After years of research, spending billions in research and giving hopes to farmers, the government has failed to introduce a high quality Bt cotton seed. Sources told Business Recorder that the cotton growers are in a very difficult situation because of non-availability of high quality Bt cotton seed variety in the domestic market.
After the rejection of Bt cotton seed variety developed by the National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), the government's plan to start the biotech cotton sowing officially has disappointed the growers.
"We were hopeful that the government, as per its promise, is going to introduce a new variety of cotton seed that will result in high production with low cost", Jam Din, a cotton grower, told Business Recorder. "But the rejection of new variety of cotton seed has forced me to conclude that the government must have cracked a practical joke with the poor farmers".
The government had been proclaiming for the last four years that it was about to produce a high quality Bt cotton seed that would also be highly resistant to the Cotton Curl Leaf Virus (CCLV), mealy bug and Burewala cotton virus.
"The delay in introducing the variety of cotton seed has forced the growers to protest against the government's poor and lethargic management. "India has increased its cotton yield up to 20 percent per annum because it has introduced Bt cotton. Same is the case with China. But situation is totally different in Pakistan", Khalid Mahmood, a cotton grower said.
Minfal did not accept Bt cotton variety developed by NIBGE at the beginning of this year. When contacted, an official of MINFAL on the condition of anonymity said, that the government is aware of the difficulties of the growers. But they should realise that it has spent almost Rs 13 billion on this project only to develop that variety which would be of high quality and more resistant to some insect pest.
"The new variety of cotton named "IRFH901", had some drawbacks as that was not suitable to our land and climate. So, it would take another two years to bring a high quality Bt cotton seed variety", he said.
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