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Future of Bt Cotton in Asia
By
Ijaz Ahmad Rao
Bahawalpur
 Fast
pace in cash crops production is a dream for any agrarian
economy; many ancient civilizations rose by diverting rivers
and irrigating arid lands to grow crops like wheat, maize,
rice, cotton – Asian countries especially Indian
subcontinent and China are those who are well known for its
cotton made fiber for centuries.
Cotton is a powerful engine for our economy growth; the
cotton lint, cloth, yarn and garments are a big source of
foreign exchange and accounts for around six percentage of
our GDP; cotton made ups and textile exports embrace more
over $ 7.3 billion to the national economy which is around
two thirds of the country’s export earnings. Cotton is grown
over eighty countries primarily for fiber, but seeds render
an important source of food for livestock and humans. Life
of million of small farmers, daily wage workers and many
small medium business are on the fortune of this single crop
therefore the success or failure of cotton crop has
influence not only exports but also on socioeconomic sectors
of various stakeholders - fine quality of cotton production
is the inherent comparative advantage of our textile sector;
so have to take into account the present challenges faced in
its production and value-added fields and preparing for the
future changes in its technologies.
Pakistan's cotton growing sector has made a long and
difficult journey; its performance is marked by a mixed
trend; there have been some years of dismal growth and some
years of cruising growth; which has direct impact on annual
economy growth rate. An all time record cotton crop of 14.5
million bales achieved in 2004-05 on the other hand the
production remained less than 10 million bales during
1993-1995, and 1998-1999 due to out break of cotton leaf
curl virus and high temperature more over humid climate
condition has contributed to the eruption of different
Bollworms like Pink, Spotted and American, which severely
damaged the cotton crop in Sindh and Punjab provinces; it
has been observed that during these periods poverty and
unemployment increased significantly especially in the rural
areas as economy slow down. According to one evaluation an
increment of one million bales in cotton production in turn
translates into half a percent increase in GDP. Although
Pakistan is the world’s fourth largest producer of cotton
after China, the USA and India but its yield in acres ranks
10th in the world; as a result Pakistan annually imports
around 1.5 - 2.00 million bales of cotton to meet growing
demand from local textile mills; while other challenges
include high price of inputs, higher intensity of insects
and pests, shortage of water, adulterations in pesticides,
fertilizers and seeds furthermore poor infrastructure of
marketing.
According to our recent Economic Survey 2005-06, the
performance of agriculture has been weak - due to poor
performance cotton production i.e. 12.4 million bales as
against targeted 14.3 million bales. Pakistan is among the
three countries where cotton consumption has substantially
increased during past few years; it is projected that by
2010 we need over 15.50 millions balls that’s why Government
of Pakistan has set a target to achieve 20.13 millions bales
by 2015 under a program “Cotton Vision 2015”; In view of
cotton production potential we are already utilizing our
land under the cultivation of cotton at its optimum level;
however area in Balochistan and D.I. Khan district and in
NWFP can be further consider though there is sever shortage
of water; which needs heavy investment and require long term
strategies, planning and sustained commitment. The
International Cotton Advisory Committee has projected the
world cotton production by 2010 to be 153 million bales
(weighing 170 kgs each), while the demand would be much
higher from countries like India, China; so one of the
primary concerns is to meet the requirement of local textile
industries.
Insects, disease, heat stress and drought present the
greatest impediments to accomplish desired yields and
quality in cotton. Pakistan during the last two decades has
also been trying to meet the standard of fiber traits
desired by our textile industry. So far one immediate
solution to improve cotton production can be solved by the
adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) cotton - known as Bt
Cotton, which has been grown successfully in many parts of
world like USA, Australia, China, India; although the
technology has great potential, there are genuine concerns
about this technology related to environment, health and
socioeconomic. That’s why in March an international workshop
“Regional Consultation on Genetically Modified Cotton for
Risk Assessment and Opportunities for Small-scale Cotton
Growers” was conducted at National Institute for
Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) Faisalabad, in
collaboration with International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC),
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech
Applications (ISAAA) and Common Funds for Commodity (CFC);
During the inauguration session Dr Ansar Pervaz Member
Science, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission ( PAEC)
highlighted the important role of GM cotton for
socio-economic development of the country. Fifty-three
foreigner delegates from all over the globe participated in
the program. The main theme of the project is to share
information on benefits and possible risks to small-scale
farmers in the regions from the use of biotech insect
resistant cotton; and bring together government, private
officials related to decision making on the issue and share
with them the experiences in other countries. The event
focused on identifying the opportunities and challenges to
adoption of biotech cotton in key cotton growing countries
in Asia and Eastern and Southern Africa. Furthermore impact
on the environment, risks to consumers and genetic diversity
was also discussed as well as biotech claims that insect
resistant GM varieties save the environment from injurious
chemicals by halving the use of insecticides, and reduce the
chemical exposure of farmers, with documented benefits to
human health was also on agenda. Dr. Anwar Nasim, Chairman
National Commission on Biotechnology, Dr. Zafar M. Khalid
Director, NIBGE, Siestse van Der Verff and other eminent
scientists were also present on the occasion. Dr Rafiq
Chaudhry, Technical Director, International Cotton Advisory
Committee said he will support any research which helps to
improve in cotton production. He added funds are available
with the support of CFC for the both GM cotton and non GM
cotton projects; so to get grant come up with solid
proposals.
According to one estimate in Pakistan farmers are using
Rs.10 billion worth of pesticides annually; out of which
more than 75 % is used on cotton alone especially to control
Bollworm known as “sundies”. The indiscriminate use of
pesticides by farmers on one hand has buildup pest
resistance against most of pesticides on the other are
causing health hazards to rural community and jeopardizing
our environment.
Bt cotton has been maneuvered by means of modern
biotechnology - one or more foreign genes derived from the
soil dwelling bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to
produce built-in toxins to kill some of the most injurious
pests of cotton; however few spray would be required
occasionally to keep secondary pests under control. It’s
certainly not correct to say that at this stage genetically
modified cotton are the total answers to the questions; but
they do reduce the risks that farmers face like the certain
insect, pests and weed, and so on. GM cotton can give the
farmer more certainty in knowing what he will produce better
at the end of the season. It is highly specific to the
target organisms alone, and numerous scientific studies have
indicated that Bt has no adverse effects on human health and
the environment, making it an ideal biological pest control
tool in integrated pest management practices.
Global adoption of Bt cotton has risen dramatically from
1.90 million acres in its introductory period in 1996 to
19.40 millions acres in 2006. Area planted to biotech
varieties increased to over one-fourth of the world total in
2005/06, and it is estimated that biotech varieties account
for 38 % of 86.5 million acres planted to cotton in 2006-07.
The world average yield in 1995-96 was 229 kg/acre, and the
average yield in 2006-07 is estimated to be 294 kg/acre.
Much of the increase in the world yield during the last ten
years was related to the use of biotech cotton. Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia,
Mexico, South Africa and USA have commercialized biotech
cotton so far. It is remarkable that in the last cotton
growing season 54% of cotton crops grown in USA, 70% in
China and 80% in Australia were with single or multiple Bt
genes.
In the Eastern and Southern African region, South Africa has
commercialized biotech cotton. Only Delta-pine varieties
have been engineered and these varieties were planted on
over 90% of the cotton area in South Africa in 2005/06;
recently the Government of Uganda has allowed field trials
on biotech cotton. Trials have also been conducted in
Zimbabwe in the past but biotech cotton is still not
approved.
Many countries in Asia including Pakistan and Uzbekistan
have invested a significant amount of human and financial
resources for the development of local genetically modified
cotton; in Pakistan during 2005-06 season pre-commercial
plantings of Bt cotton have been carried out in Punjab and
Sindh with indigenously developed Bt cotton varieties -
“IR-NIBGE-2”,“IR-FH-901”,“IR-CIM-448” and “IR-CIM-443”.
So far in Asia three countries - China, India and
Pakistan claimed that they have successfully developed
genetically modified cotton with their own genes against
bollworms.
National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering
- Faisalabad, and National Center of Excellence in Molecular
Biology (NCEMB) University of the Punjab Lahore, have come
forward and submitted applications to the National Biosafety
Committee (NBC) - a directorate being established in the
Ministry of Environment for commercialization and field
trial approvals of their versions of Bt Cotton respectively.
Recently NCEMB has been granted permission to conduct
field trials only of two Bt cotton varieties “MNH-93” and
“CIM 482” with the collaboration of a local and a
multinational company; however application for
commercialization of Bt Cotton variety “IR-FH-901 of NIBGE
is still under process.
According to our eminent scientist Dr. Kauser Abdullah Malik,
Member Planning Commission on Agriculture more than 500,000
acres are presently under Bt cotton last season, which has
not been approved by authorities. Because of remarkable
results of Bt cotton crops grown especially in China and
India since 1997 and 2002 respectively have intensified the
thirst among Pakistani farmers and commercial seed firms to
bring GM technologies into the country.
It is mind boggling that from where such large quantity of
seed has been sourced in order to cultivate 0.5 million
acres of Bt Cotton. It could not have been possible with out
years of organized activity, and with help from people with
technical expertise, it was certainly not a work of an
ordinary farmer. This situation must be seen in the
background where countries are required to abide by their
national biosafety laws for risk assessment and management
prior to commercial release of transgenic varieties.
Pakistan approved Biosafety Rules in year 2005 that require
clearance from NBC (National Biosafety Committee).
Dr Yusuf Zafar, Director Agriculture & Biotechnology, PAEC
and organizer of the meeting said that genetically
engineered cotton was spreading at a brisk pace despite
reluctance of some countries to adopt this technology; he
added we believe cotton production have to increase over the
next 15 years as demand is robust but unfortunately
commercial realize of GM cotton has caught up in Pakistan.
In year 2005, China the largest producer of cotton in the
world has grown more than 8 million acres of Bt cotton,
whereas, India cultivated around 3.2 million acres of Bt
cotton crops but in 2006/07 India has tripled acreage for
insect-resistant Bt cotton to 9.4 million acres with support
of 2.3 million farmers, surpassing 8.6 million acres in
China. In India, 14 % of the total area was under biotech
hybrids that benefited growers through increased yields by
providing better protection against bollworms. Dr. C D Mayee
Chair - GEAC, India said “cultivation of transgenic Bt
cotton has led to significant reduction in pest-attacks and
62 Bt-hybrids have been commercialized so far, he further
said at present 28 seed companies are pursuing Bt-cotton in
India and more companies are expected to hit the market in
the next year. Dr. K. B. Khadi Director the Central
Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, said since the
technology is in “seed”, it does not have the chances of
differentiating between large and small farmers; he claimed
that Bt cotton cultivation has helped both farmers raise
their income and the very fact that area under Bt cotton is
increasing shows the growing acceptability among farmers.
Some argued that increase in the cotton yield in the last 5
years by 46 % only because of the adoption of Bt cotton
while few disagreed that other factors also contributed like
four Mini TMC program. However one of the limitations is the
transfer of Bt genes into local germplasm; high cost of
technology is another issue but misinformation on benefits
as well as risks is hindering governments to make decisions.
Dr. Randay A.Hautea Global Coordinator, ISAAA said
biotechnology provides large benefits to all stakeholders,
farmers, consumers, and even the government while protecting
the environment at the same time. It is an alternative that
is accurate, predictable, faster, scientific and safe. Dr.
Iftikhar A. Khan Dean Agriculture University Faisalabad said
agricultural biotechnology has the potential towards poverty
alleviation, rural development, strengthening trade and
economic competitiveness, provide agricultural
sustainability even while delivering direct benefits to the
farmers and consumers.
Prof. James McD. Stewart USA argued that the prices of seeds
for growing GM cotton would definitely fall when more
varieties would be available for sale; he added the future
of crop biotechnology would depend upon it being perceived
as environmentally friendly.
Dr. Jingyuan Xia – Director General NATESC, Ministry of
Agriculture said Chinese scientists have developed 55 new GM
cotton strains, bringing economic returns of 2.1 billion
U.S. dollars, he further said the domestic market share of
China-made insect-resistant GM cotton increased from 5
percent in 1998 to more than 70 percent in 2005; he added Bt
cotton increased income of some 6.8 million farmers as it
cut the number of spray from 8 to 3, while raising yields by
15 percent compared with conventional varieties.
According to some reports in countries that adopted Bt
cotton, average yield increased from 10 to 45 percent while
pesticide cost declined by 65 percent in China, 58 percent
in South Africa, and over 45 percent in India.
Pakistan has addressed Intellectual Property Rights by
forming an independent body, the Intellectual Property
Organization Pakistan (IPOP); recently the Cabinet has
passed “Plant Breeders Rights” bill to provide a way to the
international seed-breed companies and enhance the private
sector’s investment in the seed breeding. It is worth
mentioning that a few Pakistani institutes have applied for
patents of some novel Bt genes; however big multinational
companies in the developed countries own patents of many Bt
- genes, its sequences, expression, vectors etc so any
violation of the agreement and commitment with lenders or
owners may attract patent problems under the new
intellectual property rights (IPRs) regulatory regimes and
infringement of IPRs law under the WTO, Paris Club and
ultimately can attract legal action against member countries
Mr. Derek Eaton – Researcher from ECART & LEI Wageningen
said although range of studies of agronomic performance and
economic impact of GM crops have been carried our between
1996-2006 while 56 on Bt cotton of which 42 in only three
countries China, India, and South Africa; most of it
indicate that number of insecticides sprays have declined in
Bt cotton fields against bollworms. He added GM Cotton is
one example of crop where IP protection affects investment
opportunities and decisions; however effective IPRs cannot
be created quickly…and is also a concern for many
stakeholders.
There are numerous reports of failing GM crops, for example
Bt cotton in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh- the reason
for the failure of the Bt cotton there had nothing to do
with the GM crop. Rather the variety that was sold to the
farmers was not suited to that particular area.
Unfortunately, because of the high profile in the
controversy associated with GM crops, the critics were very
keen to say the failure was the GM’s fault. But it has been
analyzed that the very same variety without the Bt gene
would also have failed in that area. The unpredictable
performance in cotton is attributed to few more reasons like
caterpillars must eat enough treated plant tissue to get a
lethal dose of the toxin, since the toxin has no contact
effect; the Bt toxin rapidly degraded by heat stress, high
leaf pH, or desiccation; If some one backcross Bt varieties
with other conventional cotton varieties there is most
likely that the optimal level of required Bt event or toxin
may not transfer as in pure Bt cotton seed; moreover usually
it is hard to know the lifecycle of such products as all
cotton seed varieties segregate after growing it over number
of years; so such Bt cotton varieties would be very
dangerous to adopt both for the cotton growing farmers
environment and economy.
Dr. Willy De Greef - Director, International Biotechnology
Regulatory Services said that today, the regulatory
environment is far more complex and hostile; it is not
certain that technology developers would be able to find the
regulators as open and willing to help us analyse the issues
and create a high quality and science based approach to risk
assessment for the new classes of GM cotton traits. He added
more intractable issue is the cost of regulatory release and
compliance in many cases; which is higher than cost of
actual product development moreover in many countries the
duplication of data for biosafety assessments for regulatory
submissions has become a sizable industry as it provides
more jobs.
The Cartagena Protocol should in principle lead to a
significant reduction of that burden, because it allows
importing countries to accept new GM products without
additional requirements – Pakistan is only signatory to
Cartagena Protocol of the biosafety under Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) unfortunately we have not yet
ratified it; that’s why losing financial and technical
assistance offered by the UNEP-GEF programs.
It is worth mentioning here that virologist Dr. Rob Briddon
said that the situation with cotton leaf curl (CLCV) disease
in Pakistan is very serious especially Burewala virus; so
far most of cotton varieties including Bt cotton varieties
are highly susceptible to CLCV Burewala strain.
Bt crops can help reduce poverty, promote rural development,
strengthen trade and economic competitiveness, and encourage
agricultural sustainability, even while delivering direct
benefits to farmers and consumers while the environmental
benefits of Bt crops which were insecticide reduction, soil
conservation and enhanced productivity, and an enhanced
sustainability.
Although Biotechnology is by all means the most
controversial agricultural technology innovation due to the
uncertainty and concerns raised by its biosafety and
environmental impacts; but the rise of modern
biotechnologies and life science bring many surprises,
change the paradigms of the society and revolutionize our
daily lives. Against the many exciting successful examples
of biotechnology, it is important that all technologies, bio
and non-bio, are to serve the ultimate objective of
improving the overall welfare of human beings and the
nature. Thus crop biotechnology is no exception. It is the
foundation of people’s livelihood. Small farmers certainly
wouldn’t be purchasing and sowing GM cotton-seeds if they
weren’t reaping benefits out of it. However question will
remain in farmers minds like Will pests develop resistance
to Bt-cotton?, How long will it take to develop resistance?
so on.
Hence the very high adoption rate of Bt cotton especially in
Asian countries by farmers reflects the fact that biotech
crops have consistently performed well and delivered
significant economic, environmental, health and social
benefits to both small and large farmers.
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