War against Spurious Pesticides, Insecticides and Herbicides

In agriculture the role of agrochemicals is quite significant. Apart from the protection of the crops from the pests and insects, they are growth promoter to the crops also. There are many manufacturers of these agrochemicals in India and many multinationals are also helping the farming community with their products.  The Indian pesticides market was worth INR 181 Billion in 2017. The market is further projected to reach INR 292.9 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 8.3 percent during 2018-2023. 

Pesticides are substances or a mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest. Pesticides represent the last input in an agricultural operation and are applied for preventing the spoilage of crops from pests such as insects, fungi, weeds, etc., thereby increasing the agricultural productivity. 

The significance of pesticides has been rising over the last few decades catalyzed by the requirement to enhance the overall agricultural production and the need to safeguard adequate food availability for the continuously growing population in the country. In India, pests and diseases, on an average eat away around 20-25 percent of the total food produced. 

• The total available arable land per capita has been reducing in recent years as a result of increasing urbanization levels and is expected to reduce further in the coming years. Driven by rising population levels, food demand is expected to continue increasing in the coming years. We expect pesticides to play a key role in increasing the average crop yields per hectare.

• Government initiatives to provide credit facilities to farmers in the rural areas are expected to provide a strong boost to the pesticides industry. Increasing availability and low interest rates of farm loans are expected to encourage farmers to use more pesticides in order to improve crop yields.

• Both government and private initiatives are increasing the awareness of pesticides among farmers. Initiatives to educate farmers on the right usage of pesticides in terms of quantity, the right application methodology and appropriate chemicals to be used for identified pest problems, etc. are currently being conducted in various parts of the country.

• The penetration levels of pesticides in India are significantly lower than other major countries such as the US and China. This suggests that the market for pesticides is still largely un-penetrated with a huge room for future growth.

• Based on the product type the market has been segmented as synthetic pesticides and bio-pesticides. Synthetic pesticides currently dominate the market, holding the largest share.

• Based on the segment, the market has been segmented as insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and others.

• Based on the formulation, the market has been segmented as liquid pesticides and dry pesticides.

• Based on the crop type, the market has been segmented as cereals, vegetables, fruits, plantation crops and others.

• The market has also been segmented on the basis of various states.

• The competitive landscape of the market has also been examined in the report and the profiles of key players have also been provided.

In view of the huge market, few are having the presence with their spurious pesticides, insecticides and related plant protection agrochemicals with the established brand names to attract the farmers and causing damage to the crop, farmer himself and even the soil also get poison and the produce also damaging the health of the consumers of the Farm produce. 

Time to time the established manufacturers also conduct survey, raid through their detectives and found the huge samples of the branded products are spurious and counterfeited agrochemicals are available in the market for the petty profits causing damage to the health of the Crop, Farmer and the Consumer.  

An exhibition of more than 500 samples of reputed brands and their duplicate samples to create awareness among the stake holders that the Industry, Government, the farmers and the Media shall not be sparing those blackmarketiaers  was there in the Hotel Le Meridien arranged by the FICCIin association with Crop Lifer India and ACFI by the Dupont, Crop Life, Bayers and Corteva Agriscience, Dhanuka Agritech Ltd., and simultaneously the round table conference was there with the scientist, farmers, Ministry officials  to discuss the serious issue.  

Shri R G Agarwal, Chairman, Dhanuka Agritech Ltd., has shown satisfaction  on the discussion in view of the rampant increase of low quality agrochemical products across the country which is harming both crops as well as affecting the health of farmers.  

The discussions among all industry stalwarts had brought out many insights which will help create environment for the availability of such products to our farmers thus increase their crop quality.  Shri Agarwal also highlighted about the spurious, duplicate, illegal, Non-NABL accredited Government laboratories and in the last recommendations were made after this whole day seminar by Dr C D Mayee, Former Chairman, Agricultural Scientist Recruitment Board.   Dr A K Dikshit, Former Professor & Head, Division of Agricultural Chemical, IARI presentation was about the role of the agrochemicals for food security.  

In three sessions Mr D`Arcy Quinn, Director, Crop Life International and Mr David Penna, Asia Pacific Stewardship Lead, FMC Corporation presented his Global Experiences and Imperatives for India.  Shri Raju Kapoor, Director-Industry & Public Affairs, FMC India Pvt Ltd- presented on the Ensuring Quality: Way Forward, Shri Deepak Parekh, CEO & Founder, MyCrop Technologies also presented on Digitization to enable Trust, Transparency and Traceability for better Compliancer and Enforcement. 

Krishi Jagran covered the complete round table live on their Facebook pages as well as website. You Tube video of the Press Conference have also been made. 

The recommendations presented to the government include: 

1. GOI should define process for a periodic check on all manufacturers of pesticides for whom the registration certificates are issued. This will involve the inspection of the premises, infrastructure, quality control labs, equipment`s and also manpower to ensure that products manufactured confirm to standards. 

2. Regulatory authority both at centreand state to ensure that the compliance of such norms framed with a system and defined process.

3. Out of around 4669 registration holders co`sonly the products of 50-75 manufacturers are seen in the market and remaining manufacturers are rarely seen and that too in the specific pockets/areas. It seems that repeated samples are being drawn from the stocks 50-75 manufacturers. In future, registration should be issued to only to genuine companies.