Notwithstanding the staggering Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 1.5 lakh crore annual losses due to pests, the pesticide industry in India is still marred by lack of effective quality control, spurious products and cumbersome product registration process. Low consumption levels and low awareness on judicious use of pesticides is not just affecting the industry with turnover of Rs 6,500 crore, but is a serious threat to food security concern of the country, experts in the industry say.
Half of the 1,250-odd factories engaged in pesticide manufacture in the country at present manage to hoodwink mandatory biennial inspections leaving a huge scope for fly-by-night operators. Vital quality control measures like market sampling of the products are largely drawn from the top 25 manufacturers whereas the majority manage to elude the regulation as per the RTI findings of Crop Care Federation of India.
These findings reveal that violators largely operate in states like UP, Bihar, MP and Jharkhand where state pesticide testing facilities have remained apathetic in checking the spurious market.
Against the national average of 3 % sample failure, one of the states has registered 16 % failure indicating the growing spurious market, whereas half of factories in another state are operating without complying to the factory inspections, the findings reveal.
Lack of implementation of regulations have helped the spurious and substandard market to grow unabated and is estimated at Rs 1,000 to1,200 crore at present. “Rajasthan has been able to curb the menace by categorising the manufacturers as per the performance of their product in market sampling in last four years,” Salil Singhal, chairman and managing director, PI Industries and also chairman Emeritus, Crop Care Federation of India told FE.
The prolonged process for registration of new products is affecting manufactures and agricultural production, Singhal said. “Formulation of proper policy guidelines for new registrations is need of the hour as it could take 5-6 years for a new product registration,” he added.