MULTAN, April 20: Cotton sowing in Punjab is round the corner while in Sindh it has already been started but a lot is yet needed to be done on the front of pesticides to avoid recurrence of the growers' worst-ever experience with the pressure of economically pernicious pests last year.

Ironically, when the American and Army bollworms were multiplying in the cotton fields the pesticides needed to wipe them out to save the precious crop became short mysteriously against the fact that importers had traded them in the country in an unprecedented high quantity even well before the start of sowing last year.

The volume of the pesticides business in the country had reportedly jumped to Rs15 billion excluding duties and taxes in the cotton year 2003-04 from previous Rs12 billion. Almost 80 per cent of the pesticides imported in the country are used as the measures to protect cotton plants from pest attacks.

Last year, the Punjab Agriculture Department had launched an extensive print and electronic media campaign to forewarn the cotton growers about the attacks of various pests. Initially, only four products were recommended as the sort of panacea to all the cotton ills and phenomenon increased the use of these products, thus creating shortage of them when they were supposed to be more effective.

Consequently, the profiteers in the pesticides business exploited the situation as they marketed sub-standard, adulterated and fake pesticides on the expense of farmers' kitty.

Subsequently, the cotton growers could not get the desired results to save their crop from any major setback despite spraying additional pesticides of Rs3 to Rs4 billion. According to the initial official claims, the area under cotton last year was almost 15 per cent more than that of the corresponding previous year. But, the country this year has picked a crop 0.5m less than the previous year's 10.2m bales.

Most of the cotton market analysts had attributed the cotton crop debacle to the mismanagement on the front of pests and pesticides. The federal and the Punjab governments had also realized the gravity of the situation and both the tiers of decision-making had ordered separate inquiries into the "pest galore and shortage of pesticides".

The federal government had appointed director general of the Plant Protection Department Rashid Basheer Mazari to probe into the matter while the provincial government directed its secretary agriculture Arif Nadeem to do the same.

However, none of the two inquiry officers has so far accomplished the task given to them on a vital subject, or if they have done their job then their respective findings have yet to be made public.

In the meantime, the federal ministry of food, agriculture and livestock has taken some steps to address the loopholes in the pesticides business that open doors for the exploitation of farming community but analysts say the measures are half-baked because they are not completely in line with the recommendations of the 36th meeting of the Agricultural pesticides technical advisory committee (Aptac) held on May 31, 2003. The Aptac meeting had laid down the bases of a fool-proof mechanism to regulate the pesticides business in the country.

Through the SRO-21/2004 (dated 16.01.2004), the federal government has prohibited the sale of pesticides in bulk and instead has made it compulsory for the importers to repack the products in retail packs under their own label and warranty before passing on to distributors or dealers. However, orders about some other Aptac recommendations have yet to be notified.

Important among them are: (1) Price mentioned on the label should be the same as is given on the invoice while paying the government duties. (2) A pesticide should be sold in standard packing of 250ml, 500ml, and 1000ml or per acre dose instead of deceptive packing of 450ml and 900ml. (3) Pesticides registered in the country under generic list of form-16 be allowed to market under trade names.

Some of the pesticides firms have already launched extensive marketing campaigns for the cotton season 2004 while the others are planning to jump to the arena before May 1.