Pakistan economic servay

COTTON

Cotton:

Cotton being a nonfood cash crop contributes significantly in foreign exchange earning. Cotton accounts for 8.6 percent of the value added in agriculture and about 1.8 percent to GDP. The crop was sown on the area of 3106 thousand hectares, 10.1 percent more than last year (2820 thousand hectares). The production is estimated at 12.7 million bales for 200910, higher by 7.4 percent over the last years production of 11.8 million bales. However, the cotton production was 5.0 percent less than the target of 13.36 million bales mainly due to the shortage of irrigation water, high temperatures in the month of August resulting in excessive fruit shedding, flare up of sucking pest complexes and wide spread of Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV). Area, production and yield of cotton for the last five years are given in Table 2.7 and Fig. 2.1.

During this 200910 Kharif, an important development was the increasing usage of Bt: Cotton by farmers. In Sindh, it was observed almost 80% of cotton growing area has become under Bt. cotton (Australian Bt) with high incidence (60100%) of Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) infection. In Punjab, Bt cotton is grown on almost 80% areas with different names, i.e. Bt121and Bt131 with a range of segregation (1020%) in the fields of Bt cotton. MinFA has finalized and got approved from ECC an LOI and MoU with action plan to introduce Bt cotton variety and Bt Hybrid in Pakistan in collaboration with M/s Monsanto.

Bt. Cotton: Bt cotton is developed by Genetic Engineering techniques (Biotechnology). Bt cotton contains Genes from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt.) Eight countries commercially grew Bt cotton (USA, Australia, China, India etc.). Protein of this gene is deadly for the Chewing Pests i.e. American, Army, Pink and Spotted worm but not for sucking pest like Mealy bug etc. There may be 30% increase in cotton yield due to resistance against chewing pest and hence additional income to poor farmers in Pakistan. The Bt. cotton varieties including Bt hybrids currently grown in Pakistan are from exotic sources which are given to farmers for cultivation without validating its performance and without providing production technologies based on research conducted according to local environment.

None of these planting materials have been imported legally and have not been tested so far according to rules and regulations set by Government agencies at Federal and Provincial levels. As a rule and principle chalked out by Federal and Provincial Governments all the Bt cotton varieties/Hybrids, it has to pass through the procedures designed for testing and evaluation of these materials by Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC), Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD), National Biosafety Committee (NBC), Department of Plant Protection (DPP) and provincial Seed Councils. Private seed company M/s Aurega Lahore has sold Bt hybrid seed for an area of almost 10 thousand acres with the name as White Gold without following prescribed rule. Another private seed company M/s Alseeme Multan has sold non Bt cotton hybrid for almost an area of 10 thousand acres without following prescribed rules.

 All the Bt. cotton varieties grown are susceptible to Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) and sucking pest i.e. mealy bug, Jassid and White fly which are a major threat to cotton crop in Pakistan. Most of the Bt cotton varieties were marketed with wrong notation of resistance to all pest. In some instances Bt. cotton seed was mixed with nonBt cotton seed and affected the yield It is worth mentioning that Sitara, ARS802, ARS703, CEMB1, CEMB2, Neelum121, FH113, MG6 and Hybrid Bt GN2085 and GN31 are the only Bt cotton varieties/hybrid which is being introduced in Pakistan during next crop season following the rules and regulations designed by Federal and Provincial governments. It is important to mention that during current year Pakistan Agricultural research Council (PARC) has imported almost 950 kg of five different Bt cotton seed from China under special permission for conducting trials directly on farmer fields without following the rules and regulations designed by NBC, PCCC, FSC & RD.

Thank you