Pakistan's Punjab seeks help to raise Bt cotton output

05 May '17

2 min read

Pakistan's Punjab government has approached a US based seed provider to regulate its Bt cotton production with its second generation Bollgard II technology. The government has taken the initiative in order to improve the production rate of cotton after it experienced a decrease by 4.6 million bales against the expected target in previous two years.

The government is seeking support from the world leader in GM cotton regulatory for introducing latest GM cotton technologies in Pakistan, said Muhammad Asim, regulatory leader of the US based seeds provider company in Pakistan while addressing media. Beginning with second generation technology, the government will slowly adopt the advanced third and fourth generations of the technology for improved results.

"The government and the US based seeds provider is negotiating an arrangement that would be beneficial to the farmer and for long term sustainable growth of the seed and cotton industries while a formal announcement would be made once the both parties will reach a final agreement," said Asim.

The government is yet to finalise an agreement with the US based seed provider. In order to increase the cotton productivity, the government will develop R&D hub with sufficient resources. Further, it will also encompass increasing the capacity of local seed companies (licenses) for a sustainable seed supply to the farmer, he added.

The Pakistan government has set a target of producing 14.04 million bales of cotton for 2017-18. About 6 million acres of land will be under cotton cultivation in Punjab and the production target for the province is 10 million cotton bales. (RR)

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