LAHORE: The country’s cotton production has fallen to 11.5 million bales from 14.5 million bales in 2004-05, while the cotton output of India in five years has retained more than double from 16 million to 34 million bales.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Agri-biotechnology’, organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, speakers pointed out that India leaped forward in cotton production by adopting BT cotton hybrid technology that Pakistan has still not adopted.

They said Pakistan would have to focus on genetically-modified and hybrid crops to tap true potential of agricultural productivity in the country in the shortest possible time.

Provincial Agriculture Minister Mohammad Ali Aulak, while stressing the need for establishment of institutes both at provincial and federal levels for creating awareness among the farming community about genetically-modified (GM) technology, said that sustainability and improvement in crop yields is the major challenge in coping with threats of increasing population and depleting water resources.

He said biotechnology has shown considerable potential to raise agricultural productivity by addressing problems which could not be solved through the conventional research.

Among other applications of biotechnology, development of genetically modified organisms is the promising tool to facilitate plant breeding in development of insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant crops.

The minister said GM crops have contributed to sustainable development in several significant ways. These included contribution to food security and more affordable food, conservation of biodiversity, alleviation of poverty and hunger, mitigating climate change, reduction in greenhouse gases and contribution to cost-effective production of biofuels and above all contribution to sustainable economic benefits.

In addition to aiding issues of food security, genetically modified crops have an important role to play in lessening the environmental impact and improving the sustainability of food production. Insect-resistant rice, for example, has potential to benefit about one billion people.

LCCI President Mian Muzaffar Ali said Pakistan’s agriculture sector was losing heavily due to insufficient utilisation of biotechnology as the magic progress of worldwide agriculture takes place only due to genetically modified crops. He said the agriculture sector of Pakistan has a huge potential.

“It continues to be the single largest and dominant driving force for growth as well as the main source of livelihood for 66 per cent of population.” But it has always faced two major problems.

First, production per acre is lower than many countries. Secondly, around 40 per cent of production is wasted in post-harvest losses due to insufficient utilisation of biotechnology.

He stressed the need for utilising this beneficial technology for more and more production in various economic sectors.