| The National Institute
for Biotechnology (NIBGE) conducted the national workshop
focusing on GMO detection at NIBGE on 14-17 June 2004. The
workshop gathered a total of 34 (30 male and 40 female) participants
from various government research and regulating universities
and private industries.
Pakistan has 17 national centers which focus on Biotechnology
of which four have excellent facilities for developing transgenic
crops. GM crops species (traits) have developed in cotton
(insect resistant, virus resistant), rice (bacterial blight
resistant, salt tolerant), tomato (virus resistant, male sterility),
sugarcane (insect resistant), tobacco (insect resistant, salt
resistant) and chickpea (drought and salt resistant). They
were under field trials or experimental status and no GM crop
is so far released in the country either developed through
local efforts or imported from other countries.
Pakistan is a signatory to WTO, CBD and CBP; however, most
of the regulatory mechanisms are not still in place. Various
ministries are handling issues on biotechnology and biosafety
such as WTO by the Ministry of Commerce, TRIPS by the Ministry
of Industry, copyrights by the Ministry of Education, Biosafety
Guidelines and the Cartagena Protocol by the Ministry of Environment
and the Plant Breeder rights by the Ministry of Agriculture
and Livestock. Although the National Biosfety Guidelines was
prepared by national/international experts, NGOs and UNEP/GEF
consultancy and submitted in 2001 to the Ministry of Environment,
enactment is still pending. There is no coherent national
policy or plan to coordinate all these efforts.
The national workshop was conducted in order to provide
all the stakeholders an appropriate platform to address the
issues in a more focused manner. Specifically, the workshop
aimed to: 1) determine and discuss advances in biotechnology
and genetic engineering, and 2) determine and discuss biosafety
issues concerning GMOs such as risk assessment, risk management,
GMO detection, IPR, international initiatives and public awareness
and participation.
The following topics were presented and discussed to the
participants: Introduction to Polymerase Chain Reaction; Issues
on Biosafety Guidelines in Pakistan; Advancement in Biotechnology;
Capacity Building in Biosafety of GM Crops; Plant Breeders
Rights and Its Implication on Seed Industry; Methods of GMO
Detection; DNA Technology and GM Crops; WTO and its Implication
in Agriculture; Real Time PCR for GMO Detection; Issues and
Facts regarding GMO Labeling; Methods on GMO Detection; DNA
Technology and GM Crops; WTO and Its Implication in Agriculture;
Real-Time PCR for GMO Detection; Issues and Facts regarding
GMO Labeling, Biosafety in GMO Production; Practical DNA Extraction
for GMO Detection (CTAB) method; Practical Continuation of
DNA Extraction (CTAB method; Sampling Techniques for GMO Detection;
Practical GMO Detection Methodologies.
As an outcome of this workshop, various stakeholders in Pakistan
have more or less gained clearer understanding of the principles
of biosafety and the usefulness of GMO Detection in Risk Assessment.
This awareness will also help facilitate the issuance of legislation
with regards to biosafety measures. Proceedings for this workshop
had already been published by NIBGE
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