"Studies on Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) cotton have acknowledged that Pakistani farmers are not making the most of BT cotton, because the BT varieties were developed by various private sector plant breeders by transferring BT trait to locally developed cotton varieties, and these varieties are distributed without a formal regulatory framework which raises several concerns about seed quality," said the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its recent report.

According to the report, there is also no resistance management plan and farmers are encouraged to maintain a refuge area with conventional cotton varieties alongside BT cotton crop so that resistance in pests may not rekindle over a period of time.

SBP said that controlling these pests is important because cotton yields in Pakistan are very low compared with other countries like China, Brazil and Turkey, despite that Pakistan is the world's fourth largest cotton producer.

Although higher intensity of insect and pest attacks and poor quality of seeds are the key reasons for low cotton yields in Pakistan, it can be improved with the introduction of pest-resistant seeds, which is likely to have substantial impact on cotton production.

The use of BT cotton has an immediate bearing on farmers as it reduces expense on pesticides and crops gain resistance against the incidence of bollworm, but seeds are costlier and require more water and urea.

BT cotton has been developed through the transfer of a gene, Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT), from a soil bacterium. This gene enhances crop resistance against three bollworms: spotted, pink, and American bollworm. The Pakistani government introduced genetically-modified (GM) cotton seeds from 2010 kharif season (June to September). Accordingly, certified seeds for 10 varieties of BT cotton and one hybrid variety were released.

Although the work on developing GM seeds started in 1997, delays in commercial use of certified GM seeds resulted in unregulated adoption of different varieties of BT cotton as early as the year 2000, said SBP.