BT Cotton cultivation in Pakistan: Theories and Facts

Cotton also known as “white gold” is an important cash crop of Pakistan. Cotton accounts for almost 8.2% of the value added in agriculture and about 3.2% of GDP; roughly 66% of the country’s export earnings are from textiles, adding more than $2.5 billion to the national economy. In addition, hundreds of ginning factories and textile mills in the country are heavily dependent on cotton, and millions of people are employed in the cotton value chain Pakistan is a major exporter of raw cotton and cotton products (i.e., cotton yarn, cotton fabric, and other items manufactured from cotton) to the United States and many other countries of the world. These figures show the importance of cotton for farmers and the national economy.

Indigenous Bt cotton (insect-resistant [IR]) varieties were developed in May 2005 for the first time in Pakistan by the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering. Subsequently, 40,000 kg of basic seed of Bt cotton varieties IR-FH-901, IR-NIBGE-2, IR-CIM-448, and IR-CIM-443 was provided and grown over 8,000 acres during the 2005/2006 season with encouraging results. These early users of Bt cotton have been tightly screened and evaluated by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission on the basis of their capacity to follow biosafety rules. The said fields were not visited by the scouts of PW&QCP, Punjab.

Commercial cultivation of Bt cotton was not officially permitted in Pakistan until very recently. However the area under Bt cultivation increased every year, and during the 2009/2010 cotton season it was around 70% of all cropland. This trend raised many interesting questions.

Pakistan is the 4^th top producer of cotton in the world, yet in terms of yield it is at the 10^th position. There are many possible reasons for low cotton yield in Pakistan including high prices of agricultural inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), higher intensity of insect and pest attacks, deficiency of water for irrigation, lack of advanced technologies and awareness, low literacy rate of farmers, adulteration in pesticides and agro-professionalism, etc. Crop yield cannot be attributed to just one or two factors. However, there are certain factors, controlled by the government, such as price and availability of the seeds, and some decisions that are in the domain of individual farmers, such as choice of the seed.

Bt cotton was developed through the transfer of a gene from a soil bacterium. This gene, when expressed in cotton, produces Cry protein, which is harmful to the larvae of moths, butterflies, beetles, and flies. When insects feed on the plant, the toxin enters the body and binds to the insect’s gut. Hence, it disrupts its feeding and digestion process and eventually leads to the death of the insect.

Popularity of the transgenic varieties (such as Bt cotton) among the farmers, is due to two factors: the potential of increase in yield per acre and savings on pesticides and labor resulting from fewer pest attacks. Bt cotton is genetically enhanced to resist three bollworms: cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), the spotted bollworm (Earias insulana), and the pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella).

It is a fact that globally US$8.1 billion per year are used on pesticides; out of which, nearly $2.7 billion are used on cotton pesticides. Pesticides can be saved by cultivating Bt transgenic crops (Shelton, Zhao, & Roush, 2002). A reduction in the use of broad-spectrum pesticides on Bt cotton would result in the conservation of natural enemies as well as a decrease in soil and water contamination. Moreover, a reduction in pesticide usage will also bring health benefits to female Pakistani cotton pickers and others who get in contact with these pesticides. However cotton-leaf curl virus (CLCV) is still the major threat to Pakistani cotton along with the recently emerged and extremely damaging mealybug. Presently, no resistant cotton variety is available against these two menaces, and the Bt cotton is also vulnerable to them.

According to a survey of farmers in the Punjab province of Pakistan, about Bt cotton adoption and poverty reduction in Pakistan, the findings revealed that adoption of the new technology exerted a positive and significant impact on cotton yields, household income, and poverty reduction, and a negative effect on the use of pesticides.

Australia has the highest yield per acre among the top 12 cotton-producing countries of the world,. In Australia, Bt cotton was introduced during the 1996/1997 season, when 30,000 ha (10% of the Australian cotton crop) was sown with Bt cotton; Bt cotton cultivation increased in subsequent years and compared to conventional cotton in 2003/2004, Bollgard II, reduced chemical use by 90%. Although the adoption of Bt cotton has maintained profitability for cotton growers, reduced adverse environmental impacts of cotton production, and delivered benefits to rural communities, many growers want to retain the skills and ability to grow profitable conventional cotton. This provides insurance against unforeseen problems with Bt cotton, e.g., development of resistance to the toxins. Furthermore, profitable production of conventional cotton also maintains competition for Bt cotton and potentially helps place a ceiling on the cost of Bt transgenic technology. An integral part of the adoption of Bt cotton in Australia was the implementation of a resistance management plan (RMP) with the following key elements.

¨      Effective refuge planting on each farm growing Bt cotton

¨      Defined planting window for Bt cotton

¨      Mandatory cultivation of Bt cotton crops and residues after harvest

¨      Removal of volunteer Bt cotton plants

¨      Bt resistance-level monitoring in field populations

In context of Pakistan, RMP aspect “A” could be more viable for large landholders and progressive farmers, while RMP aspect “E” could be made one of the duties of the scouts of the Directorate General of Pest Warning and Quality Control of Pesticide (PW&QCP) Punjab, Pakistan.

The effects of insect-resistant Bt cotton on pesticide use and agricultural productivity in Argentina was studied for 300 farmers. In this survey it was found that Bt cotton reduces application rates of toxic chemicals by 50% while significantly increasing yields. In addition, gross benefits could be highest for smallholding farmers who had not adopted Bt cotton. The results also showed that rapid resistance buildup and associated pest outbreaks appear to be unlikely if minimum non-Bt refuge areas were maintained. Unlike in Pakistan, a farmer is considered “small” in Argentina if the landholding is less than 90 acres. The majority of farmers in Pakistan have a landholding of less than 2.5 acres; with 90 acres it may be feasible to maintain non-Bt refuge areas, but highly unlikely when the landholding is significantly less.

Cotton production in Pakistan for 2009/2010 was forecasted at 10.5 million bales, with a possible expected shortfall of 12%, or more than one million cotton bales. While Government of Pakistan approved field trials for only six Bt cotton cases, it is estimated that 70% of the 2009/2010 cotton crop was planted to Bt. In 2006, 4% of the cultivated area in Punjab was estimated to be under Bt cotton cultivation, which was quite small as compared to China and India during the same period. However, the last four to five years had seen an exponential increase in Bt cotton cultivation in Pakistan, and this increase was higher than in China and India. Furthermore, in terms of individual farm area, the area under cultivation by Pakistani farmers is more equivalent to that of Chinese farmers; in terms of yield loss due to pests, Pakistan more closely resembles. Thus, Pakistan presents a unique case for the analysis of Bt cotton cultivation.

Certain Bt cotton varieties may be inappropriate in some areas for local growing conditions and may failed to produce satisfactory results. In the recent past, widespread planting of illegally acquired Bt cotton has posed serious problems. The seed was not developed for Pakistan’s agronomic conditions. According PW&QCP Punjab, the incidence of CLCV in Punjab in 2009 was 83.1%, a sharp increase from the 2008 incidence rate of 54.34%. This resulted in lower crop production than the target. It reveals that the CLCV infestation has reached the highest levels as compared to previous years, which could be due to increase in Bt cotton cultivation. A possible reason could be that CLCV is a local phenomenon for which the locally developed seed varieties may be more suitable.

Punjab Seed Council evaluated 11 proposals in 2010for Bt cotton/hybrid varieties evolved by research institutions of the government (Nuclear Institute for Bio-Technology and Genetic Engineering; Faisalabad Cotton Research Institute; and the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, University of Punjab) and the private sector. In March 2010, the Council approved eight Bt cotton varieties and one hybrid variety for cultivation in Punjab, whereas two Bt cotton varieties were deferred. The approved varieties had shown effective resistance against bollworms.

At the time various administrative and research efforts are required for commercialization of a GM crop. Despite the efforts by different government departments and private sector organizations, Pakistan did not commercially adopt Bt cotton until the beginning of the 2010/2011 cotton season. This delay resulted in the unregulated adoption of Bt cotton and selling of fake and substandard cotton seed, with almost 40 varieties of Bt cotton under cultivation.

Just analyzing the data of Bt cotton cultivation in isolation with other local cotton varieties may not give the complete and true picture; hence, throughout this section the results of Bt cotton will be compared with the most popular non-Bt cotton variety sown during 2005/2006, i.e., CIM-496, cultivated in three districts of Punjab (Multan, Lodhran, and Rahim Yar Khan). Overall, the CIM-496 variety is the most commonly sown variety, as it matures early and produces a better yield.

Commercial Bt cotton cultivation was allowed in India in 2002,, but it has been present in the Indian market as early as 1998. Similarly in Pakistan, although Bt cotton was not allowed for commercial cultivation until the 2010/2011 season, it has been in the market since 2000. Although the area over which Bt cotton has been sown increased from 2005 to 2006, the area per sowing has reduced for Multan. To ascertain the reasons for this, we need to go one step further.