THE process of amending the 1976 Seed Act, that began in 2007 and remained long suspended, has been re-launched by the federal government.

The bill introduced by the minister for national food security and research on August 8 was cleared by National Assembly’s standing committee on food security on October 16. It now remains to be voted for by the two houses of legislature to become a law.

The amendment, as its text says, is designed to improve the existing law so as to enable it meet the requirements of modern seed industry and the country’s obligations under the WTO regime. The stated purpose is to create a larger space for the private sector in the seed sector and introduce latest developments in seed technology in the country’s agriculture.

The more specific objective of the new law is to allow multinationals to formally launch genetically modified seeds and protect their intellectual property rights

But more specific objective of the new law is to allow multinationals to formally launch genetically modified seeds and protect their intellectual property rights (IRPs). Since the existing law did not protect IPRs of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the US government said in a statement in 2013 that this flaw had ‘deterred US seed companies from entering the Pakistani market.’

However, who will control the lucrative seed market — bureaucracy or the corporate entities — remains an unfinished battle that began in the last decade. One may recall that the Seed Act 1976, adopted during the Bhutto era, had declared the public sector the ‘sole player’ in seed development and registration process and the private sector was to play only a secondary role.

However, since the public sector’s performance has deteriorated over the years the private sector is now playing a more vibrant role in the rural market. Pakistan’s agriculture, not yet totally free from feudal exploitation, is in decline in many respects including per acre yield.

It is worth recalling how agriculture ministry was seized and re-seized by the federal bureaucracy to keep it away from private sector’s influence. Under the 1973 constitution, agriculture is a provincial subject and the provinces are free to conduct seed business within their jurisdictions. In 1976, the federal government prevailed upon the provincial governments to delegate their legislative powers to it. As a corollary, the centre enacted the 1976 Seed Act and also the federal seed certification and registration department with powers to regulate and control seed business. The issue of re-delegation of powers came up again when the 18th Amendment was passed in 2010 and several federal ministries were transferred to the provinces. In other words, the functions of the ministry of food and agriculture was transferred back to the provinces.

The federal bureaucracy showed its skill of how it could retrieve the agriculture ministry by re-creating the dissolved ministry into the new ministry of national food security and research. Federal seed certification and registration department, which should have gone to the provinces, was first assigned to the ministry of science and technology and then to the ministry of food security in 2011.

Similarly, the ministry of environment was dissolved, only to be replaced by the ministry of climate change which itself has now been reduced to the status of a division of the prime minister’s secretariat. The transfer of the environment function to provincial governments has resulted in widespread confusion regarding jurisdiction for administering biosafety rules.

Before the minister for food security moved the latest seed amendment bill in the national assembly, the two provinces, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, had already moved bills to this effect in their assemblies. But the federal minister claims that all the provincial assemblies have passed a special resolution authorising the federal government to amend the Seed Act of 1976 and retain it as a federal subject. So, the agriculture and seed business are again with the federal bureaucracy.

The 1976 Seed Act is silent on registration of seed companies. But in its December 31, 1979 meeting, the economic coordination committee of the cabinet constituted an inter-ministerial working group to register or de-register new seed companies. Since this group is not a statutory body, it cannot create a new organisation. Thus, seed companies were established under other laws such as the Companies Ordinance, 1984, and then they apply to the working group for registration.

The Amendment Bill, it is interesting to note, was approved by the cabinet in 2007 but again approved by the cabinet in 2009 but it took two years to be introduced in the NA on January 11, 2010 and was referred to the standing committee concerned. The bill remained unattended for another three years and could not be passed because of the dissolution of the national assembly on March 15, 2013. The bill was again approved by the federal cabinet on May 15, 2014 for the third time and introduced in the NA on August 8, 2014.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, November 3rd, 2014