By Ijaz Ahmad Rao, Dawn via SEARCA BIC

Cotton is an important cash crop for Pakistan and is known as "white gold". It accounts for 8.2 per cent of the value added in the agriculture sector and about 3.2 per cent of the gdp. Some two-thirds of the country's export earnings are from cotton made-ups and textiles, which add over $2.5 billion to the national economy, with hundreds of ginning factories and textile mills depending heavily on the crop.

The lives of millions of farmers is dependent on the crop, in addition to those of millions employed along the entire cotton value chain - from weaving to manufacture and export. The area under cultivation has been increasing significantly in the last few years - around 7.85 million acres in 2005-06 as compared to 7.2 million acres in 2002-03.

Besides being the world's fourth largest cotton producer, the third largest exporter of raw cotton, and a leading exporter of yarn, Pakistan's yield per acre ranks 13th in the world. Pakistan annually imports about 1.5 to 2 million bales of cotton to meet the growing demand from local textile mills. Therefore, it has become vital for Pakistan to increase its per acre yield.

There are many reasons for low yields of the crop in Pakistan - high price of agriculture inputs (seeds, fertilisers and pesticides), high frequency of pest attacks, shortage of good quality seeds, deficiency of water for irrigation, lack of advanced technologies and lack of awareness about professional standards, besides adulteration in pesticides, fertilisers and seeds.

It is unfortunate that there is no effective cotton crop insurance system in the country, while the government does not provide any support or subsidy to cotton growers for inputs, resulting in frustration and lack of motivation among growers. Farmers face a number of risks, including unexpected factors like inflation, high price of energy, unfair competition and speculation in the market by big buyers. And although the government claims that it has excellent microeconomic policies to improve the livelihood of farmers and to eliminate poverty in the rural areas through bank loans, the interest rates are fairly high.

Meanwhile, agriculture biotechnology today is helping provide people with more and better crops, which holds an even greater promise for the future. The so-called "green revolution" farming methods are coming to an end with declining yields due to various environmental problems and soil degradation, loss of seeding varieties and high input costs. Many farmers around the world are now turning to genetically engineered (GE) varieties to deal with new challenges.

Many Asian countries - including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan and Vietnam - are attaching importance to plant biotechnology research in the hope of addressing the pressing challenges in improving productivity, farmers' livelihood, rural development, and the food supply situation. Many of these countries focus on food crops, non-food crops and crops of high commercial value in the hope of meeting increasing demands and reducing the use of pesticides.

If we turn to Pakistan, two major pest types damage the cotton crops. To a certain extent it is easier to control the sucking pest, by using strong pesticides. But it is very challenging to control the chewing pests. Bollworms known as "Sundies" - American, army, pink and spotted - cause major devastation in the field. As a consequence, the quality and productivity decline substantially.

The recent disaster caused by the cotton leaf curl virus in Punjab and Sindh pushed institutions like the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), and the Nuclear Institute of Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) in Faisalabad, besides the National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (NCEMB) at Punjab University, Lahore, to try and deal with such problems. The government committed significant amounts of financial resources and manpower to developing genetically modified (GM) local cotton varieties.

Pakistan negotiated a major obstacle in embracing biotechnology by enacting the Biosafety Rules in April of 2005. These rules set up legal requirements for import, export, transportation, and handling of biological agents, genetic engineering organisms or vectors, seeds, crops and foods, besides describing appropriate conditions for researchers, seed developers, and companies.

Usually, it takes two to three years to properly assess a biotech crop before its commercialisation. The PAEC had sought a special permission in 1997 from the ministry of environment, under the Voluntary Code of Conduct, for the release of GMO into the environment and conducted, checked and analysed many tests on cotton varieties, including Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) - a bacterium that is deadly to the "Sundies".

In May 2005 the PAEC provided 40,000kg of the basic seed of Bt cotton (insect resistant) varieties IR-FH-901, IR-NIBGE-2, IR-CIM-448 and IR-CIM-443, which have been grown over 8,000 acres of land. Its encouraging outcomes have surprised everyone - from seed companies to the farmers who cultivated these varieties. Early users of Bt cotton have been tightly screened and evaluated by the PAEC on the basis of their capacity to follow bio-safety rules.

Farmers who cultivated the Bt cotton varieties in the heart of the cotton growing areas in Punjab (Bahawalpur, Multan, Muzaffargarh and Karor Pakka) observed and evaluated independently their vulnerability to different pests and compared the results with the non-GM varieties grown in the same region. A large number of farmers visited the fields and became aware of the benefits of the locally developed Bt cotton types.

Although the germination of Bt cotton varieties varies from 65 per cent to 85 per cent, but impurities were less than 2 per cent. In the beginning, the attack of "Lashkari Sundi", "American Sundi" and other bollworms remained low-key as compared to previous years but the attack of sucking pests like Jassid, Whitefly, Thrips and other Aphid was high-profile in both Bt and non-Bt cotton crops.

Incidence of the cotton leaf curl virus disease was on the lower side in the Bt cotton varieties. Heat stress was also recorded in different regions. However, no stress was observed among the Bt cotton varieties.

Army, pink and spotted bollworms were active from July to October, with peak infestation during September, but the army type remained in the field after spraying for a limited time period. IR-901, IR 448 and NIBGE-2 were shown to have minimal damage as compared to non-Bt cotton varieties.

It is noteworthy that the infestation of the American, pink and spotted "Sundies" remained significantly low throughout the season among the Bt varieties as compared to non-Bt ones. Also, live larvae of army, pink and spotted bollworms were recorded in the fields of non-Bt varieties.

Interestingly, newly hatched Helicoverpa Armigera, when ate the leaves of the Bt cotton crops, died after a few days. No larvae reached the pupal stage, while in non-Bt varieties they did develop into pupa. The number of sprays declined in Bt cotton varieties.

Sprays were mostly used to control sucking pests. However, among the chewing pests spray was required to control "Lashkari Sundi". Although Bt cotton provides significant control of targeted bollworms, supplemental foliar insecticide sprays are occasionally required to keep other bollworms from causing damage in Bt fields.

Bt cotton varieties had significantly higher yields as compared to non-Bt types - an average of 23-28 maunds (1 maund = 40kg) per acre versus 17-20 maunds in traditional cotton varieties, which means an increase of more than 30 per cent in yield. It is noteworthy that in Bt cotton crops the average number of bolls per plant are 120, while the average boll weight is about 1.75 grams, including seeds and the number of plants per acre as recommended by the department of agriculture.

The economic gain per acre by using Bt cotton is more than Rs3,000 at the market sale price of Rs1,100 per maund. In Pakistan, the average cotton grower has ten acres of land. Thus the Bt cotton varieties can significantly improve his or her life. And it is expected that cotton growers will use Bt seeds of the above varieties over at least 75,000 acres of land in the year 2006-07.

A lot of edible oil is extracted from cottonseed. More than 2 million tons of oil seedcake is also produced as feed for livestock and poultry. A series of safety studies have been carried out at the NIBGE, including health risk assessment and environmental concerns. These concluded that Bt cotton leaves/feeds have no health hazards and side effects for humans, animals and the environment.

These studies created a favourable response among Pakistani scientists over Bt cotton. In February this year, the World Trade Organisation, ruling against European Union, directed the EU to end its de facto moratorium on biotech crops and GM food. EU had an effective ban on biotech foods for six years, beginning in 1998. It began allowing the import of GM products on a case-by-case basis.

EU grows less than 1 per cent of the world's GM crops and has approved more than 30 GM food and animal products since 1994. Washington says it will continue with its WTO case until it is convinced that all applications for approval are being decided on scientific rather than political grounds. The ruling supports a 15-year-study, funded by the European Union, which found that biotech plants and products had not "shown any new risks to human health or the environment" and concluded that these foods were in fact safer than the conventional ones.

Today, all major cotton producing countries are benefiting from the cultivation of Bt cotton. In the last season 54 per cent of the cotton crops grown in the US, 76 per cent in China, and 80 per cent in Australia were with "single" or "double" Bt gene technology. India - the third largest cotton grower - has cultivated 1.36 million acres of Bt cotton crops. It is expected that within two years more than half the world's cotton may be coming from GM crops.

Pakistan realises the importance of Bt cotton and the top leadership, including the prime minister, says his government will allow farmers to grow Bt cotton soon, confirming the authorities' policy of being open to GM crops. Some ministers have also spoken in favour of Bt cotton.

Crop reviews carried out by various independent sources indicate that unrecorded sowing of new Bt cotton varieties also played a role in increasing cotton productivity, with unofficial estimates suggesting that 3 to 5 per cent of the area in Punjab and 10 to 15 per cent in Sindh may have come under cultivation. We will discuss the unapproved varieties of Bt cotton separately because these exotic types are throwing up serious challenges.

Nevertheless, the indigenously developed IR cotton varieties produced with Bt gene have proven resistance to major bollworms and have a potential to reduce the number of pesticide sprays needed. They generally increase yield per acre and reduce the cost of production.

However, a few issues relating to seed quality have been reported, which have no link with Bt technology and are germplasm-specific. These problems must be addressed in the new version of Bt varieties.

Biotechnology offers tremendous benefits to Pakistani farmers. But in order to benefit fully the government and all key stakeholders - including farmers, seed companies, R&D institutes, seed dealers and traders - will have to act responsibly and ethically. If we choose to ignore regulatory frameworks that govern the chain of activity and international agreements on biosafety that Pakistan is signatory to, we will end up losing a lot. We have to ensure effective, stringent, and transparent enforcement of the Biosafety Rules of 2005, the Seed Act of 1976, and the Punjab Cotton Control Ordinance, to encourage the introduction of technology through legal means.

The writer, Ijaz Ahmad Rao, is a freelance contributor.