November 15, 2010

Pakistan state saves agriculture sector from potential billion-dollar loss

By giving preference to its local seed industry over a US company, the Punjab government saved US$1 billion in royalties and prevented a possible billion-dollar loss to its agriculture sector, said a local industry official.

The head of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and the Seed Association of Pakistan, Shahzad Ali Malik said boosting the domestic seed industry would help strengthen government hands that would be in a better position to have bargaining with the foreign technology providers in biotech.

"There is no point in dishing out precious foreign exchange for a Bollgard-II cotton technology that is available to the government absolutely free of cost," he said.

Malik informed that a US company has proposed to charge the government US$7-$14 per acre for its Bollgard-II technology that has still not been proven to perform in local cotton seed varieties as yet and local field trials of varieties not conducted so far. The trials conducted by the said company in 2010 were of Indian hybrids which are irrelevant as the agreement is about local seed varieties.

Farmers who use saved seeds or purchased seeds from sources other than the US company could be penalised as per the Action plan announced by MINFA in April 2010.