Not many takers for GM
seed law
By
INTIKHAB AMIR
The
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s move to give legal protection to
genetically modified seed varieties in the province has
left many wondering what made a smaller province to do
this.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s draft Seeds Bill 2014 is pending
with the provincial assembly since January 15 for
registration of genetically modified seeds.
Which, many think, is insensitive to public
health, biodiversity, and requires close scrutiny before
going for it.
“What on earth made them (the provincial
govern- ment) to impose multinationals on farmers,
helping them establish their monopoly over provincial
market, and play with the local crop varieties (corn in
the case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa),” said Dr Azra Talat
Sayed, executive director of Roots for Equity, a
non-governmental organisation.
She said KP was legislating on controversial subjects on
which bigger agricultural economies among the federating
units, including Punjab and Sindh had not yet dared to
take any initiative. The existing federal laws were also
on the registration of GM seeds.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a test case for the MNCs; after
introducing the controversial laws here it would become
easier to replicate it in Sindh and Punjab,” said a
member of the Seed Association of Pakistan (SAP),
requesting anonymity.
Section 21 of the proposed KP law deals with the
registration of GM seeds in the province, containing
that “notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, no
registration of genetically modified variety / hybrid
shall be made if the application does not accompany:
a) an affidavit from the applicant declaring that such
variety does not contain any gene or gene sequence
involving terminator technology; and b) the
commercialization permission from Bio-safety Committee
established by Government (KP government) to the effect
that the genetically modified variety / hybrid shall
have no adverse effect on the environment, human, animal
or plant life and health”.
The GM crops impact on environment, human, animal, plant
life and health is surrounded by controversies as,
according to experts and literature available in books
and on the internet, it is replete with information
about their adverse effects.
One commonly known adverse effect of GM crops is that it
cross-pollinates regular crops.
Dr Sayed said that the local corn variety in KP would be
at risk of contamination because of the GM variety.
“In the case of KP, MNCs are likely to get their
genetically modified corn seed varieties registered here
if the proposed law gets approval from the provincial
assembly,” said Dr Sayed.
She said the introduction of the genetically modified
variety of corn would be dangerous for the local corn
varieties as the GM variety had the ill-ability to
cross-pollinate crops as pollen could travel a long
distance of several kilometers.
This would leave the farmers, relying on organic farming
methods or using local varieties, at a disadvantageous
position as pollen blowing from a GM farm will
contaminate their crop.
Dr Sayed said she was unable to understand why KP was
bringing in the seeds bill and the plant breeders’ bill
(which deals with the patenting plants varieties in the
province) at a time when the party in power (Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf) opposed American policies and it took
the US drone attacks as a threat to national
sovereignty.
“Capitalists sitting in PTI are moving forward MNCs’
agenda in KP as the proposed law will help the US
multinationals to establish monopoly to the disadvantage
of local farmers and environment,” said Dr Sayed. Corn
is a staple food and also widely used as fodder in KP.
Dr Sayed said the introduction of genetically modified
corn would change the local seeds (because of
cross-pollination) as a result nutrition would be
affected, causing a public health issue.
The SAP member said the introduction of GM seeds would
not harm his business, but it would surely make farming
expensive for small farmers in the province. “Since the
MNCs would be able to monopolize the local market,
farmers will not have any other option but to buy the
expensive seeds every sowing season,” said the seeds
dealer.
The MNCs’ products, said Dr Sayed, would be protected
under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime to which
Pakistan is a signatory.
“Why do we need, at the first instance, to introduce
their (MNCs) expensive seed varieties in our markets?,
we can’t compete with them in technology and research
and as a result our markets would be dominated by alien
seeds,” said Dr Sayed.
Courtesy:
The DAWN
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