Biotechnology (Bt) has earned recognition as one of the most exciting new sciences of the 21st century because it offers more environment-friendly solutions for increasing yields and shelf-life, for improving tastes and avoiding plant diseases as compared to the traditional agricultural practices.
By applying technology to biological systems or living organisms or their derivatives, biotechnology can modify products or processes for specific use. For example, with the help of biotechnological science, greener plants could increase the oxygen content, which can help control the amount of carbon dioxide in our environment.
In short, there is a clear promise that biotechnology can usher in a new revolution – Biotechnological Revolution – in the world, pushing up crop yields substantially, ridding the crops of pests through environment-friendly and cost-effective IPM (Integrated Pest Management) technique, and providing diagnostic tools and vaccines to help control devastating animal diseases. Biotechnology can also improve the nutritional quality of staple foods such as rice and wheat and create new products for health and industrial uses.
Given its immense potential for increasing crop yields and improving quality of life, biotechnology globally registered an unprecedented 60-fold increase from 1996 to 2006 when the area under Bt crops stood at 102 million hectares. By 2015, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application (ISAAA) predicts, over 20 million farmers will plant 200 million hectares of Bt crops in about 40 countries. The countries growing Bt crops, at present, include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Colombia, India, Mexico, South Africa, USA and also Pakistan at a miniscule level.
Meanwhile, the number of farmers planting Bt crops has surged to 10.5 million, from 8.5 million farmers in 2005. At 21 per cent, the growth of Bt crop adoption was higher in the developing world as compared to the industrialized nations, where adoption grew by 9 per cent only. 
In view of the immense benefits of biotechnology, the farmers in Pakistan also seem keen to use it for increasing their crop and fruit yields in addition to tackling the menace of crop pests. However, unofficial cultivation of Bt cotton in Pakistan has reportedly given rise to suppliers that market spurious cotton seed in the name of Bt cotton. This has created all the problems associated with spurious seeds, including decrease in the crop yields of farmers using fake seeds. This underlines the need for making appropriate arrangements for the supply of quality Bt seeds to the farmers switching over to Bt crops.
Currently, the country annually spends over Rs60 billion on pesticide sprays, while its indirect losses from the use of pesticides far exceed this amount. Cultivation of Bt crops can drastically reduce the need for pesticide sprays, resulting in substantial savings and thus making the crop products more competitive internationally. Besides the benefits in cost of production, less use of pesticides spray would also be an environment-friendly measure.
Just take the cotton crop for instance; it is normally infected by various pests and cotton farmers have to spray pesticides a couple of times, depending upon the nature and intensity of the attack. In cases when the pest attack is mild, the number of sprays would reduce to 5-7 in the crop cycle, but in case of severe attacks, the farmers have to get their crops sprayed 12-15 times.
In view of the substantial savings on pesticide sprays and other benefits, India has increased its Bt cotton area to 85 per cent in 2008-09 against 12 per cent in 2005-06. From the base of 2.31 million tonnes of cotton production in 2002-03, the Indian cotton harvest increased to 5.47 million tonnes this year. India’s per hectare yield of cotton has increased from 302kg per hectare in 2002-03 to 590kg per hectare at present.

Pakistan’s cotton production, on the other hand, has remained stuck at around 256 kilogram per hectare. In Pakistan, insects, pests, diseases and weeds reduce yields at harvest by 30 to 35 per cent and around 20 to 25 per cent during storage. If these losses could be curtailed, Pakistan has the potential to substantially increase its per hectare yield and, in turn, the overall cotton production and income from this vital cash crop. Presently, with an average annual production of over 12 million bales, Pakistan produces about 10 per cent of the total global production of cotton.
Despite being an agricultural country, at present, Pakistan imports agricultural produce from various countries. With the help of biotechnology, experts say, Pakistan will not only be able to meet its domestic needs adequately, but it can also become a grain-exporting country.
With a view to exploiting the rapidly growing science of biotechnology for improving the quality of life, in particular of the rural people who constitute some 70 per cent of the country’s total population, the Government of Pakistan established a National Commission on Biotechnology (NCB) on 30th November, 2001 to monitor new developments in this field and to recommend appropriate measures for sustainable agricultural growth in the country.
At present, some 30 public and private organizations are working in the field of biotechnology in Pakistan. It is time that the organizations concerned created awareness about the likely benefits of Bt crops and fruits, set up plant nurseries and demonstration plots, made arrangements for the supply of Bt. Seeds or saplings and motivated the farmers to harness this technique for increasing their crop yields. 
Earlier, the Green Revolution and the antecedent technological innovation, coupled with higher yielding seeds and the inputs required to make them grow, brought enormous benefits to people through enhanced efficiency and higher incomes. This cycle of rising productivity, improving living standards and sustainable economic growth lifted millions of people out of the poverty trap. But many still remain trapped in subsistence agriculture, accounting for the majority of the world’s 842 million chronically hungry, mostly in the rural areas of the Third world countries. The adoption of biotechnological techniques can go a long way in removing hunger and periodical food shortages that occur in some regions of the world.