MULTAN, June 13: The matter to expand the list of pesticides import under generic names has once again hit snags as an alleged powerful 'pesticides mafia' has once again succeeded in getting transferred 'unfavourable' federal agriculture secretaries.

Two secretaries in the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock have been replaced within a short span of two-and-half-months. Salik Nazeer Ahmed was transferred in the last week of March while his successor Tariq Mehmood met the same fate a few days ago.

Salik Nazeer's predecessor Shafqat Ezdi Shah was reportedly removed on the demand of a federal minister, who also got replaced Tariq Shafiq Khan, the then director-general of the Plant Protection Department (PPD) which is responsible to register and check quality of the pesticides imported in the country.

In order to ensure availability of pesticides needed to combat pest attack on cotton, the Minfal had decided to expand the form-16 category (of pesticides import) on the principle of allowing import of all those pesticides under generic names whose global patent rights have expired.

The PPD had prepared a list of some 12 cotton pesticides to allow their import under form-16. However, an important product, Emamectin, was missing from the list proposed by the PPD, although the patent rights of the product had expired long ago.

Moreover, after the publication of the proposed list in a section of press, at least one multinational firm had reportedly objected that its product had been included in the list although its patent right had yet to expire.

Permission to import Emamectin was granted in a controversial manner last year to a local firm under form-1 and a multinational under form-17. Form-1 category of the pesticides deals with the chemistries which are imported under brand names while form-17 covers new chemistries introduced in USA, EU, China and Japan.

It is interesting that a same product has been registered under two different categories. Sources said that when the last outgoing Minfal secretary Tariq Mehmood sought report about omission of Emamectin from the proposed list, PPD DG Rashid Basheer Mazari came up with a novel reply that the product should be allowed to remain under trial for another year before placing it on the form-16.

It may be added here that commercial sale of a product under form-1 is allowed only after its successful trial in the field for at least two years. Furthermore, the product was among a few pesticides that were largely recommended by the Punjab agriculture department last year through print and electronic media as panacea to all cotton ills.

Market analysts question that if the agriculture departments of both the federal and provincial governments had some apprehensions about the results of the product, why did they extensively recommend it to the growers?

Sources claimed that the outgoing secretary took strong exception to the PPD stance. However, he was transferred after a stay of hardly 70 days in the ministry when he was likely to order expansion of the form-16 with all those products which were omitted from the list proposed by the PPD, the sources privy to the last Minfal secretary added.

Unveiling the Economic Survey of the concluding financial year, the federal finance minister attributed the agriculture sector's deplorable growth rate of 2.6 per cent to the failure of cotton crop due to uncontrollable pest pressure.

Last year, when Spotted, American and Army bollworms were playing havoc with the prospects of a bumper cotton crop, the pesticides required to deal with the menace had run short.

Consequently, some unscrupulous elements in the pesticides business had marketed adulterated and fake pesticides to exploit the situation that emerged after the shortage of pesticides.

At this, the growers and their organizations had started demanding import of quality pesticides under generic names to end monopoly of a few firms over their supply in market.

WHEAT: The agriculture ministry had taken up the matter of expansion of the form-16 for wheat herbicides last year well before the sowing season but the final decision was taken when it had lost significance for the wheat crop of year 2003-04.