Pakistani farmers’ representatives, who
visited Philippines recently as part of a Farmers Exchange Programme, have been
highly impressed with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), say that
high-yielding and pest-resistant biotech crops seem to have the potential to
bring considerable improvement in agriculture
Pan-Asia
Farmers Exchange Programme an annual feature was participated by Dr Zafar
Hayat, Chaudhry M Maqsood Ahmed Jatt, Ibad ur Rehman Khan, Dr Rao Azhar Ali
Khan and Zeeshan Manzoor from Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP).
Talking
to a select group of journalists here the other day, the visiting farmers said
that the Philippines visit helped them to expand their knowledge about
biotechnology, the fastest adopted crop technology in recent history.
They
said that agriculture was the backbone of country’s economy so bringing
improvement in this sector was imperative for development, adding that latest
technology would certainly play a key role in this regard.
“We
(farmers) did not have much knowledge about biotech crops earlier but now,
after practically seeing the biotech crops fields and meeting the scientists as
well as farmers in the Philippines, we have learnt a lot about biotechnology,”
remarked Dr Zafar Hayat.
It is
because of farmers’ interest in this technology that FAP has formed a committee
on biotech crops, he said.
On the
myths associated with these crops, Dr Zafar said that there was no concrete
scientific data proving that these crops were not safe for human consumption.
“We
have been told by scientists that biotechnology is safe as biotech crops are
assessed for environmental, food and feed safety by regulatory authorities
before being allowed to be grown or sold commercially.
So,
I’ll not hesitate to use biotech food because I think fears associated with
GMOs are myths and not reality,” he said.
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