ISLAMABAD (March 19 2009): The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet may approve plan to allow Monsanto introduce both hybrid and Bt cottonseed varieties in Pakistan. Reliable sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Minfa) had decided to move a summary to ECC meeting on Thursday (March 19) for giving permission to Monsanto to introduce hybrid and the Bt cotton seed varieties in Pakistan.

According to the sources, after the ECCs approval, an agreement would be signed between the government and Monsanto. The government had signed a LoI with Monsanto a year ago to collaborate in biotechnology. Monsanto cotton traits are currently approved in 13 countries of the world.

Sources said that Monsanto had demanded 16 dollars per acre as royalty, which, according to Pakistan, was a huge amount. The government was not ready to pay even a single penny to Monsanto that is why even after signing the LoI, Pakistan has not finalised the agreement with Monsanto.

"It is true that Monsanto has been asking for royalty for the last one year, but now the Federal government has decided to take the matter to the provincial level," the sources said. The Minfa has already chalked out an action plan to be presented to the ECC. They added that according to this action plan, the organisations like Nayab and Nibge in collaboration with the provincial governments would start partnership with Monsanto to bring in the country the hybrid cotton seeds and the Bt cotton varieties.

"Monsanto would be allowed to bring the seeds of hybrid cotton to Pakistan for five years, while the gene of Bt cotton being developed by Monsanto would be defused in our cotton varieties," the sources disclosed. Monsanto is an agricultural company that invests almost 1.5 million dollars a day globally to look for and bring to market innovative technologies.

The company has developed Bollgard cotton, commonly known as Bt cotton to control pest injury in production. Due to non-availability of approved Bt cottonseeds in the domestic market, the farmers have started smuggling these seeds from India. Almost 60 percent farmers in Punjab and 40 percent in Sindh are making the use of illegal Bt cottonseeds. Raw material from unapproved Bt varieties, result in low quality cotton crop.

On the other hand, a senior official of Minfa, on the condition of anonymity, told this scribe that it might take another two years to develop our own Bt cotton seed that would be more resistible against the attacks of mealy bug and Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV).

Recently, Pakistan has signed an agreement with China on Bt cotton, while China itself introduced Bt cotton seed after signing a LoI with Monsanto in 1996, but it developed its own Bt cotton seed after re-inventing it in Chinese laboratories.