The Prime Minister has set an ambitious goal of doubling the farmer’s income by 2022. But the bureaucracy seems to be working otherwise as it is evident from the Pesticides Management Bill 2020 that was tabled in the Rajya Sabha during the Budget session earlier this year, and is likely to come up for discussion in the monsoon session of Parliament. If the Bill is passed by Parliament in its present form, it will do more harm than good to the farmers.
In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare set up the Ashok Dalwai Committee for making recommendations on the doubling of farmers’ income. The committee recommended promoting domestic and indigenous agrochemical industries, R&D by Indian industries, banning import of formulations of agrochemical. The committee also recommended that export of agrochemicals from India be encouraged as there is a huge demand of In- dian generic agrochemicals in the developed countries. But proposed PMB, 2020 will increase the import of formulations, thereby forcing Indian farmers to purchase imported agrochemicals at a price 4-5 times costlier to save their crops.
Further, India exported generic agrochemicals of Rs 23,000 crore to the global market during 2019-20, which will be automatically finished if this PMB is implemented as proposed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is therefore requested to pay attention to these negative impacts of the PMB if it is passed in its present form. Hence, it needs immediate amendments.
One of the provisions in the Bill gives powers to the Registration Committee (RC) and state governments to suspend, cancel or even ban usage of pesticides without scientific review. Such provisions could disrupt crop produce, its quality, and essentially the income of the farmer. Pesticide review is an important activity but it should be done by an independent committee under the chairmanship of Director General ICAR and members from Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, National Chemical Laboratory Pune, Indian Universality of Chemical Technology Mumbai and others.
The role of the Registration Committee must be limited to data and registration. Moreover, CIB&RC or the proposed Pesticide Board should not have any jurisdiction on the manufacturing for exports, which is a subject to be dealt with by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
There are provisions in the Bill that farmers would have to obtain prescriptions from experts for purchasing pesticides. Now imagine the length and width of India as well as the number of farmers and diversity of crops grown by them — who is going to write prescriptions to the farmers. In fact, farmers will be facing trouble running from one place to another for prescriptions during crucial times of their crop management, when they need to apply pesticide to save their crops.
Moreover, the PMB does not state any requirement for the registration of a technical grade pesticide in India before registration of its formulations, thereby putting Indian farmers and Indian Generic Pesticide Industry at disadvantage. Such provisions will create monopolies of MNCs in Indian markets.
For example, Emamectin Benzoate for use in Bt cotton was earlier imported and sold at Rs 10,000 per kg by Syngenta, but then it was manufactured by domestic companies and sold at Rs 3500/kg. This would put immense pressure on the farmer to purchase ex- pensive formulations. How does this promote the vision of doubling farmers’ income?
In India, the farmer’s crop yield losses range from 15- 25% owing to the presence of weeds, pests, diseases and rodents. The Bill does not have any provisions for use of pesticides during an emergency in case of attack by invasive pests such as Fall Army Worms, Desert Locusts, White Fly, etc. Under PMB, the sale or usage of a pesticide can only take place after its registration with the RC. Also, the PMB 2020, if it gets Parliament’s nod as it is, would hamper the production and export of pesticides which are not registered for use in India. This would considerably create a negative impact on the ‘Make in India’ mission, at a time when there is a huge demand for Indian pesticides in the global market. The PMB ought to permit Indian firms to manufacture and export these pesticides, which will be creating job opportunities in the sector and easing foreign trade.
This bill, in its current form, is detrimental to the interests of the farmers and agriculture. This needs wider consultation; farmers need to be part of the consultation process.
The writer is President of Bharatiya Krishak Samaj. The views expressed are personal.