Recent developments in regard to the banning of 27 pesticides including 12 insecticides have brought to the fore the Union government’s cavalier approach to dealing with safety issues connected with their use. Based on a review a total of 66 pesticides, which are banned in two or more other countries, continue to be registered for use in India, in May 2020 it banned 27 pesticides. Vide an order dated February 15, 2023, it has now removed the ban on 24 of these. As for the remaining three, pesticide companies are not making them.
Another disquieting development is the inordinate delay in enacting the Pesticides Management Bill to replace the Insecticides Act of 1968. The Bill is meant to ensure more ‘effective’ regulation of the sector and pave the way for the introduction of new, safer and environment-friendly pesticides. Pesticides are hazardous substances with the potential to damage human health and the environment. If these are not found to be safe, their use must not be allowed even for a day.
Slow Decision Making
In the instant case, an expert committee (Anupam Verma committee) concluded in November 2015 that the 27 pesticides were ‘unsafe’. But the decision-making process lingered on. The process involves consideration of the committee’s recommendation by the Registration Committee – a statutory body under the Insecticides Act that registers pesticides and gets their review done – inviting stakeholders’ feedback, scrutiny by committees and approval by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
A delay of five years from the time the committee recommended the ban to the issue of the order in 2020 was unfortunate. Another three years were lost due as another committee under TP Rajendran, former assistant director-general of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, took a relook at the decision. After eight years, what we have on the table is ‘no ban’. The ball doesn’t stop here.
The no-ban order has been challenged in the Supreme Court. Though the Centre has retreated saying it is ‘merely a proposal and has not attained finality’, it is still uncertain whether the ban will be enforced and when?
Successive regimes have worked on the Pesticides Management Bill for over two-and-a-half decades. The Bill was initially introduced by the UPA regime in 2008. It languished till 2015 when the Modi government took it on board. A fresh draft was introduced in 2020 and referred to a Standing Committee on June 3, 2021. We haven’t since heard anything on the subject.
Insecticides Act Falls Short
Meanwhile, the country continues to suffer due to flaws in the Insecticides Act. An applicant wanting to register a new product for the first time in India is required to generate data to demonstrate its ‘safety’ and ‘efficacy’ in Indian conditions. After she gets registration, any number of applicants can get registration relying on the data of the first applicant. The latter are commonly referred to as ‘me-too’ registrants. At present, there are over 2.5 lakh registrations corresponding to only 280 registered pesticide molecules, i.e., close to 900 per molecule.
The regulations for getting a manufacturing license from the states—the notified authority under the Act—are equally lax. Firms can get it without checking for basic facilities, including quality control. The result is an unmanageably large number of pesticide manufacturing units, currently at over 1,400.
This has paved the way for the entry of non-serious players who have little regard for quality and standards, resulting in a proliferation of spurious and sub-standard products which could be nearly a third of the estimated Rs 20,000 crore domestic market. The spurious stuff inflicts huge crop losses and damages the soil.
At the same time, the regulations act as a strong disincentive to innovator companies. They don’t get any opportunity to recover their heavy investment in discovering new molecules and conducting studies to demonstrate their ‘safety’ and ‘efficacy’ to the regulator. This results in farmers not getting access to newer and safer products.
The government should expedite the passage of the Pesticides Management Bill. The bill should focus on incentivising innovators to invest in R&D, bring new pesticides and fast-track their registration; rein in “me too” registrations by granting a period of exclusivity to the first applicant during which subsequent registrations won’t be allowed; enforce strict quality control at all levels in the supply chain and end the scourge of spurious pesticides.
The law should clearly specify timelines in all critical areas such as grant of registration, license for manufacturing, distribution and sale, analysis of the sample, review of pesticides for deciding whether to continue their use, etc. It should enforce accountability on all stakeholders including enforcement agencies such as license officers, sample analysts as well as farmers.
Uttam Gupta is a policy analyst. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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