biotech products, concluded that "the use of more precise technology and the greater regulatory scrutiny (over biotech foods) probably make them even safer than conventional plants and foods".

While number of studies conducted to examine the ecological and environmental impact of Bt cotton gene toxin; it indicates that Bt gene only kills group lepidopteron insects and particularly cotton bollworms, while other insect species, including beneficial insects, wild life, marine life are not affected; furthermore, the insecticidal protein in the plant begins to break down immediately after the plant dies so there is no danger of its toxic effect in soil or underground water.

So to minimize the possible risks our scientific experts drafted bio-safety guidelines which proposed a three-tier mechanism like 'institutional bio-safety committee" (IBC), 'ministerial bio-safety committee' (MBC), and 'national bio-safety committee' (NBC) that controls and monitors. The whole process of biotech crops from lab-testing, field-testing to commercialization and the project can be stopped at any time, at any tier, if found hazardous to human beings or environment, but these guidelines remain unheeded in the ministry of environment since January 01.

It important to note that the United States is the world's largest producer and exporter of modern biotechnology products. Many countries are aligning their biotechnology policies either with those of the USA or the European Union. Currently, number of the WTO member countries like the USA, China, India, Australia, Germany and so on have invested heavily in genetically modified products. They are modifying their bio-safety regulations according to their national interest.

Pakistan is not the 1st country contemplating to discover such regulations; on the contrary these regulations/laws are successfully in place in most countries all over the world. Therefore, Pakistan must have its biosafety regulations otherwise we are likely to come under significant pressure to promote the new WTO disciplines soon. So in those circumstances we would not be able to stop the trade of plant biotech products like Bt soybean, Bt canola, Bt cotton etc; therefore, Pakistan must protect its future trade market through activating bio-safety regulations as soon as possible either by adopting American model or European model of regulations or even any third world country's regulation.

However much we may feel that the 'GM-in-everyman's-hands future' is a profoundly uncomfortable vision of the future, indications are available as to which way things will go. So do we wait for the future to run us off the road, or do we try to jump aboard and grab the steering wheel?