Proponents of GMO seeds become active again

Urge caretaker govt to allow legal import of seeds for cooking oil, animal feed production

KARACHI:

The debate on consuming genetically modified organisms (GMO) in agriculture has erupted once again in Pakistan.

Influential businessmen and representatives of some sectors of the agronomy are pressing the current caretaker government to allow the documented import and use of GMO seeds for producing cooking oil and preparing feed for chicken and cattle.

Earlier, many nations tested GMO seeds and banned their use in 2015 after finding them harmful for human consumption and environment.

However, the influential quarters in Pakistan have continued to push different governments to permit legal import of GMO seeds to serve their vested interests, but have remained largely unsuccessful so far.

They are now demanding that the interim administration introduce a policy for GMO seeds. For over a decade, these seeds are being brought into the country through mis-declaration, but are sometimes seized by the Customs during inspection.

Sharing the experiences of farmers who have used GMO and hybrid seeds, Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) member from Haripur District Asif Khan told The Express Tribune that there was a time when farmers used to mix the residue of cotton seeds, called cotton cake, to prepare feed for cattle.

However, they are now gradually abandoning the practice as their animals have been infected with a lungs disease. “A large number of small farmers in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) are of the view that the mixing of BT cotton cake is causing the disease in the cattle. They are now mixing wheat instead of cotton cake,” Khan said.

He claimed that scientists had injected some kind of a poison into BT cotton seeds to save the crop from worms and insect attacks.

“There are some types of ‘friendly worms’. But the poison kills them as well. Honeybees and butterflies stay no more alive after sitting on BT cotton flowers,” he elaborated.

PKMT is working in 16 districts of three provinces – Punjab, K-P and Sindh – to look after the interest of small and landless farmers and help produce wheat and corn by planting organic seeds.

Khan revealed that GMO seed organisations had also introduced modified seeds of corn in some parts of Pakistan. “The oil extracted from such corn can only be used in vehicles and factories and even it is not fit for consumption by animals.”

Such GMO seed-based corn was being cultivated in Sahiwal, Okara and some other parts of Punjab, he said. “When such produce cannot be consumed by animals, how humans can eat them,” Khan asked.

Such seeds are also used in chicken feed that helps grow chicks rapidly and increase their weight abnormally. Simultaneously, they damage nutrition contents in the birds.

Read Is the ban on GMO soybeans a blessing in disguise?

“GMO and hybrid seeds have been introduced purely for minting money,” he remarked.

According to available information, GMO seeds are developed through crossing genes from animals and plants, which is an unnatural process that harms human health and the environment.

In Pakistan, Khan claimed, most of the agricultural production was coming through GMO seeds including almost all vegetables as “marketing companies tell farmers that they can become rich overnight with the use of modified seeds.”

GMO seeds can be cultivated only one time and farmers have to go back to seed companies every time they plan to plant a crop. On the contrary, organic seeds can be used multiple times.

The market share of organic seeds is gradually being taken over by GMO seeds and farmers are compelled to depend on only four GMO seed companies, which have 70% market share globally.

“GMO seeds are considered a weapon in geopolitics and the political economy around the world,” he said.

Last year, former federal minister for national food security and research Tariq Bashir Cheema remained highly vocal about the drawbacks of GMO seeds.

He asked people to stop eating “poisonous chicken” until the GMO issue was resolved. He also called for banning GMO soybean in Pakistan.

Sindh Abadgar Board President Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah underlined the need for improving food quality standards, saying the spray of pesticides to kill worms on standing crops also made the harvest contaminated and impacted food quality.

“Our food quality standards are lower than those of GMO seeds,” he claimed, but added that farmers needed to find alternatives of GMO seeds, instead of abandoning their use.

He was of the view that there had been only widespread debates but no formal studies had been conducted to highlight the benefits and drawbacks of GMOs.

Shah pointed out that Europe had banned the use of GMOs in agriculture, but India, Indonesia and Bangladesh allowed their selective use. “Pakistan should make a clear decision to give a roadmap to farmers,” he urged.

The writer is a staff correspondent

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2023.

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