Author Archives: Roots for Equity

Botched drug trial leaves one brain dead, five in hospital

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 Dawn, January 16th, 2016

PARIS: Six previously healthy medical volunteers were hospitalised last week_ including one man who is now brain dead _ after taking part in a botched drug test at a private clinic in western France, the French health ministry said on Friday.

The prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into what French Health Minister Marisol Touraine called “an accident of exceptional gravity … without precedence” in France at the Biotrial lab in Rennes.

The drug trial, which was testing a new painkiller compound, involved 90 healthy volunteers who were given the experimental drug in varying doses, she told reporters at a news conference in Rennes. All six hospitalized men were between 28 and 49 and were healthy when the trial began on Jan 7, she said, adding that one man now classified as brain dead was admitted to the Rennes hospital on Sunday.

The chief neuroscientist at the hospital in Rennes, Professor Gilles Edan, said there was no known antidote to the experimental drug that Biotrial was testing. It’s rare for volunteers to fall seriously ill when testing new drugs.

Researchers generally start with the lowest possible dose for humans after extensive drug tests on animals. The French ministry statement said those who fell ill had taken an oral medication in the first phase of testing, which was studying safe usage, tolerance and other measures on healthy volunteers.

Biotrial, with headquarters in Rennes and offices in London and New Jersey, United States, said it had over 25 years of experience in clinical trials and always used “state-of-the-art facilities.”

http://www.dawn.com/news/1233293

Corporate hegemony over seed sector

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By AZRA TALAT SAYEED

Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, January 18th, 2016

THE Standing Committee of the National Assembly approved the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act on Jan 6. The story has taken 20 years in telling people that the current Plant Breeders’ Rights Act lies in the corporate interest.

The country is in an extremely vulnerable situation be it the economic hardship faced due to shrinking productivity, escalating hunger and malnutrition, or the multiple faces of climate change in the form of heat wave, drought or floods. To these factors may be added the WTO trade-related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement.

The backbone of the economy is still largely agriculture not only for food security but for the livelihood of the most vulnerable people. Farming is also a crucial raw material provider to our industries particularly cotton for our most thriving textile sector.

The consistent interest of international aid agencies such as the United States Aid for International Development (USAID) and Australian Aid Agency (DFAT) is very visible in the agriculture sector encompassing the farm land, policy arena and universities. This interest is tied to their self interest as agriculture is a lucrative sector for their corporate businesses. And the seed sector is a critical area in this context. The amended Seed Act 2015 was part of the agenda to promote corporate interest in Pakistan’s agriculture.

The Plant Breeders’ Rights are similar to patent systems, meant to prohibit the unauthorised use of a plant variety that is ‘owned’ by a plant breeder. Specialists explain that the PBR laws as applied only to plants, and hence are among the class of sui generis systems, that is, special purpose systems. For a plant breeder to be granted PBR, the variety has to meet conditions of being distinct, stable in successive generations and with uniform characteristics. Plant breeders have to seek intellectual property (IP) protection in every country where they want to commercially produce their plant variety.

The corporate seed sector, much of which is based in the rich industrialized North and their powerful governments, has insisted that all WTO member states comply with a harmonized minimum level of IP protection

This is the crux of the matter. Giant seed corporations who now claim ‘ownership’ over genetic material are using it to produce new so-called GMOs, such as Bt cotton, golden rice or other hundreds of genetically modified seeds and plants.

The corporate seed sector, much of which is based in the rich industrialised North, and their powerful governments, has insisted that all WTO member-states comply with a harmonised minimum level of IP protection.

The International Convention (treaty) for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants was first adopted in 1961. This treaty in its earlier years basically catered to industrialised countries when IP on living things were forbidden. The treaty has been revised many times and the last time in 1991.

The treaty is considered highly dangerous to not only farmers but Earth’s biodiversity as conditions of stability and uniformity rely on very few genes.

The vast array of genetic resources is critical to the survival of ecological zones and systems. The myopic intervention in the agriculture system can result in wide spread disease and disaster as seen in the Bt cotton harvest season in 2015.

According to the 1991 treaty, if a farmer has sown a field with protected variety, he/she is liable for infringement and can end up paying penalty as is specified in the PBR laws. It needs to be stressed that the PBR will take away the ability of farmers to save and exchange seeds and economise on costs.

For the small and landless farmers, the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act will result in a fresh wave of financial hardships. The indigenous, traditional methods and systems of food production are all at risk.

However, there is still time. Agriculture is a provincial subject as per the 18th Amendment. It is critical that this PBR legislative process should be brought under the ambit of the provincial assemblies and opened for farmers’ consultation. We cannot afford to have our seed sector governed by the giant corporate.

azra.sayeed@gmail.com

http://www.dawn.com/news/1233611/corporate-hegemony-over-seed-sector

TWO HELD FOR CHOPPING OFF LABOURER’S HANDS

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December 30, 2015

HAFIZABAD: Kassoke police have registered a case against four people on a charge of cutting both hands of a labourer and arrested two of them, including the former UC nazim’s son.

Muhammad Siddique of Nankana district along with his victim son Muhammad Akram came to the police station and submitted a written application for registration of a case. In his application, Siddique said that he and his son Akram worked at the dera of former nazim landlord Rana Israrul Haq at Wachoke village. About three months ago, he and his son left the job and returned to their village. Later, Rana Israr’s son Asad Israr, Ahsanullah and two others came to Nankana and allegedly kidnapped Siddique and his son Akram. The accused took them to their dera where they tortured Akram and cut his hands. On the other hand, Rana Israr denied the allegations. He claimed that Akram was working on an electrical cutter when his hands got entangled in it about two months ago. Consequently, the hands were chopped off. He further claimed that he shifted Akram to the DHQ hospital where he was treated for many days. Meanwhile, DPO Shakir Hussain said that he had constituted a special team for investigating the case.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/85164-Unhealthy-lifestyle-aggravating-cancer-issue-in-Pakistan#

‘WTO DECISION ON EXPORT SUBSIDY TO BENEFIT FARMERS’

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ISLAMABAD: The rich countries agreement to immediately eliminate agriculture export subsidies would provide a level-playing field to Pakistani exports, said Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan on Monday.

The WTO has not only agreed on elimination of agricultural export subsidies but also put more restrictions on Pakistan’s competitors, the minister said in a statement issued after attending the 10th WTO Ministerial in Nairobi, Kenya.

He said Nairobi decisions have helped improve prospects for Pakistani farmers and agriculture exports.

In cooperation with numerous allies, the minister said, Pakistan also successfully resisted a move by some large developing countries that could have hurt Pakistan’s agriculture trade through the said countries’ subsidised export of public stocks amassed in the name of food security.

Export subsidies of developed countries such as Australia, Canada, the European Union, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the United States shall be eliminated immediately.

By contrast, export subsidies’ entitlement of developing countries like Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Cyprus, Indonesia, Mexico, Panama, South Africa and Turkey, shall be eliminated by 2018.

Mr Dastgir said, “We resisted efforts by some large developing countries to prematurely amend WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture in the name of food security, which would allow them to distort trade in their favour by exporting public food stocks at subsidised prices.”
Pakistan also took the lead in welcoming Afghanistan’s formal accession to WTO, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/news/1227901/wto-decision-on-export-subsidy-to-benefit-farmers

PLANT BREEDERS RIGHTS BILL: FARMERS AND SEED COMPANIES TO DEBATE BILL,GIVE INPUT

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By Peer Muhammad

The proposed law is targeted at achieving several goals such as encouraging plant breeders and seed organisations in the public and private sectors to invest in research. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to establish a viable seed industry, the government last month introduced the Plant Breeders Rights Bill 2015 in the National Assembly. The bill is aimed at ensuring availability of high-quality seeds and planting material to farmers.

All major stakeholders will give their opinion and input for inclusion in the bill in a meeting next week at the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. Later, the lower house will refer the bill to the standing committee concerned for deliberations.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat after discussing the bill decided on Monday to invite all relevant stakeholders including farmers, private seed companies and provincial government officials to the next meeting at the food ministry.

Plant breeder rights are specific intellectual property rights that are provided to the breeders of new varieties of plants. Apart from this, in order to comply with the World Trade Organisation or trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement, the government has already introduced several other laws to protect intellectual property.

The proposed law is targeted at achieving several goals such as encouraging plant breeders and seed organisations in the public and private sectors to invest in research and plant breeding, develop superior varieties of field, vegetable and ornamental crops and facilitate access to protected foreign varieties and new technologies.

Additionally, the bill will encourage healthy competition in seed variety development among public and private sector organisations, facilitate in generating revenues for research institutes, provide financial incentives for plant breeders and effectively control counterfeiting for the betterment of farmer community and ensuring food security.

At present, many foreign companies are not coming to Pakistan to invest in this industry due to lack of protection for their products in the absence of an effective plant breeder rights law.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2015

.http://tribune.com.pk/story/1017797/plant-breeders-rights-bill-farmers-and-seed-companies-to-debate-bill-give-input/

WTO KILLS FARMERS

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Press Release

December 15, 2015

Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) and Roots for Equity in collaboration with Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) carried out a protest outside Sukkur Press Club to register public resistance against the against the World Trade Organization (WTO) which is going to hold its 10th Ministerial Meeting December 15-18, 2015 in Nairobi.

The purpose of the WTO was to ensure control on global trade much of which is under the imperialist control of the advanced capitalist countries and their gigantic corporations. WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and TRIPS (Trade-related- Intellectual Property Rights) agreement are immensely exploitative of farmers across the world, especially small and landless farmers of third world countries. Agrochemical and biotechnology corporations especially the US corporations have been able to impose control over the rich genetic resources of the third world with the TRIPS agreement thereby paving the way for multinational companies to earn billions of dollars by patenting and trading hybrid and genetic seed, globally. On the other hand, farmers have not only lost their indigenous seeds but at the same time have become dependent on the inputs of agro-chemical corporations pushing them in a vicious cycle of high cost production, indebtedness, and loss of livelihood. Today a vast majority of the rural and urban population face hunger, and are living in acute poverty and misery.

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The imperialist neoliberal policies of privatization, deregulation and trade liberalization pushed by the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank have resulted in poisoned lands, food and the destruction of environment which has had not only a tremendous impact on the health of people, especially women and children but also resulting in climatic disasters. No doubt these policies are based on the lust for super profits of the capitalist system.

The 9th Bali Ministerial was a big setback for the anti-globalization movement because it allowed capitalist economies to fast track their exports through a Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). TFA enforces developing countries to implement systems that allow a fast and smooth transport and transaction of goods at the custom check posts of countries. Pakistan has ratified the TFA in October 2015 and has become the 50th country that has ratified this agreement.

What is to be expected from the upcoming tenth WTO Ministerial to be held in Nairobi, Kenya? There is no doubt that further trade liberalization and market access is on the books. There is news that US and its allies are ongoing negotiations for a new agreement in the WTO, the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). According to Wiki leaks, this negotiation is still being kept a secret.  There is no doubt, that this new agreement will only lead to the further oppression and exploitation of small and landless farmers and workers.

Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) rejects the WTO while holding it responsible for the destruction of lives and livelihood of small farmers, especially in the third world. PKMT demands the government that it should cancel its membership at the WTO and ask other governments to join hands in closing such an anti–farmer, anti-people organization. Such an action will break the imperialist stranglehold over Pakistan taking it towards a road of food and national sovereignty.

LAW TO PROTECT PLANT BREEDERS

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Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, December 7th, 2015

ASHFAK BOKHARI

WITH the introduction of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Bill 2015 in the National Assembly on November 27 by the Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada, the country is close to meeting its obligations in the seed sector as required by the WTO’s Trips regime.

The Seed Amendment Bill 2014, another related legislation, has already been passed by the lower house and is awaiting a formal nod from the upper house to become a law. The two bills were originally moved in 2010 but were then put on the backburner.

After remaining frozen for four years, one bill, relating to seed business, was revived last year following the formation of the Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO-Pak) as a regulator of intellectual property rights (IPRs). The seed bill, an amended form of 1976 law, was re-launched as 2014 bill.

The plant breeders rights bill, which the NA Speaker immediately referred to the standing committee concerned, has been revived this year and re-launched as a 2015 bill. Pirzada had moved the bill in the house on behalf of the minister of state for parliamentary affairs.

The bill aims at establishing a viable seed industry for food security and ensuring the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to farmers.

How long it will take to become a law is anybody’s guess. Pakistan, being a member of the WTO, is required to provide protection to plant varieties under sui generis system under Article 27-3 (b) of the Trips law. The sui generis (unique) system for plant varieties must comply with the basic principles of national (equal) treatment.

The government has already adopted and enforced major IP laws such as patents, trademarks, copyrights and industrial designs. According to the stated objectives of the proposed law, the government will encourage plant breeders and seed organisations in both public and private sectors to invest in research and plant breeding; help breeders develop superior varieties of crops; provide access to protected foreign varieties and new technologies and effectively control the menace of counterfeit seeds.

Once the bill is passed, a registry of plant breeders’ rights will be established under the administrative control of IPO-Pak. The new law will effectively protect IPRs of the breeders which are described as a limited form of proprietary rights, which permit their holders to exclude others from producing and selling seeds of their plant varieties without legal authorisation.

The holder will charge royalty on the sale of seeds of his variety and will have the right to initiate civil proceedings against the persons found infringing his rights. Such protection may encourage foreign firms to invest in plant breeding in Pakistan.

Agriculture, including seed business, became a provincial subject after the passage of the 18th Amendment in the constitution in 2010. But, according to federal minister for food security Sikandar Hayat Bosan, all the provincial assemblies had passed a special resolution authorising the federal government to amend the Seed Act of 1976 and retain it as a federal subject.

During the long journey the two bills traversed, the basic reforms suggested in their drafts had been the focus of intense debate in the NA standing committee discussions, among civil society groups, farmers bodies and other stakeholders.

That the draft of new seed law tends to invite foreign private sector to effectively take part in the country’s seed development is evident from Bosan’s statement attached with the text of the law. The 1976 law, he says, had failed to fulfill the requirements of a ‘modern seed industry’ for the capacity of the public sector has, over the years, greatly declined.

Today, he says, “it is the private sector which is playing a stronger and more vibrant role across the world. The new innovations in hybrid technology and genetically modified crops have transformed the seed industry.” The new law will also allow the private sector “to produce basic seed for its multiplication and certification” and establish seed testing laboratories.

The bill permits registration of GM crops provided no terminator technology is involved in the development of seed variety.

What has offended the farmers’ community in particular is preventing them from carrying on age-old practice of re-using the saved seeds for next crop. They will have to buy seeds for each crop from the companies at a higher cost. This is unaffordable for small farmers, at least, and soon they may have to quit the farming.

The foreign office’s opposition to GM seeds is a significant matter as conveyed by Environmental Protection Agency’s chief during the proceedings of a public interest petition in Lahore High Court. While appearing on behalf of the federation on May 14, 2014, he said: “the Foreign Office has also conveyed its concern to the Climate Change Division that the subject of GM seeds is a matter of grave concern for national security and trade. It can be used as a biological weapon of mass destruction to destroy Pakistan’s major crops such as potato, wheat, rice, corn, cotton and vegetables through modified viruses, bacteria and other parasites.”

http://www.dawn.com/news/1224587/law-to-protect-plant-breeders

RS 40BN NEW TAXES IN ‘MINI-BUDGET’

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KHALEEQ KIANI

ISLAMABAD: The government introduced on Mon­day a ‘mini-budget’ envisaging additional tax measures of over Rs40 billion by imposing 5-10 per cent regulatory duty on import of 61 items, increasing duty by 5pc on another 289 items and levying 1pc additional customs duty on thousands of other items.

The decision was announ­ced by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar at a news conference after presiding over a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet to comply with a pre-condition of the Interna­tional Monetary Fund on the last day of its deadline.

“Additional revenue measures have been taken to make up for a shortfall of Rs39.8bn in the revenue target for the first quarter of the current financial year,” he said. The committee also imposed 30pc regulatory duty on import of maize and kept unchanged the support price for wheat at Rs1,300 per 40kg.

Also read: Rs40bn additional tax measures soon to meet fiscal deficit: IMF

He said the ECC extended the applicability of 0.3pc withholding tax (ins­tead of 0.6pc imposed in the current year’s budget) on banking transactions and filing of income tax returns to Dec 31.

The meeting did not take up a proposed $16bn contract for import of liquefied natural gas from Qatar.

Mr Dar said additional measures would generate Rs4.5bn through imposition of 5-10pc regulatory duty on 61 items which had no such duty. He said the Federal Board of Revenue had identified around 1,400 non-essential imported luxury items that had eaten away almost half of around $3bn savings in the shape of lower oil import bill, but being a member of the World Trade Organisation it was not possible for Pakistan to ban them.

Mr Dar said another Rs4.5bn would be generated by increasing by 5pc the duty on import of 289 items. The government would also get Rs21bn through 1pc additional duty on all items in the 5th schedule of the Customs Act currently being charged at up to 20pc customs duty.

Nine categories having impact on common man would remain exempt from 1pc additional duty. The list includes all non-dutiable imports, agriculture machinery, essential raw materials and inputs for textile, agriculture, pharmaceutical and aviation sectors, socially sensitive items like vegetables and priority industrial items of coalmining and renewable energy given protection under the 5th schedule, excluding the poultry sector.

Other exempted areas from 1pc fresh import duty include import of fertilisers, seeds and spores for sowing, plant and machinery for manufacturing of goods, the telecom sector and raw materials of 25 sectors like artificial leather industry, pesticides, sugar mills, fan and flat rolling steel industry, electric motors, etc.

Another Rs6.5bn would come out of increased Federal Excise Duty (FED) on locally produced cigarettes and Rs2.5bn through 10pc increase in duty on import of second-hand vehicles above 1,000cc capacity.

The minister said the FED on locally produced cigarettes valued at Rs3,600 per 1,000 cigarettes would attract Rs3,150, instead of Rs3,030 while lower valued cigarettes would be charged Rs1,420 per 1,000 cigarettes duty, instead of Rs1,320.

He said the import duty on 800cc and 1000cc used vehicles would remain unchanged at $4,800 and $6,000 per car. The duty on 1000-1300cc vehicles was increased by 10pc to $13,200. The duty on all bigger capacity vehicles was increased by 10pc to $18,500 on 1300-1500cc, to $22,500 on 1501-1600cc and $27,900 on 1601-1800cc. The luxury vehicles would also attract 10pc additional duty.

The duty on locally assembled vehicles had not been changed.

In reply to a question, Mr Dar said the government would fight out a high court’s stay order on collection of super tax to preserve its right to impose tax and file a reference before the apex court to restrict such prohibitive orders which hamper smooth functioning of the revenue team.

List of items

Some of the 61 items that have attracted fresh duties of 5-10pc are: live poultry, frozen fish including fillets and fish meat, coconuts, brazil nuts and cashew nuts, almonds, preserved meat including offal or blood, cocoa paste and cocoa butter, ground nuts, pineapples, citrus fruit, pears, apricots, cherries, peaches, strawberries, tea and coffee essences and concentrates, trunk and suit cases-brief cases apparel and clothing accessories of leather, men’s, women’s and boy’s overcoats, jackets, baby garments and clothing accessories, garments like track suits and swimwear, handkerchiefs, ties, shawls, scarves, mufflers, curtains and interior blinds, tarpaulins and tents, footwear and their parts, imitation jewellery, watches, diapers and sanitary towels.

Some of the 289 items on which regulatory duty was increased from 10 to 15pc are: yogurt, butter, dairy spreads and others, cheese, curd, grated or powdered cheese of all kinds, natural honey, pineapples, avocados, guavas, mangoes, frozen mango, mango pulp, oranges, kino (fresh) , grapefruit, dried litmus products, watermelons, papaws (papayas), apples, pears, quinces, apricots, sour cherries, peaches, plums and sloes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, mulberries and loganberries, black, white or red currants and gooseberries, kiwifruit, durians, persimmons, pomegranates, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, loganberries, black, white or red currants and gooseberries, cherries, apricots, prunes, apples, cherries, pine nut (chilgoza), peaches (aaroo), plums (aloocha), lichis, raisins, mixtures of nuts or dried fruits of this chapter, peel of citrus fruit or melons (including watermelons) fresh, frozen, dried or provisionally preserved in brine, in sulphur water or in other preservative solutions, chewing gum, whether or not sugar- coated, white chocolate, cocoa powder, containing added sugar or other sweetening matter, chocolate preparation, malt extract, preparations other than in retail packing, not containing cocoa, containing eggs, vermicelli, stuffed pasta, whether or not cooked or otherwise prepared, other pasta, couscous, corn flakes, prepared foods obtained from unroasted cereal flakes or from mixtures of unroasted cereal flakes and roasted cereal flakes or swelled cereals, bulgur wheat, crisp bread, gingerbread and the like, sweet biscuits, waffles and wafers, rusks, toasted bread and similar toasted products, cucumbers and gherkins, pickles, tomatoes, whole or in pieces, tomatoes paste, mushrooms of the genus agaricus, potatoes and other vegetables and mixtures of vegetables.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/news/1223471/rs40bn-new-taxes-in-mini-budget

Cotton crop disaster: opportunity for global seed corporations

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AZRA TALAT SAYEED

NEWSPAPERS have been rife with reports about a pink bollworm attack on the cotton crop this year. The scenario is indeed disastrous on many accounts.

Of course, the very first thing to be destroyed is the livelihood of the country’s millions of small farmers.

With cotton being a major cash crop, millions rely on its harvest for a sizable portion of their income. In fact, they go heavily into debt to not only buy the cotton seed but also expensive inputs like fertilisers and multiple pesticides that are sprayed on cotton. Without these, the seed cannot yield a good harvest.

According to small farmers from Multan and Sahiwal, nearly 90pc of the cotton crop has been destroyed. For farmers in Multan who sowed on leased land, the per-acre loss is approximately Rs40,000. And the loss for those who have their own land runs to about Rs20,000.

Another critical point is the amount of pesticides that have been used on the cotton crop this year. A newspaper advisory from the government mentions the ‘correct’ use of pesticides that farmers should be applying on the beleaguered cotton crop. This is indeed ironic, as one major selling point of Bt cotton is its ability to ward off pest attacks. But the attack of pink bollworms this year has at least put this claim to rest.

There are farmers who also feel that the crop’s failure will be beneficial for the gigantic seed corporations that thrive on their expensive patented seeds.

According to a farmer from the Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek, this could be a golden opportunity to push farmers to switch from cotton to corn. Corn is used for making ethanol. Pioneer, an American company, has also been promoting the use of certain branded corn varieties that are used for animal feed.

The animal dung from animals fed these corn varieties yield higher urea content and is considered a good source of biogas. But one has to yet see whether the patented hybrid corn seeds will turn out to be a boon or bane for Pakistan’s agriculture sector.

What is the cost of these branded seeds? Hybrid corn seeds of Pioneer, Syngenta and Monsanto are priced at Rs5,500-6,000 per 10kg; it takes about 10kg of seeds for per-acre sowing. The ‘beauty’ of these seeds is that none of them give seed for next year’s cultivation. Hence, the farmers have to buy new batches of seed every year.

That is the crux of the matter for the agro-chemical and biotechnology firms. No doubt, the ‘commodification’ of natural resources is a key strategy of market-driven forces.

At the moment, all cotton seeds in the market are being sold without trademarks. The price of 1kg of cotton can vary from Rs300 to Rs1,500. If women sow seed by hand, then at least 3kg is needed; if seed drills are used, then 5-8kg is required.

So if patented cotton seed, particularly the genetically modified Bt variety, is introduced next year (a major reason for the passing of the Amended Seed Act 2015), then there is no doubt that seed prices will jump.

The cotton crop’s failure this year can be exactly the kind of situation that benefits multinational corporations: it will now be argued that substandard seed is the cause of the current catastrophe.

However, it needs to be pointed out that Bt cotton has suffered a similar fate in India, where this seed is heavily protected under patents. The Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research has confirmed the pink bollworm’s resistance to Monsanto’s second generation biotechnology protection Bollgard-II in some parts of Indian Gujarat.

Meanwhile, our textile industry will face a further setback when it is unable to find cotton for local production. According to some newspapers, the All Pakistan Textile Manufacturers Association and the Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association are advocating for the import of Bt cotton seeds supported by Monsanto.

At the same time, Pakistan is increasing its sugarcane harvest to produce more ethanol. According to the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook, Pakistan increased its ethanol production from 97.2m litres in 2004 to 321.8m litres in 2014.

Based on media reports, much of the ethanol in the country is being sent to Europe. Do our farmers want to be energy suppliers to the oil-guzzling vehicle industry in the northern hemisphere? What about food for our own people?

azra.sayeed@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, November 23rd, 2015

National food security policy on its way: Bosan

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ISLAMABAD: The national food security policy is being finalised and would be announced after complete consensus, said Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Bosan.
“We have uploaded the draft on the official website of the ministry for comments and suggestions from the members of parliament and other stakeholders,” he said. The policy would be submitted to the federal cabinet for final approval before its announcement.
He said the National Food Security Council is also being set up, to be headed by the Prime Minister, to further boost the agriculture sector. The council would help resolve issues between the federal and provincial governments, pertaining to agriculture after the 18th Amendment.
“The ministry would also present the Plant Breeders Rights Bill during the upcoming session of the National Assembly, which would revolutionise the agriculture sector within three years,” said Bosan, adding the protection of breeders’ rights would build up confidence among local and foreign breeders and attract investment in the sector.
“Our government to give relief to farmers has announced a ‘Kissan Relief Package worth Rs341 billion, which is a short-term measure to prepare farmers to cultivate the next crop. Under the package, rice and cotton growers having 12.5 acres or less land would be provided Rs5,000 per acre support.”
“We have also tried to reduce the input cost by relieving duties on pesticides and fertilisers,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21th, 2015.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/995603/agriculture-national-food-security-policy-on-its-way-bosan/