Biotech Updates

Pakistani Senior Leaders and Media Practitioners Oriented on Status and Prospects of Biotech Crops

March 2, 2012

Although Pakistan has already joined the top 10 countries where biotech crops have been introduced, the country still needs to gear up on biotechnology for food productivity and improvement of livelihood. Minister Javed Malik of the Ministry of National Disaster Management gave this insight in a workshop on Global Status, Impact and Future Prospects of Biotech Crops on March 1, 2012 at Serena Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan.

The event sponsored by the the National Biosafety Center, Pakistan Environment Protection Agency under the Ministry of Disaster Management, Islamabad aimed to discuss the global adoption, impact and future prospects of biotech crops, and how Pakistan can gear up in adopting these technology-based solutions to improve productivity and change the quality of life in farming communities.

Dr. Yusuf Zafar, director general of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad director Asif Ali, and Dr. Asif Khan, director general of the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency, were one in saying that Pakistan has to maximize the opportunities that would allow biotechnology to thrive in the country particularly with infrastructure and technical trainings that the government had already invested in.

On March 2, 2012, a similar event was held for media practitioners also at Serena Hotel. Resource persons were Dr. Rhodora Aldemita of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) who spoke on biotech crops, global impact and future prospects as well as myths and realities regarding food and environmental safety. Dr. Mariechel Navarro, also of ISAAA discussed the challenges in communicating agricultural biotechnology, and media representation of crop biotech. Both speakers stressed the need to report science-based information using reliable sources so that readers could better understand the technology.

 For additional news of both events email knowledge.center@isaaa.org.