GMOs, Lab-Grown Crops and Imported Seeds in Pakistan: What Are We Really Growing and Eating?
Genetic engineering, laboratory propagation and imported seed are three different things, and mixing them up muddies the whole debate.Modern farming is more than seed, soil and water. The crop on your plate may have been genetically engineered, multiplied in a laboratory, or grown from imported hybrid seed. These are not the same thing.
Here is where each stands in Pakistan, based on official records up to October 2026.
Genetically modified crops
Three questions matter for every GM crop: is it planted commercially, is it approved but not yet planted, or is it only allowed as imported grain?
Bt cotton Commercial cultivation
Carries an engineered trait that protects the plant against certain insect pests. It is the long-established GM crop in Pakistan’s cotton sector, though not every cotton variety is GM (US Department of Agriculture attaché report, 20254). A further advanced cotton event was approved in October 2025 for breeders to develop varieties1.
GM sugarcane Approved, not yet nationwide
Two lines, one insect-resistant and one herbicide-tolerant, received National Biosafety Committee approval in October 2025. They must still pass National Uniform Yield Trials before national-scale cultivation1. I found no official record of widespread commercial planting.
GM soybean and canola Approved import for food, feed, processing
The committee approved 47 soybean events in 20243, and its 37th meeting (13 May 2026) approved further developer events for imported grain2. In October 2025 it also permitted 43 canola events for the same uses1. These are permissions to import grain, not to plant it.
GM maize Policy decision in principle
Earlier confined trial licences expired in 20196. On 31 August 2026 a government committee decided in principle to allow GM maize alongside conventional and hybrid maize, with safeguards, while the framework and transition timeline were still being finalised5. I found no confirmed commercial planting.
Crops multiplied in laboratories
In tissue culture, small pieces of plant tissue are grown under sterile conditions to produce many plants, often with better plant-health status. It copies a plant; it does not necessarily edit it.
Banana Lab propagation
Can yield large numbers of uniform, healthy plants for plantations. Official statistics on its share of Pakistani planting material are not available, so not every banana plant is tissue-cultured.
Potato Lab propagation
Laboratory plantlets and mini-tubers feed seed multiplication to improve seed health. A federal research council announced such a programme in 2020 to reduce seed-tuber imports7.
Date palm and sugarcane Lab propagation
Tissue culture can multiply selected date palm varieties for orchards and produce sugarcane planting material while keeping varietal traits. Offshoots remain a common route for date palm, and the commercial scale of either method is not officially reported.
Crops grown from imported hybrid or improved seed
Farmers import seed for improved genetics, disease resistance, uniformity and yield potential. Official figures show how much imported seed matters. The Economic Survey 2025-26 records certified seed availability of 767,932 tonnes (July–March) against an estimated requirement of 2,055,525 tonnes, of which 66,009 tonnes was imported8. The gap is not a shortage verdict, because farmers also save seed.
Imported share of certified seed availability, Jul–Mar 2025-26
Maize Imported hybrid seed
Crossing selected parent lines gives vigorous, uniform crops. Conventional hybrid maize is not GM.
Potato Imported planting material
Imported seed tubers offer verified variety identity and health standards. They are different from potatoes imported for eating.
Tomato, onion and chili Improved or hybrid seed
Hybrids target fruit quality, disease resistance, maturity and uniformity. The Survey reports vegetables only as a group: 2,876 of 5,835 tonnes available was imported8. Imported paddy seed totalled 15,296 tonnes.
What this means for consumers
GMO, tissue-cultured and hybrid are not interchangeable words.
- A tissue-cultured banana or date palm is not automatically GM.
- An imported hybrid seed does not necessarily produce a GM crop.
- Permission to import GM grain for food, feed or processing is not approval to plant it.
or trialled
Also, the technology behind a crop does not by itself make its food safe or unsafe. That depends on the evidence and the regulatory framework, and the claim that all GM foods are harmful, or all harmless, goes beyond the evidence.
Understanding what we grow and eat
Pakistan’s farms use conventional breeding, imported seed, laboratory propagation and genetic engineering together. The key is separating a technology being researched, a product being approved and a crop being grown commercially.
- Press Information Department, “NBC Approves GM Sugarcane and Cotton Varieties for Commercialization,” 23 Oct 2025. pid.gov.pk; canola events: Crop Biotech Update, 29 Oct 2025.
- Pakistan Biosafety Clearing House, announcement on GM soybean grain events (37th NBC meeting), July 2026. bch.environment.gov.pk
- Pakistan Biosafety Clearing House, list of 47 GM soybean events (29th NBC meeting, 23 Oct 2024). bch.environment.gov.pk
- USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Pakistan Agricultural Biotechnology Annual, 2025. fas.usda.gov
- Dawn, “Pakistan approves genetically modified corn cultivation,” 1 Sep 2026. dawn.com
- Dawn, “Genetically modified maize licences likely to be renewed,” 26 Jun 2026. dawn.com
- Profit by Pakistan Today, report on a PARC tissue-culture potato programme, 2020. profit.pakistantoday.com.pk
- Finance Division, Pakistan Economic Survey 2025-26, Chapter 2 (Agriculture), Table 2.12, source FSC&RD, Ministry of National Food Security & Research. finance.gov.pk