ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Muhammad Gondal on Wednesday said the recently introduced Seed Amendment Bill seeks certain important amendments in the Seed Act of 1976.
While talking to the media the minister highlighted the crucially important features of the bill. He said the bill was aimed at making the seed legislation more effective under the changing scenario of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and to meet the requirements of the private sector along with the emerging seed industry. The minister said that certain amendments in the Seed Act, 1976 had been proposed and already approved by the cabinet in its meeting held on September 30, 2009.
“The objectives of the amendments are to incorporate the wider participation of the private sector in agriculture and the latest development in seed technology and seed industry along with our international obligation under the WTO regime,” he added.
The minister said the bill once passed would increase the role of the private sector through registration of seed companies, seed dealers and seed processing units. It would provide an opportunity to make available the pre-basic seed for the production of basic and certified seed in the private sector. It would also enhance the penalties for those selling sub-standard seed in the market and establish accredited seed testing laboratory in the private sector.
“The amendments would enable us to provide training to the people engaged in the seed industry and regulate the quality of transgenic varieties developed through genetic engineering,” expressed the minister.
It would ensure the availability of quality seeds to the farmers, which is extremely important. The dependence on the seed import would also be decreased and would encourage an investment in the emerging national seed industry by multinational and private seed sector to invest and go for local seed production.
He said that the Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) bill, already introduced in the parliament, would ensure intellectual property rights to the breeders for development of new plant varieties. The introduction of the bill would pave the way for enhanced investment of public sector in breeding programmes for development of high yielding hybrid varieties.
About importance of the bill, the minister said that it would encourage plant breeders and seed organisations of both public and private sectors to invest in research and plant breeding.
“It would contribute to the redevelopment and availability of new technologies and making additional resources available to support research in the country,” said the minister.
The minister further added that the multinationals and biotech seed companies could play their role for providing quality seed only if they were assured of protection of their investment through PBR.
He said that PBR legislation was required to avoid further delay in the investment in seed industry of Pakistan. “We need to support and protect the local seed industry otherwise we shall have to remain a seed importing country with extremely high cost and that would keep our farmers at stress in the competitive agrarian economy,” concluded the minister.
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