Government Revokes Ban on Pesticides after Strong Reactions from the Industry

It was earlier this week that the Indian Government had banned the use of 27 pesticides on grounds that it had chemicals that were harmful to humans and animals. The ban had prompted strong reactions from the pesticide industry that threatened to go to the court against this order and thus the government in a new order has now allowed for the manufacturing and export of these pesticides. The government has also increased the submissions of suggestion to its earlier draft order to 90 days.

List of Banned Pesticides

Earlier this week, the Government had drafted an order called Banning of Insecticides Order 2020, which prohibited import, manufacturing, sale transport, distribution, and use of these 27 insecticides. The pesticides that were banned are 2,4-D, acephate, atrazine, benfuracarb, butachlor, captan, carbendazim, carbofuran, chlorpyrifos, deltamethrin, dicofol, dimethoate, dinocap, diuron, malathion, mancozeb, methomyl, monocrotophos, oxyfluorfen, pendimethalin, quinalphos, sulfosulfuron, thiodicarb, thiophanate methyl, thiram, zineb and ziram.

The move had evoked strong reactions from the Industry, with Pradip Dave, President of the Pesticides Manufacturers and Formulators Association of India saying that the order will lead to more than 12000 crores of the market out of India which was is a significant chunk of the total insecticides market and will also decrease the country’s exporting capabilities by almost 50 %. They also said that at a time when the government is trying to promote initiatives like Make in India and Voca for Local to make India self-sufficient, the order is contradictory.

The industry also alleged that the ban came just before the Kharif season and it would cause great distress to the farmers and with the added burden of COVID-19 farmers would be the hardest hit due to the increased cost in cultivation.

This is not the first time that pesticides have been banned. Some of these pesticides, like, Monocrotophos have already been banned by Maharashtra and Kerala. The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) has been launching campaigns against the use of harmful pesticides and has hailed the ban on pesticides by the government. The Anupam Verma Committee was formed in 2013 that had suggested that 13 pesticides were to be banned immediately with a review of 27 pesticides in 2018 and hashing out 6 pesticides by 2020.