KARACHI: Agriculture constitutes the largest sector of Pakistan’s economy and the majority of the population depends on it. It contributes about 24 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), accounts for half of the country’s employed labor force, and is the largest source of foreign exchange earnings. It feeds the whole rural and urban populations of Pakistan.
The country has a rich biodiversity and multinational companies have realized this. Thousands of varieties of seeds, medicinal plants and herbs have been developed over hundreds of years by farming communities, who were well-equipped with indigenous knowledge of the local environment, climate and conditions for agricultural production.
But the day is not far off when the entire seed business will be controlled by seed companies, leaving local farmers totally dependent on imported or multinationals’ seeds.
In 2013, Pakistan’s total seed requirements were more than 1.6 million metric tons, whereas the country could produce only 362,000 metric tons of certified seeds. The country has four cash crops — cotton, wheat, rice and sugarcane — which have a major contribution in the country’s GDP worth more than $313 billion.
There are 760 companies in the seed production business in Pakistan, including five multinational companies. The informal sector is still the major seed supplier in the country, with more than 90 percent of the seeds used coming from farmers and other sources such as commissioned agents, retailers and shopkeepers.
Cotton is a strategic crop for Pakistan and a major source of exports. Since 2008, hybrid or GM cotton is being cultivated in more than 90 percent of the cotton belt across Pakistan without proper trials.
Recently, the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, while ringing an alarm bell, revealed that GM seeds had contaminated all local cotton seed varieties.
Meanwhile, local research institutes have almost abandoned research work, and almost all vegetable seeds are now being imported from India and other countries. Until a few years ago, these seeds were produced locally. Nowadays hybrid corn seeds are imported by multinationals, while fruit seeds including watermelon, melon, strawberries, tomato, capsicum, cucumber, and even coriander are also being imported.
The reason for the fast replacement of indigenous seeds with multinational seeds is a lack of research and development on new varieties, as the local research institutions have completely abandoned this segment. Now, even for cotton, researchers are completely reliant on multinationals after introducing their GM genes into local cotton seed varieties.
As a result, the production of cotton is constantly declining, while the fiber quality is also deteriorating. After the large-scale cultivation of the GM Bt cotton, new pests have emerged and secondary pests are out of control. This means farmers have to bear the additional cost of pesticides, while production is decreasing and seeds are losing their germination quality.
Currently only wheat seed is produced locally, but GM lobbyists are also trying to capture that market. Sugarcane is another cash crop and these seeds are imported from Sri Lanka and Mexico as it is a tropical-weather seed. Indigenous seeds are being replaced without proper impact studies and the authorities lack the proper facilities and skilled workers.
The imported seeds also bring inherited diseases and pests, such as the American cotton bollworm. To cover their negligence, regulators and researchers are linking production loss with climate change impacts.
Though the world’s sixth-most populous country has consistently been a net importer of sowing seeds in terms of value, it has achieved trade surpluses for specific types of seed, including wheat, barley, cotton and herbaceous flowering plants. Still, its dependence on foreign seed supplies remains high. In 2016, the country logged a seed trade deficit of just under $550 million, deriving from $560 million of imports and a little more than $10 million of exports.
The downward journey of Pakistan’s seed exports started in 2014, when they plummeted by 72 percent in volume and 41 percent in value, and this sharp decline has continued.
Imported seeds fast replacing local varieties in Pakistan
Imported seeds fast replacing local varieties in Pakistan
Red Sea’s oxygen balance under strain, experts warn
- Scientists say warming waters, nutrient runoff and coastal development could quietly erode coral resilience
RIYADH: The Red Sea may not have dead zones, but its fragile ecosystem is vulnerable to oxygen depletion — a quiet decline that can undermine coral health and disrupt marine life.
Sea dead zones are hypoxic or low-oxygen pockets that form most often when nutrient pollution — especially nitrogen and phosphorus from farm runoff and wastewater — fuels blooms that ultimately strip oxygen from the water.
Experts say the risk is not inevitable, but it depends on earlier detection and tighter control of the conditions that drain oxygen from coastal waters.
A sea that relies on its own “breathing” is also a sea shaped by geography.
FASTFACT
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- The Red Sea is naturally low in oxygen because of its warm waters and high salinity — making it especially vulnerable to further oxygen decline.
- The Red Sea’s narrow Bab Al-Mandab strait limits deepwater exchange, meaning the basin largely depends on its own internal circulation to ‘replenish’ oxygen.
- Saudi Arabia’s coastline features steep underwater drop-offs, allowing deep, oxygen-poor water to move closer to coral reefs near shore.
Matheus Paiva, a senior oceanographer, told Arab News that “the Red Sea’s shallow Bab Al-Mandab choke point limits deepwater exchange,” meaning oxygen replenishment depends heavily on internal overturning circulation.
He said this circulation is driven as surface waters flow north, cool, become denser and sink, helping ventilate deeper layers through vertical mixing.
Paiva said the Saudi coastline’s underwater topography makes the risk more immediate close to shore.
“Unlike regions with wide, gradual shelves, our coast features narrow fringing reefs that drop sharply into deep water via steep underwater cliffs and canyons,” he said.
“This ‘step-and-drop’ topography brings deep oxygen-poor water close to shore.”
Paiva said warming at the surface can intensify stratification and reduce vertical mixing. He said that can allow low-oxygen water to creep upslope and affect shallower reef zones.
How oxygen gets consumed faster than it’s replaced is where human pressure can tip the balance.
Carlos Duarte, executive director or the Coral Research and Development Accelerator Program at KAUST, told Arab News that the Red Sea’s baseline conditions create vulnerability. “Because of its warm waters and high salinity, the Red Sea is inherently low in oxygen and, therefore, vulnerable to processes that decline oxygen further.”
He said algal blooms and heat waves raise biological oxygen demand, linking low oxygen to coral mortality.
Duarte said human-driven nutrient and organic inputs can intensify these declines.
He said poorly managed urban development and aquaculture operations can contribute nutrient and organic loads that fuel algal blooms.
Duarte said that as bloom material decomposes, it strips oxygen from the water and can lead to hypoxia.
The Red Sea’s celebrated clarity reflects a naturally nutrient-poor system. “The risk is amplified because the Red Sea is naturally oligotrophic. It is nutrient-poor and crystal clear,” Paiva said.
He added that wastewater releases and heavy rain events that trigger flash floods can push large nutrient loads into coastal waters in a short time.
In turn, those pulses can threaten biodiversity and the marine environment that underpins tourism investments along the Kingdom’s Red Sea coast.
Seeing low oxygen coming — rather than reacting after the fact — is the promise of new monitoring and analytics.
Paiva said high-accuracy oxygen data still relies on direct measurements collected during vessel surveys.
“We still depend heavily on classic vessel surveys,” he said. Teams deploy multiparameter sondes to profile the water column and collect water samples to establish a baseline.
“This ‘water-truthing’ remains the industry standard for high-accuracy data,” he said.
Saeed Al-Zahrani, general manager for Saudi Arabia at NetApp, said continuous data can help teams intervene earlier. “Oxygen depletion is rarely sudden; it tends to build over time when conditions line up,” he said.
Al-Zahrani said AI can flag anomalies, learn what “normal” looks like in specific locations, and generate short-horizon risk forecasts.
He added that it creates a decision window — guidance on when to increase sampling, where to focus response efforts, and when to tighten controls around discharges.
Coastal development that reduces oxygen risk starts, Duarte said, with what never reaches the sea.
Duarte said Saudi Arabia’s west coast investments have an advantage compared with older coastal destinations: the opportunity to design sustainability into projects from the outset rather than trying to retrofit after degradation becomes evident.
Duarte said nutrient control is a direct lever to reduce oxygen-depletion risk. “Achieve circular economies where organic products and nutrients are recycled and reused in the system to avoid discharging nutrients to the marine environment,” he said.
Al-Zahrani said wastewater and environmental systems produce huge volumes of information, but fragmentation can slow decisions.
He said connecting data in near real time can help detect problems earlier and anticipate load spikes tied to rainfall, tourism peaks, or industrial activity.
Reef resilience depends on reducing stress before heat and low oxygen overlap.
Duarte told Arab News: “Coral reefs are extremely vulnerable to oxygen depletion.” He added that it can contribute to bleaching and mortality in a warmer ocean.
He said marine heat waves can worsen oxygen stress by reducing oxygen solubility and limiting ventilation of subsurface waters, while increasing oxygen demands of organisms.
Duarte said reducing nutrient inputs and managing reefs to avoid excessive growth of seaweed can build resistance.
He also said models that account for how waves and currents interact with reef topography — work he said is being developed at KAUST — can help guide restoration toward sites more likely to remain oxygenated during heat stress.
