The country is heading for commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops, in the absence of a strong regulatory system, trained staff and well-equipped laboratory to deal with the issues involved, according to an officer.
“The government is handicapped, from field testing to approval and finally, commercialisation of GM crops,” an official of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council told Dawn. Worse, the government depends entirely on data provided by applicants (producers of GM crops in Pakistan) who evaluate, monitor, discuss, regulate and approve GM crops for sale to farmers.
According to the Bio-safety Guidelines and Rules of 2005, representatives of various departments of the textile ministry, including the Central Cotton Research Institute in Multan, Pakistan Central Cotton Committee in Karachi and Cotton Crop Assessment Committee; the PARC, the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research; the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology and Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad, of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission; the Punjab agriculture department and the Ministry of Science and Technology are members of a Technical Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Bio-safety Committee (NBC) which approves commercialisation of GM seeds.
“It is because of involvement of all these organisations that the NBC’s requirements and bio-safety standards are compromised when it comes to designing, monitoring, implementing and enforcing rules and regulations concerning GM crops,” said Asif Shuja, a former director general of the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency who had time and again recommended that neutral members should be included in the NBC to verify data on GM crops.
Read the full, original article: Regulatory system urged for GM crops
