BT cotton plantation in Pakistan

The Government is working on an agreement with a leading foreign seed company for introducing latest Bio-tech Cotton related technologies in the country. The BT Cotton is being grown in many parts of Sindh and Punjab.

According to a survey conducted by Institute of Agri-Biotechnology and Genetic Resources National Agriculture Research Centre in 10 districts of Sindh, the cotton growers and the textile industry showed their willingness for the introduction of BT cotton in the country.

As plantation of the BT cotton helps in reducing expenditure on pesticide and raises per acre yield farmers have brought in Australian seeds and are using them since a couple of years, a cotton grower explained.

According to an another report released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), planting of biotech crops in 2007 grew by 12% or 12.3 million hectares (30 million acres) to reach a record planting of 114.3 million hectares (282.4 million acres).

The number of farmers opting for sowing BT cotton also surged from 54,000 in 2002 to 3.8 million in 2007. The ISAAA reports that farmers in many countries are planting more biotech crops than ever before. Two new countries, Chile and Poland, were included in the list of 23 countries where farmers planted biotech crops in 2007.