Pakistan needs to focus on GM tech, hybrid crops

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: There is a dire need for establishment of institutes at provincial and federal level to create awareness among the farming community about Genetically Modified (GM) technology. Pakistan’s agriculture sector was facing production losses due to insufficient utilisation of biotechnology. A senior member of Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (PYMA), Ghulam Rabbani said Friday. He said that sustainability and improvement in crops yield are the major challenges to overcome in order to meet the upcoming threats of increasing population and depleting water resources. He said the rapid progress of worldwide agriculture sector is only due to the GM crops and the agriculture sector in Pakistan has a huge potential if GM technology was adopted as early as possible. He said that in India BT cotton hybrid was approved for commercial cultivation in 2003. staff report

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