Seed, pesticides sector: Government urged to act against cartelisation

Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, former Chairman Standing Committee on Agriculture, Ahmad Jawad has demanded of the government to get rid of the cartelisation in the seed and pesticides sector.

Talking to Business Recorder, he said the substandard seed and pesticides may hit the agriculture sector to the next level. "Cotton crop is one of the novel example in this regard.

It is the second consecutive year that cotton growers seemed worried, as substandard seeds have again flooded local markets especially in the Sindh," he added.

"These seeds grow nothing or the germination rate is as low as 30-40 in the fields. Advance cotton cultivation has started in the southern parts of Sindh and South Punjab and farmers look worried because of the non-availability of high productivity seeds according to the respective soil conditions," he continued.

Jawad was of the view that it appears that there is no role of regulator who can check the quality of seed and pesticides on every shipment before landing in the market, despite country have best research institutes like PARC where we can produce local seeds for any crops through international cross breeding according to our weather conditions. However, the role of Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department, and Provincial Seed Corporations was so bleak, even they were not held accountable.

He maintained that similarly the quality of pesticides is so pathetic that if you put one spray on the crop to kill the insect or virus, it would be most likely that through that spray another virus may hit on the same crop.

The Agriculture Pest Warning & Quality Control of Pesticide Department should be given new SOP's by the government after the detailed consultation so that they may monitor the quality of pesticides vigilantly.

Jawad further stated that Ministry of National Food Security may also ensure that the import of pesticides should not be substandard. In this regard agriculture pesticides act 1992 and Seed Amendment Act 2015 needs to be reviewed in detail and necessary punishment may be proposed by the parliament to end the cartelisation with the strict enforcement laws.

He also said that the government needs to make cotton growers stand on their own feet and bring back those to cotton cultivation who have opted for other profitable alternatives, it was necessary for the government to support cotton farmers and there should be some targeted mechanism to directly benefit the deserving.