The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s move to give legal protection to genetically modified seed varieties in the province has left many wondering what made a smaller province to do this.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s draft Seeds Bill 2014 is pending with the provincial assembly since January 15 for registration of genetically modified seeds which, many think, is insensitive to public health, biodiversity, and requires close scrutiny before going for it.

“What on earth made them (the provincial government) to impose multinationals on farmers, helping them establish their monopoly over provincial market, and play with the local crop varieties (corn in the case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa),” said Dr Azra Talat Sayed, executive director of Roots for Equity, a non-governmental organisation.

She said KP was legislating on controversial subjects on which bigger agricultural economies among the federating units, including Punjab and Sindh had not yet dared to take any initiative. The existing federal laws were also on the registration of GM seeds.

“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a test case for the MNCs; after introducing the controversial laws here it would become easier to replicate it in Sindh and Punjab,” said a member of the Seed Association of Pakistan (SAP), requesting anonymity.

Section 21 of the proposed KP law deals with the registration of GM seeds in the province, containing that “notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, no registration of genetically modified variety / hybrid shall be made if the application does not accompany: a) an affidavit from the applicant declaring that such variety does not contain any gene or gene sequence involving terminator technology; and b) the commercialization permission from Bio-safety Committee established by Government (KP government) to the effect that the genetically modified variety / hybrid shall have no adverse effect on the environment, human, animal or plant life and health”.

The GM crops impact on environment, human, animal, plant life and health is surrounded by controversies as, according to experts and literature available in books and on the internet, it is replete with information about their adverse effects.

One commonly known adverse effect of GM crops is that it cross-pollinates regular crops.

Dr Sayed said that the local corn variety in KP would be at risk of contamination because of the GM variety.

“In the case of KP, MNCs are likely to get their genetically modified corn seed varieties registered here if the proposed law gets approval from the provincial assembly,” said Dr Sayed.

She said the introduction of the genetically modified variety of corn would be dangerous for the local corn varieties as the GM variety had the ill-ability to cross-pollinate crops as pollen could travel a long distance of several kilometers.

This would leave the farmers, relying on organic farming methods or using local varieties, at a disadvantageous position as pollen blowing from a GM farm will contaminate their crop.

Dr Sayed said she was unable to understand why KP was bringing in the seeds bill and the plant breeders’ bill (which deals with the patenting plants varieties in the province) at a time when the party in power (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf) opposed American policies and it took the US drone attacks as a threat to national sovereignty.

“Capitalists sitting in PTI are moving forward MNCs’ agenda in KP as the proposed law will help the US multinationals to establish monopoly to the disadvantage of local farmers and environment,” said Dr Sayed. Corn is a staple food and also widely used as fodder in KP.

Dr Sayed said the introduction of genetically modified corn would change the local seeds (because of cross-pollination) as a result nutrition would be affected, causing a public health issue.

The SAP member said the introduction of GM seeds would not harm his business, but it would surely make farming expensive for small farmers in the province. “Since the MNCs would be able to monopolize the local market, farmers will not have any other option but to buy the expensive seeds every sowing season,” said the seeds dealer.

The MNCs’ products, said Dr Sayed, would be protected under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime to which Pakistan is a signatory.

“Why do we need, at the first instance, to introduce their (MNCs) expensive seed varieties in our markets?, we can’t compete with them in technology and research and as a result our markets would be dominated by alien seeds,” said Dr Sayed.