Farmers Woes to Increase by Draft Order for Ban of 27 Pesticides: CropLife India

After the government’s move to ban 27 pesticides in India, various agricultural organization and associations are opposing the draft bill. As per reports, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare issued a draft order on Monday outlining the pesticides set to be prohibited from manufacturing, sale, and import, which it said are “likely to involve risk to human beings and animals.” The Ministry has given 45 days for the industry and manufacturers to file objections to the ban. However, the experts feared that this move impact one-fifth of industry revenues. 

CropLife India, an association of 15 R&D driven crop science companies has expressed their dissatisfaction over the draft gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. At a critical time of ensuring food security for the country and significantly leveraging the transformational agricultural reforms announced recently by the government to improve farmer profitability and export competitiveness; this draft proposal to ban 27 molecules is a major setback, says the press release of the association. 

While these products were duly registered in the country after scientific evaluation for their safety and efficacy by CIB & RC and they were further supported with more scientific data, as and when required by the regulatory body. They continue to be used for mitigation/control of pests & diseases of wide range of crops in India and in several other countries. Farmer woes will increase during the approaching Kharif season and at a time when Locust attack is looming over the border areas of Punjab and Rajasthan. 

 Asitava Sen, Chief Executive Officer, CropLife India; said, "CropLife India, as a leading industry association of crop science companies, will submit our refutation to the concerned Ministry on the draft order. The order has certain factual errors, inconsistencies and incomplete claims; as per the data submitted by our member companies and other original registrants for some of these molecules. We emphasize that the process of review should be science-based and consultative. We also urge that the Draft Order should not be erroneously misinterpreted or misused by State and District level administrators; to disrupt the supplies of these products till the issuance of the Final Order, at a time when the supply chain is already struggling with extraneous factors such COVID-19.”  

As per a third party study, the proposed molecules together constitute about 18-20% of the Indian market. COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge disruptions in the agricultural supply chain, coupled with labour shortage and in the absence of properly planned alternatives, crop yield, food security and farmers’ livelihood in the country will be adversely impacted with this ban.