LAHORE: A meeting by the Punjab Agriculture Department called to deliberate upon the Punjab Breeder’s Right Act of 2016 and Draft Seed Act of 2016 on Jan 17 remained inconclusive after few participants objected to both drafted acts. Another round of meeting will be held on Jan 28.

The meeting, held at the auditorium of Punjab Agriculture House, was attended by thee heads of agriculture department wings, research institutes, vice-chancellors of public universities, senior government officials, members of textile, agriculture and trade bodies.

The Punjab government wants to introduce Plant Breeders’ Right Act of 2016 to protect the rights of GM seeds’ importers and breeders with new seed varieties and hybrids, vegetables, cut flowers, fruit, plants, leaf/foliage and tissue culture.

Participants see legislation only to benefit multinationals

Similarly, the government has also drafted the Punjab Seed (Amendment) Act of 2016 to facilitate import of seeds for multiple crops by seed companies, apparently to overcome substandard seed and increase per acre yield.

Interestingly, the meeting was held at a time when either drafted act has been challenged in the Lahore High Court.

Insiders told Dawn on Wednesday the majority of participants showed concern over the provincial government intention to invite multinational seed companies by allowing them import of seeds of all crops, including Bt cotton under the Truth in Labeling-a move, which will waive the restriction of testing and certification.

They said even a top boss of the Federal Seed Certification also did not agree with the provincial government’s proposal and feared import of seed of cash crop under Truth-in Labeling would destroy the cash crop.

Insiders added some of the participants said the Punjab Breeder’s Right Act of 2016 was a replica of the federal act.

Agri Forum Pakistan president Dr Ibrahim Mughal, who attended the meeting, said about 75 of the participants did not agree with the officials to amend the Federal Seed Act of 2015 to benefit companies like Monsanto to introduce GMO technology.

He said the provincial government was going to replace the federal act against its own written requests to the federal government few years ago to frame the act to protect national interest.

Mr Mughal added the Federal Breeder’s Right Act was being replicated by Punjab apparently with no change. He said the breeder’s right act was a good step.

Additional Agriculture Secretary (Planning) Dr Ghazanfer Ali Khan, who chaired the meeting, said further deliberations would continue on the disputed issue of Truth-in Labeling. He claimed he wanted to bring the cotton production to 15 million bales in the coming years.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2017