Working Group on transfer of technology
Country experience: Pakistan
Mandate and legal framework of the work on ToT comes from
paragraph 37 of Doha Ministerial Declaration and paragraph 43 of the Hong
Kong Ministerial Declaration. Although the pace of work in this working group
has been slow but some interesting discussions have taken place and we have a
number of documents with suggestions for the way forward. The recent
presentation by FAO is very useful in establishing the relationship between
TOT, trade and development and food security.
Pakistan’s experience:
The objective of this communication is to share Pakistan’s experience as
beneficiary of the green revolution. Green revolution had an impact on several
crops like rice, maize but wheat is particularly important. Between the period of
1967-77 Pakistan’s production increased from 4million tones to 9 million
tonnes which is now 25 million tonnes. More than 100% increase in one decade
and 400% increase in four decades was a result of active collaboration with
International research organizations like CGIAR and effective bilateral
cooperation with USAID for ensuring availability of plant nutrients (fertilizer)
The research breakthrough was the development of so-called short-straw
varieties of wheat. Norman Borlaug, who is well known in Pakistan, was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in seed development.
He used to make annual visits to Pakistan’s agricultural research centres where
seeds developed in Mexico, Pakistan and elsewhere were tested out and
propagated. The international flow of germplasm through CGIAR played a
crucial role in spreading the benefits of Green Revolution.
Still there is a gap between the per Acre yield of a progressive farmer (60
monds per Acre) and the average yield (27 monds per Acre) of wheat in
Pakistan. The challenge for the policy makers is to bridge the gap between
progressive farmer and average yield by ensuring availability of plant nutrients,
quality seed and mechanization of farms.
The Changing Locus of agricultural R&D from national public to
international private sector
With the growth of biotechnology we clearly see division of work
between upstream work of generating knowledge on useful gene and
engineering transgenic plants to the more adaptive end of backcrossing the
transgenes into commercial lines and delivering the seed to farmers. There is
clear division of responsibility in the development and delivery of
biotechnology products, multinational providing the upstream biotechnology
research and the local firm providing crop varieties. Countries who do not have
strong public sector research system or strong commercial seed sectors will be
handicapped in the adoption of transgenic varieties. No one can deny the
importance of biotechnology for developing disease and drought resistant
varieties, how do we pass on the benefits of gene revolution to the
developing and the least developed . The question is whether incentive exists or
can be created for public private partnership that allow the public sector to use
and adapt technologies developed by the private sector for the problems faced
by the poor.
Water efficiency through drip irrigation
Water shortage for the agriculture land is an acute problem for Pakistan
especially in dry lands of Baluchistan, Sind and south of Punjab. Nuclear
Institute of Agriculture and Biology, Faisalabad has successfully developed drip
irrigation system. With this technology the cotton yield ranged from 1,520 to
1,680 kilograms per acre, compared to 960 kilograms per acre using the
traditional flood irrigation method. The experiment was successfully done on
few acres of land in 2007.
Having a technology is not enough; the biggest challenge is its
dissemination and adoption. China has graciously agreed to support Pakistan’s
drip irrigation program by adding more precision to the technology, solar
energy pumps and dissemination through joint venture between the private
companies. Acumen Fund (A non-profit global venture fund that uses
entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty) in
Pakistan has taken this technology to the poorest farmers and helping them to
grow more with less water. Adoption of this technology reduce the amount of
water smallholder farmers need to cultivate an acre of land by 50 percent,
improve yields by 40 percent, and lower input costs by 30 percent. And,
because they allow for year-round farming, fewer farmers and their families
are forced to migrate during the dry season.
We have a long way to go in improving water efficiency but Pakistan-China
collaboration in drip irrigation system provides a good example of south-south
cooperation and also highlights the importance of resources required for
technology dissemination especially in developing countries.