Illegal import of substandard Bt cotton seeds from India on rise

The illegal import of substandard Bt cotton seeds from India by private sector has become a common practice, owing to lack of monitoring on part of the government, which is creating confusion among the growers in the absence of locally prescribed seeds.
According to an estimate, in Punjab 80 percent of the area under cotton cultivation used Bt cotton seeds. "There is shortage of the registered and authorised seeds in Punjab. Only 50 to 30 percent original seeds are available. So, in order to cope with the shortage of registered seeds, most of the growers have to buy the seeds from the private sector", sources told Business Recorder.
Bt cotton is the variety, which is most resistible to the furious attacks of mealy bug and Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV). The government has been pretending for the last four years that the country will soon succeed in making the most resistible variety of cotton like Bt but nothing has been done so far in this respect, the added.
On the other hand, fifty-two Indian scientists have started research to eliminate mealy bug attacks on cotton but unfortunately, our scientists are less bothered to take any effective measure to control this menace which has already curtailed the production immensely.
To save their crop from being damaged by the attacks of mealy bug, the growers are forced to purchase the so -called Bt cotton seeds and are making its frequent use without knowing whether they are original seeds or not.
Meanwhile, Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) officials wile talking to Business Recorder here on Thursday said, "It is true that the cotton growers have to use the pesticides for more than three times on the crop just to save it from the insects like mealy bug. But it is also not wrong to say that these sprays have drastic impact on environment due to the poisonous chemicals used in the preparation of these pesticides".
They added that the residual of these sprays remain in the atmosphere atleast for seven days that has had hazardous affects on the environment and also on the quality of ground water.