Post on 01-Mar-2023
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The Bt Cotton in Pakistan:
Boon or Bane?
Syed Khuram Farukh
15020235
17/12/2013
Abstract
The paper seeks to gauge the impact that BT technology has had on the crop yield of cotton in Pakistan and looks in depth at the success of some other countries that this technology has bought about. The policy reforms of India have been and critically analyzed and both the advantages and short comings of the technology are discussed have been clearly laid out. The paper uses empirical evidence to see if the introduction of BT varieties of cotton and by
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extension all genetically modified crops have been a success or a necessary evil. Some solutionsand policy recommendations have also been provided at the end.
1.1 Introduction
Cotton is an important cash crop and the third most widely
grown crop in the Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Bureau of
stastics, it is the only crop amongst the largest three (the
other two being wheat and rice) whose production and total area
under cultivation have been increased exponentially over the last
3 years. The recent changes in dynamics of the cotton industry in
Pakistan can be pinned down to the introduction of BT variety of
cotton. Cotton accounts for 8.2% value added to agriculture and
3.2% value added to GDP. The livelihoods of millions of people
depend on the cotton industry, directly and indirectly. Since
the stakes involved are very high, the government of Pakistan has
been very skeptical about introducing genetically modified
varieties of cotton seeds, there is much debate still going on
between private biomedical laboratories, farmers and ministry of
agriculture. Apart from the national issues cotton also accounts
for major exports. Pakistan is the second largest exporter of raw
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cotton and a major exporter for garments. The yield per hector
however is extremely low, as Pakistan ranks 13th in the world in
terms of yield while it is the 4th largest producer of cotton
worldwide. Genetically modified forms of cotton are being used in
all major cotton producing countries and their overall impact has
been favorable in most of the countries.
The high yield due to genetically modified cotton comes with
some strings attached; the high cost of BT cotton seeds, crop
failures, use of insecticides and dealing with higher
productivity. This paper discuss the repercussions of the mass
introduction of BT cotton varieties through deep rooted analysis
of the existing farmlands within Pakistan using this variety and
simultaneously looking at BT cotton success stories all over the
world. The paper is divided in the following way: The first
section is divided into two subsections. 2.1 will make use of
scientific knowledge to establish exactly why BT cotton gives
higher yield per acre. 2.2 will give some facts and statics about
of the BT cotton industry in Pakistan Section 3 would contain
three subsections. 3.1would discuss in depth the success of
Indian cotton industry after the introduction of BT cotton 3.2
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would list down the characteristics of farmers who are inclined
towards using BT cotton seed and making it a success and 3.3
would give the policy measures taken by Indian farmers to make
the most out of BT cotton industry. Section 4 will outline
problems, provide solutions and give alternative general policy
recommendations. The 5th and final section will give a conclusion
of the entire paper and give a verdict on the degree of success
of BT cotton.
1.2 Literature Review
Ramani SV (2008) provides a historical narrative into the
development of BT cotton in the world and narrows it down to the
introduction of genetically modified forms of cotton in south
East asia. The paper is of special concern because it not only
takes into account the official tests carried out and the year in
which BT cotton was legitimately introduced but it also takes
into account all the illegal tests that private companies were
conducting throughout India even when BT varieties were unheard
off. The paper then goes on to discuss the yield results of these
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government certified and non-certified varieties of cotton and
compares it to the normal cotton.
Rao IA. (No date) provides some facts and figures of
Pakistans’ cotton industry using a historical narrative. It then
goes on to explain the problems faced by cotton farmers today and
gently progresses towards establishing genetically modified seeds
as the only solution to Pakistan’s problems of low productivity
and lower profits. The paper then goes on to discuss the steps
that the government has taken towards the establishment of a
system that supports BT cotton and measures its success over
time.
David and Sai (2002) outline the reason why farmers in india
are inclined towards using BT cotton technology. Their assertions
are backed up by empirical evidence collected by interviewing
both bt and non-bt cotton farmers. The paper also outlines the
way in which BT cotton reduces the requirement of insecticides
and increases yield.
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India has had a major change in the dynamics of cotton
cultivation since the official introduction of BT cotton in 2002.
Naryanmorthy and kaklamkar (2006) have used empirical data to
discuss the impact that BT cotton has had on farms in Maharashtra
and the yeild difference in BT cotton and non BT cotton farms.
The paper also defines the characteristics of farmers who resort
to the use of genetically modified seeds and outlines favorable
conditions for proper cultivation. The paper is concludes with
policy reforms that have made the Indian cotton industry
successful and outlines certain loopholes that must be filled to
make it the system perfect and sustainable.
1.3 Data Review
Agriculture stastics of Pakistan, powered by the government
of Pakistan’s ministry of food and agriculture has been used to
acquire all the data tables shown in this particular paper.
Two of the tables were also collected from Pakistan bureau
of stastics which were later corroborated with the facts
collected from Agriculture stastics of Pakistan.
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Two tables used in section 3.1 and 3.2 have been taken out
from the article two articles mentioned above on the Indian
cotton industry, one by David and sai (2002) while the other was
by Naryanmorthy and kaklamkar (2006).
2.1 Scientific knowledge and history of BT cotton
In 1911, a scientist in Germany discovered that a commonly
occurring bacterium of the region Bacillus Thuringensis could act as an
insecticide against local species of moth. After subsequent
research it led to the bacterium’s commercialization in france in
1938 and iin USA in 1950 and initially it was marketed in the
form of insecticides used as a spray to finish the pest and bull
worm attack. In the 1980’s, scientists at mansanto embarked on
the quest to isolate the genes of this bacterium and immerse them
in simple cotton, a living organism. One the seed had been
germinated, it became BT cotton. As soon as the initial varieties
were tested and approved, Monsanto introduced these varieties as
early as 1996 in the USA and illegally in India around 1995.
Illegal tests performed on farmlands throughout india gave
scientists the opportunity for research and developed, something
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that would not have been possible in the US outside of lab
settings. It also introduced the BT varieties to farmers who had
been consumed by pest attack and lost all their produce at the
hands of local moths and bull worms. The toxin within this
genetically modified form of cotton kills large hoards of insects
as they munch down on the bacterium induced cotton balls(Ramani
9-14). This way, the insect attack has been taken care of even
before the stage of the application of insecticides comes in.
Bacillus Thuringensis is not resistant to all forms of pests or insects
hence farmers still need to spend a considerable sum of money to
buy insecticides but a difference in yield clearly differentiates
BT cotton from non-BT cotton, since the yield difference is at
least 30% greater in the latter case. In developing countries
like India the yield can be as high as 80%, the insects overtime
tend to build resistance to it however and the productivity goes
down, but the fall shouldn’t be blown out of proportions and BT
cotton should be given credit where it is due.
2.2 Facts and stastics of BT cotton industry in Pakistan
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As mentioned earlier, the cotton yield in Pakistan ranks at
13th position in the world which is extremely low considering it
is the most widely grown cash crop of the country. A multitude of
reasons have been given for the low yield, high intensity of pest
attack, lower quality of seeds and other agricultural inputs and
inadequate technical understanding are amongst the top few.
Agricultural biotechnology seems to be the only option in this
case which can rescue the country out of its low productivity
trap. Private agrochemical labs have taken the lead on this
matter and have started to import seeds from countries such as
china, india, Thailand and Malaysia. The cotton crop is
essentially endangered by two species of pests – chewing pests
and sucking pests. In Pakistan, the climatic conditions in the
cotton growing areas are extremely favorable for the germination
of the chewing pests. The most threatening chewing pests are
bullworms, known as ‘sundi’ in the local language. BT cotton
seeds help to counter the need to apply tons of pesticides and
insecticides since it is highly resistant to attack by chewing
pests. Ever since the introduction of bt cotton seeds at a mass
scale the amount of area under cultivation of cotton has
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increased substantially (ijaz). Data collected by the Pakistan
bureau proves this assertion:
Cotton is the only crop amongst the top 3 (wheat, rice
cotton) which has increased both its production and the area
under cultivation during the last three years. The trend towards
growing cotton at a mass and substituting it with other important
crops such as wheat is a very recent one and specially came into
notice after the official introduction of BT cotton in Pakistan.
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The following table also collected from Pakistan bureau of
stastics gives the yield per province over the years to highlight
the major cotton growing areas of Pakistan.
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The table clearly shows that Punjab is the leading producer
of raw cotton in Pakistan and also occupies the greatest area.
This data shows the decreasing trend of using desi varieties of
cotton which is being translated to upland or high yielding
varieties of cotton seeds. Yield differences cannot be noticed in
a short amount of time (ie 2004 to 2008/9) but data collected in
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the 1990s clearly shows that the yield per acre has increased
substantially. The table below shows the difference in yields.
An increase in yield from 512 kgs per hector in 1998/99 to
713 kgs per hector in2008/2009 is clearly indicative of the
success that BT cotton has achieved in Pakistan over the course
of 10 years.
In 2005, Pakistan government injected 40,000 kg bt cotton
seeds across 8000 acres of Pakistan’s farmland which bought great
benefits to the cotton growing farmers throughout the country.
The government assisted farms however are not huge in number
hence the hold of government in rural areas of Punjab and sindh
is fairly weak(ijaz). The following table from the agriculture
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cencus(2000) compares the government farms compared to private
owned farms.
Government farms reporting cotton are merely 37, a number
negligible compared to the 1626779 private farms. This reduces
the checks and balances that can be placed on the kinds of GM
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seeds being used in cotton cultivation. In most of the private
farms the seeds are purchased at a lower cost from the black
market. The varieties of BT cotton seeds are not adequately
tested for conditions prevalent in Pakistan and can prove to be
disastrous for both the farmer and the general public. The BT
varieties currently planted in Pakistan give a yield of 23-28
maund (1 maund = 40 kg) per acre while non BT cotton only gives a
yield of 17-20 maund per acre. The yield difference is easily 30%
which is far lower considering the fact that BT cotton is said to
increase the yield by as much as 85% in some cases(Ijaz).
Nonetheless this increase in cotton production has given the
farmers to plant BT cotton and rid them of the issue to use huge
amounts of pesticides and only get meager quality cotton in
return.
3.1 Success of India in cotton cultivation
India has had major breakthroughs in BT cotton production
over the past decade. Even though cotton was officially
introduced in India in 2002, private companies such as Mahyco-
Monsanto have been working on the development of BT cotton
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variety underhand. This hidden research has coupled up with
Indian governments’ inclination towards using genetically
modified crops for higher yield make India the largest exporter
of raw cotton and the second largest producer of cotton in the
world ( Ramani 6). The mass introduction of BT cotton in india is
a subject of great interest. How did BT cotton penetrate into the
Indian system at such a fast pace? Does the answer lie with the
supply side, private companies like Monsanto or Indian state, or
does it lie with the demand side, with the farmers themselves?
What factors prompted the farmers to resort to the use of BT
cotton? Naryanmorthy and klamkar (2008) embarked on an empirical
research of farms in Maharashtra, a province where 36% of the
Indian cotton is grown and a province that was the first to
welcome BT cotton with open arms. The BT cotton crop in India did
not show significant difference in cost due to a reduction in the
amount of pesticides used as opposed to a widely believed theory
which proved to be true for other regions.
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The cost differentials between bt and non bt cotton are not
significant but the difference in profits and output is where the
BT cotton distinguishes itself and takes a lead from all other
competitors. According to the empirical research the rise in
productivity was immense, the BT farms produced 24
quintels/hector grossing a profit of 31000 rs while the non-BT
cotton farms only produced 15 quintels/hector grossing a profit
of 17000 rs (Ramani kalamkar 2720). The only thing that keeps the
Indian farmers from completely shifting to BT cotton, is the seed
cost which is at least 5 times as much as a normal cotton seed.
3.2 Characteristics of farmers who are inclined towards
using BT cotton seed
It has already been established that the success of the
spread of bt cotton in india lies more towards the demand side.
Farmers who were willing to take up the challenge to plant a
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genetically modified crop had some distinguishing
characteristics. The most striking difference came in the
personal characteristics. Farmers showed a shift towardsBT cotton
were on average more educated that those who stuck to non-BT
cotton. The former acquired 9 years, while the latter only
acquired about 6 years of formal education. The cost of BT cotton
seeds per kg is 1500s while non-BT seeds cost 300rs per kg. This
huge disparity in prices prompts only those farmers who have
ample supply of irrigation channels to use the BT seed. Rains fed
areas are almost exclusively led to use the normal cotton
variety. There is no correlation between the size of the farm
and the choice of BT cotton. Since the seeds are scale neutral,
both small and large farm owners who possess the above mentioned
characteristics are inclined towards resorting to the use of BT
cotton. Six reasons why farmers were inclined to use bt cotton
hace been tabulated below:
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3.3 Policy measures taken by Indian farmers
The cost of BT cotton seed, as mentioned earlier is much
higher than the seed of average cotton crop. In developing
countries like india, this makes it extremely difficult for the
farmer to take a decision between aiming for higher productivity
and reducing the costs. In some cases the Bt cotton crop is only
given precedence in seasons where the farmer feels that the pest
attack will be considerably higher. Under normal circumstances
high yield is compromised on to cut down on the costs of
production. India has developed institutes that incorporate the
BT genes into relatively inexpensive crops (David and Sai 4601).
A number of agro chemical labs have developed recently both in
the private and public sectors throughout India which helps in
finding cost efficient ways to develop BT cotton seeds. Taking a
market oriented approach towards the development of biotechnology
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can work for the benefit of both the consumers and the farmers.
The success of Indian cotton industry is rooted in the act of
taking adequate measures to lower the cost of genetically
modified seeds and making the entire project sustainable.
The pests that prove to be lethal to BT cotton are different
from those that prove disastrous to normal cotton (Bollworms for
instance). Indian research institutes have been specialized to
tackle pests and insects that prove to be lethal for BT cotton.
Proper research and development is essential for the success for
a scheme such as this and the India has been able to solve this
problem to a great extent. The general level of education in
farmers should also be increased, since a correlation between
education and choice of seed has been noticed. Indian institutes
have not only been consistent with providing education for all
but seminars are also conducted regularly for the farmers to keep
themselves up to date with the current happenings of the modern
agricultural world.
4.1 Solutions and policy recommendations
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One of the major problems outlined in this paper and in
hoards of literature on Pakistani cotton industry points out
towards the lack of government involvement in cotton agriculture
sector. Where on one hand, wheat is constantly under the lens of
the government, an important cash crop such as cotton is left
utterly uncared for. The number of government that report cotton
are currently only 37, this number should be increased
substantially in order to address the issue of low government
involvement.
Research and development centers and agrochemical labs
should be set up both in the private and public sector to create
more opportunities to make cross breeds of BT cotton plant that
is much better suited to the conditions of Pakistan. The low
productivity of bt cotton crops in Pakistan as pointed out
earlier is because the species grown here might not be suitable
for the local soil or waters etc.
The price of BT cotton seed also causes problems in the
spread of technology, just like India, Pakistan being a developed
country cannot spend a large sum of money on acquiring seeds that
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will be of no use in the coming season. The farmers are not ready
to make a sudden shift from normal cotton to bt cotton. What
needs to be done here is follow a gradual scheme in which support
prices are set for the BT cotton seeds and farmers are encouraged
into purchasing the HYV of cotton seeds. Once they see the
profits for themselves they will be inclined to purchase these
seeds and the cycle of high productivity would go on.
Cotton production in Pakistan is non uniform. Punjab
singlehandedly grows more cotton than all the other provinces put
together. The climatic conditions of other areas are also suited
to cotton crops. This form of cash crop cultivation should be
introduced in other provinces so that a uniform growth of cotton
can take place throughout the country. BT varieties of cotton are
resistant to pests and prove to be much more productive hence it
will be in the interests of farmers in other provinces to make
use of this technology and reap more benefits.
5.1 Concluding remarks
This paper was meant to develop a holistic understanding of
the plight of BT cotton in Pakistan and outline the major players
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in its introduction. It started off by pointing out some facts
about the cotton itself and moved on towards facts and figures
regarding the cotton industry in Pakistan. A very keen
understanding of Pakistanis’ next door neighbor, India, was used
to help provide some recommendations for policy building which
makes BT cotton as successful in Pakistan as it is in India.
One shortcomings of the paper are isolated factual
groundings, most of the literature failed to adequately
differentiate between BT cotton and normal cotton. The yield and
productivity increases that have been noticed recently are not
being pinned down to GM seeds because the effect measured is not
being properly isolated.
Another shortcoming was lack of formal literature present on
Pakistan’s cotton industry. While numerous research papers were
found on the cotton industry of India, china and USA. Pakistans
cotton industry was something unheard of, this made the writing
of this essay extremely difficult as the preliminary research had
to be conducted right out of the papers published by agricultural
ministry which proved to be a daunting yet stimulating task.
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Overall the paper addresses the issue at hand adequately, BT
cotton has had its fair share of success in Pakistan but in order
to further explore the benefits of this genetically modified form
of biotechnology the government should provide the farmers with
proper knowledge, structures and quality testes, certified seeds.
Work Cited
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David, G. Shourie, and YVST Sai. "Bt Cotton: Farmers' Reactions." Economic and Political Weekly 37.46 (2002): 4601-602. Web.
Narayanamoorthy, A., and SS Kalamkar. "Is Bt Cotton Cultivation Economically Viable for Indian Farmers? An Empirical Analysis." Economic and Political Weekly 40.26 (2006): 2716-724. Print.
Ramani, Shayama V. "After the Green Revolution: BT Cotton in India." 40.21 (2008): n. pag. Print.
Rao, Ijaz A. "Pakissan.com; First Bt Cotton Grown in Pakistan." Pakissan.com; First Bt Cotton Grown in Pakistan. Pakissan, 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. <http://www.pakissan.com/english/advisory/biotechnology/first.bt.cotton.grown.in.pakistan.sht>