THE impact of BT cotton gene on yield is the hot topic these days for it allows the textile sector to live in an illusion of plenty of raw material potential. Many of our entrepreneurs in the textile sector are products of crony capitalism of the 1960s.

Irrespective of who is power, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) is always seeking benefits. The industry has also the ministry of textile to promote its interests.

These arrangements have not helped. So APTMA was hugely pleased when they saw the upcoming interventions in cotton. They could care less for anything else except that the farmer should be at their mercy.

What is the impact of BT gene on cotton production? India has positive outcomes and so has China in terms of surplus. The decisions that do take place only serve a limited purpose and again two things happen. First, the decisions seem to lever on the side of the powerful and second the decisions are at the lowest multiple factor of the knowledge that is available.

They hold a whip hand and can do wonders for you. They are articulate and they know my country better than you and me or any citizen despite none of them having ventured outside their own rented houses in DHA.

These advocates of and symbols of foreign investment have been advocating that BT gene in cotton be introduced in the country so as to boost production of cotton and hereby save the country by earning foreign exchange. The premise is faulty in as much as the textile mills problem starts with the international markets. The only problem they are now encountering is at the SBP level where there have been threatening calls that the foreign exchange so earned has to be brought back.

Why should the powerful follow these reasonable dictates of the SBP? The SBP has also started investigating some of the duty draw back situations. The number of exporters is substantially large and has sent shivers down some of the lesser individuals involved for they know that the powerful will get away and the weaker will pay the price. The sector as such was not delivering despite the receptiveness of their goodness with the last prime minister.

What does the BT cotton do to the cropping pattern? Roughly six million acres are under cotton and the traditional cotton belt is the Seraiki area. Now a non-core area has been developed. This traditional area has now increased because of other areas coming into play. This could be by as much as two million acres. The crop is now being sown in March/April and after seven pickings, the harvesting is completed in January/February. That means that the cotton crop is now effectively a ten-month crop and this area will not be available for wheat sowing. The conclusion is that there will be an effective dent in food security arrangements and as such these farmers will not grow wheat.

When we had a surplus in wheat in 1999-00 the effectiveness of policy was in the cotton belt. As a result of the BT gene induction by unscrupulous seed sellers, the cotton pant has become indeterminate. In other words, one can keep on giving water and fertiliser and keep on getting cotton production. This mono production is at some cost.

First, to the country whose food security is threatened and second, to the quality of cotton that is thus produced; third where mono cropping pattern is the order of the day, the environment situation becomes rather tardy resulting in higher temperatures each year and the flair up of new pests.

The current wet season will have its impact on pests in the cotton belt as these pests ride a rain front.

My objection to the current cotton BT genes is also on the grounds that all these BT genes are pirated and we have actually violated the intellectual property rights of the breeders of these genes. Monsanto has suffered. I have no love for the MNC but I do have one for saving the intellectual property rights of those that have done some work. The Plant Breeders Act was to have come into effect in 1997 but for various reasons it has been scuttled.

The area under BT cotton is likely to increase and that has to be rectified by becoming an honest sector.The gainers are the few not the many. In other words, the farmers will not gain from this but the word will go around in the world community that Pakistan has followed the rules of the game.

Do not forget that the BT gene is not against all pests but only against the bollworms and it is therefore referred to as Bollgard. Other problems like mealy bug and curl leaf virus as well as the sucking pests persist. These sucking pests have the ability to change their genetic make-up and to resist the previous interventions. So beware.

The seed producers that have gained from this may like to get to Monsanto and come to terms with the company so that it can benefit from the work that it has done and take this country through other options in other crops. It is not enough to say that the BT gene was not patented. That is untenable. Human systems are to be continuously purified and improved upon. It is time to think of Vaclav Havel, the first president of the Czech Republic, who talked of 'living in truth' not with truth.