Below is a press release by Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) on the Punjab Seed Act:

Press Release: Punjab Seed Act 2013

April 8, 2014

According to Secretary Agriculture Punjab, Muslim League (N) government in Punjab is to table the Punjab Seed Act 2013 soon. No doubt, the Punjab seed act would be very much in line with the KPK proposed seed act 2014 on January 15 this year which will only allow registered seed dealers and companies to undertake commercial activity for seeds.

As per the draft KPK Seed Act: No unregistered person or entity will be allowed to (a) conduct seed business; (b) sell, import, stock or exhibit for sale, barter or otherwise supply seed of any variety/hybrid or species which is not registered; (c) sell, import, stock or exhibit for sale, barter or otherwise supply seed of any variety/hybrid or species which is misbranded.

This series of seed legislation in the country seems to be on the demands of the agro-chemical transnational corporations such as Monsanto, Dow, Pioneer, Syngenta and others. The GAIN Report 2012 of the United States Department for Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service has highlighted the lack of a national seed and a plant breeders’ legislation pointing it as a “major impediment to investment in Pakistan by multinational seed companies.” According to the USDA GAIN Report, the lack of a Plant Breeders Seed Act is a violation of the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO). The TRIPs agreement allows big corporations and commercial plant breeders to hold patents over seeds which mean that farmers are dependent on monopolistic seed corporations.

The TRIPs agreement is considered one of the most anti-farmer international law for small and landless farmers of the third world countries such as Pakistan. It takes away the right of the farmers to save, exchange and earn a livelihood from seeds. It is indeed an irony, as today all patented seeds have genetic material which was freely shared by farmers over many generations through centuries.

Allowing GM crops legally on commercial basis will further allow the multinationals control over Pakistani seed markets. It will aggravate farmers vulnerability in agricultural production since cost of input will be beyond small farmers reach intensifying the food security situation in Pakistan. In addition, the biodiversity of the province is at very high risk from any introduction of GM crops.

The Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) and Roots for Equity demand the members of Punjab assembly and the government of Punjab to propose a legislation which strengthen small and landless farmers giving them control over productive resources.

We demand that our provincial and federal government takes the lead in enacting legislation which protects the lives and livelihood of small farmers who are the majority in this province as well as the country!