IN 10 years after admitting Bt cotton for commercial cultivation, India has tripled its cotton output to over 36 million bales. It now accounts for 20 per cent of global production. There are several reasons for this record growth.

Area under cotton cultivation has increased significantly and growers are receiving huge input subsidies. Still, the decision to adopt Bt cotton has played a crucial part in crop growth. Bt is genetically modified seed variety designed to kill bollworms.

Pakistan’s farmers began sowing Bt cotton in 2005. They were, nonetheless, forced to use pirated varieties with inadequate gene expression and strength to fight pests because no officially-certified variety suitable for local agro-climatic conditions was available. The conventional varieties, which had helped them reap a peak harvest of 14.6m bales the same year, were on their way out.

Officially, the approved Bt seed for commercial cultivation was made available in 2010. Even the approved varieties marketed by local companies were found low in toxin level with weak germination strength. It is alleged that these varieties were approved under pressure from the politically-connected companies.

Today, the country is struggling to add to its annual output of 12-13m despite expansion of the cropping period to nine months (Feb-Oct) from the previous six months (April-Sept) at the expense of food crops – and despite that more than 90pc farmers here are now growing Bt cotton like they do in India. Farmers have to cope with rising cost on seeds and pesticides, and with stagnating output.

Acrimonious debate on merits and demerits of GMO (genetically modified organisms) crops is raging and the gap between the technology’s detractors and supporters seems difficult to bridge. This discourse is often bereft of reasoning.

To Ijaz Ahmed Rao, a grower from Bahawalpur, to say the growers are against this technology is a misnomer. “Do our policymakers know that pests – pink, army, American and spotted bollworms – which Bt technology targets are not a problem in Pakistan? In fact the thoughtless use of (inferior) Bt seeds has caused pink bollworm to appear in the Sindh crop,” he argues.

Growers have a very legitimate demand: if a company wants to market its Bt seed(s), the government should ensure its cultivation doesn’t harm human, animal and plant life or damage the environment or disturb the ecology. It must meet international requirements of gene expression of 1.8ug/g fresh weight because no variety with lower protein weight will defend the plant against pest attacks. Few believe the seed companies have scientifically assessed and gathered data on impact on crop or environment of Bt varieties approved provisionally in 2010 or cleared recently by the Technical Assessment Committee of the climate change ministry for future planting.

Asif Ali, professor of plant breeding and genetics, says seeds developed from stolen technologies and marketed in Pakistan have different toxin levels – most are much lower than the required amount needed to kill the pests. So, fears of output losses in the long abound.

Multinational seed companies like Pioneer and Monsanto say they are no longer in competition in the BT cotton market in Pakistan. “Pakistan doesn’t have adequate copyright laws to protect us from pirates,” asserts an executive of a multinational which is still trying to obtain permission for GMO corn because its technology is difficult to copy.

Piracy isn’t the only issue, though. The price of technology offered and royalty demanded is also said to be too high for Pakistani farmers to afford. Hence, their quick acceptance of inferior Bt varieties.

Mr Asif holds that future of Pakistan’s cotton is in cultivation of Bt cotton and wants the government to assess the impact of GMO technology for food crops on the country’s exports. “GMO technology is safe for food crops and increases output. The problem is that foreign buyers may have different preferences. In Europe, for example, there’s no room for GMO food.”

With multinationals out of competition, local firms selling inferior BT varieties and traditional seed either extinct or mixed with the pirated Bt seed, what does the future hold for Pakistan’s cotton crop and the $14bn textile industry depending on it?

“It isn’t too late for us to put our act together. Formulate bio-safety laws to regulate Bt seed market and invest in the development affordable biotechnology suitable for our agro-climatic conditions and capable of combating our main pest problem – cotton leaf curl virus – as well as revive traditional varieties,” insists Mr Rao.