Pakistan
August 5, 2013

Source: PABIC

Biotechnology has a considerable potential for promoting the efficiency of crop improvement, food production, and poverty reduction, especially in developing countries like Pakistan. The agriculture biotechnology has proved a potential source to provide people with more and better crops, food and holds even greater promise for the future.

So the world of biotechnology has brightened once again as the government of Pakistan has taken a major step forward for coordinated and targeted initiatives meant for research and development in biotechnology, which, subsequently would improve the engineering of medicines, food or other sector.

Said an official, who was among the participants of a recently held meeting in the Ministry of Science and Technology, while talking to this scribe, “serious efforts are being made to revive the biotechnology in the country as re-establishment of the National Commission on Biotechnology and charging it with the task of coordinating nationwide research programs in different areas where biotechnology can be applied is under consideration,” he also said that the meeting, held with Secretary S&T in the chair, discussed in detail the research and development in bio-technology for application to industry.

The secretary told the meeting that more focus is being put to promote Nano-Technology and Bio-Technology for socio-economic development in the country through establishment of a Centre of Excellence and Foundation.

Dr. Anwar Nasim, an expert on biotechnology and patron of Pakistan Biotechnology Information Center (PABIC) had attended the meeting on special invitation, told the participants that biotechnology was a success story. He was of the view that Bio-Technology was being used in different fields and research being done in different centers. Therefore, there was a need of coordination between these centers.

He gave an example of Indian Department of Bio-Technology headed by a full time Secretary that coordinate with the Ministry of Science and Technology. Limited resources, inadequate stock of trained manpower and lack of proper coordination among the institutions are some of the reasons, owing to which biotechnology sector has not been fully developed, remarked the official.

According to experts, biotechnology has a wide scope ranging from diagnoses to treatment, agriculture to medicine, and from bioremediation to gene manipulation. They argued that biotechnology has devised such techniques and procedures which can provide the mankind with the safest, germ free and highly nutritious food, which is also resistant to pathogens, along with providing the shelter against the fetal diseases.

It is to be mentioned that national bio-safety rules by the Ministry of Environment have now provided an opportunity to evaluate the GM crops for safe release into the environment and for commercial cultivation. Pakistan has made considerable progress in the research and development sector of agriculture biotechnology and has developed several GM crops.

However, commercial release is hampered due to delays and weak capacity of regulatory bodies related to bio-safety. The government is also planning to review the draft of National Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Policy and Action Plan and implement it with the support of relevant organizations.

Original link

Website: http://www.pabic.com.pk

Published: August 5, 2013