THE development and availability of good-quality, high-yield seeds for different crops is critical for a competitive agriculture sector and overall economic progress. It is also crucial for the food security of countries like Pakistan where climate change has significantly altered weather patterns over time, causing droughts in vast areas across the country or excess rains in others when least needed. The sooner the policymakers realise this and formulate new, quality seed-development policies the better for all stakeholders — farmers whose incomes are dropping with less yields, consumers who are suffering because of rising food prices, and the government that is struggling to curb imports to manage its current account deficit. In this situation, the statement by a senior official of Punjab’s agriculture department that a new seed policy is being evolved for both public and private plant breeders to produce disease-free, quality seed varieties for local use and the export market has raised hopes that the government is finally focusing on this important sector.

Pakistan’s seed sector is under a complicated set of regulations and multiple federal and provincial entities. Further, the seed variety testing system does not enforce intellectual property rights for private plant breeders who risk several years of research, development and regulatory testing, and considerable money, before they can commercialise their varieties. Hence, we can count reputable private plant breeders on our fingers against the more than 800 registered seed trading firms and 20,000 dealers, mostly involved in the sale of poor-quality local and imported varieties. Additionally, almost 60pc of the seed market is in the informal sector. It is not surprising then that cotton output has halved over the years and wheat production is falling. The informal seed sector has mushroomed in Punjab and the rest of the country because the federal authorities responsible for regulating the seed market don’t have the capacity to effectively check the elements playing havoc with the nation’s food security, growers and economic progress. Both policymakers and private plant breeders have long been demanding that the federal government delegate regulatory powers and field trials for data generation to the provinces, since they have the infrastructure and manpower to not only implement regulations but also monitor the seed market to purge it of unscrupulous elements and encourage genuine plant breeders with long-term stakes in the business. The federal government could keep the functions of certifying and registering new varieties before the breeders can commercialise them.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2020