The emergence of Pakistan as the ninth mega country growing genetically engineered (GE) crops, as reported in the International Service for the Acquisition of Agricultural Biotechnology Applications (ISAAA) Briefs 2012, attests to the successful adoption of GE crops in Pakistan. Under the current 2013-14 crop, more than 2.8 million hectares (HA) – 85 percent of total planted area–are under Bt cotton cultivation. To date, it’s the only crop that has been approved for commercial cultivation.
Since February 2012, no new varieties of GE cotton have been approved. In 2012, the Punjab Seed Council (PSC) formally approved eight biotech cotton varieties for cultivation in Punjab, though new GE varieties were submitted to the PSC in 2013, these have not been approved due to an outstanding order from the National Biosafety Committee (NBC) stating that product commercialization is a federal undertaking. However, at the federal level no new varieties have been approved since 2010.
Bt varieties under cultivation are Open Pollinated Varieties (OPVs), thus seed is utilized for the next season’s planting.Local seed companies are employing conventional breeding tools for seed multiplication, which are certified by the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD) of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR).
