The growing cultivation of Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) cotton, especially in Punjab, has decreased the area under wheat and sugarcane cultivation due to relatively longer germination period of BT cotton. "BT cotton is gaining popularity in Punjab and its growing cultivation is having a negative impact on other crops particularly wheat and sugarcane because of long germination period of BT cotton. Normal cotton takes about six months to BT cotton's 10 months", an official source told Business Recorder at National Agriculture Research Council (NARC). He said that due to long germination period of BT cotton majority of farmers who previously sowed normal cotton for six months and sowed sugarcane or wheat for the rest of the year are unable to do so. This, he maintained, would lead to shortages of wheat and sugar in the market. The official said that to avoid such a crisis the government needs to devise a policy to ensure adequate output of wheat, cotton and sugarcane in the country. Government also needs to strictly implement such a policy otherwise the country will face serious food shortage while demand for food is increasing due to rapidly growing population, he said. The official said that the government had introduced BT cotton in 2002 in the country aimed to achieve 21 million cotton bales by 2015 and increasing yield per hectare to 1,060kgs but unfortunately they failed to prepare any plan to avoid its possible negative consequences on other crops.