Spurious crop protection products pose a major challenge to Indian farmers

Crop Protection Chemical Products, commonly referred to as pesticides or agrochemical products, play a vital role in controlling pests and diseases that infect, consume or damage crops thereby significantly reducing the quantity and quality of food production, while the benefits of agricultural innovation goes to farmers and consumers. The Department of Chemical and Petrochemicals , on a query to the extent of increase in agriculture production with the use of pesticides, by the Parliamentary Standing Committee (2012-2013), in its written reply stated that “Every year in India, pests and diseases eat away, on an average, 20-30% of food, worth about Rs. 45,000 crore, produced by the farmers”. Food crops compete with 30,000 species of weeds, 3,000 species of nematodes and 10,000 species of plant-eating insects, while crop protection products or "pesticides" help control insects and diseases.

Crop protection products are strictly regulated for product safety, biosafety, toxicity and environmental impacts. Care is taken by the Government and industry to protect public health, agriculture, food safety, economy, and the environment, using Crop Protection products.

However, Counterfeit or spurious products are a growing challenge for the plant science industry particularly for crop protection products in the country, which bears a series of negative effects including economic losses for the farmers, potential harm to the environment, discouragement to honest local entrepreneurs from investing in legitimate product development, investments on technology development, loss of tax revenues and deleterious impact on potential agri-exports.

The domestic crop protection consumption is worth Rs 12,500 crores and 25% of the market close to Rs 3100 crores is spurious products or illegal counterfeits, sold in the key states of Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Eastern part of West Bengal.

Government and industry, particularly CropLife India, have been fighting counterfeits or spurious products which are unregistered bio products laced with Chemicals and counterfeits (look-a-likes) of popular brands, illegal import of counterfeit products which have not undergone rigorous scientific testing in country while do not conform with scientific regulations.

From time to time, the Government conducts raids to nab manufacturers and dealers of counterfeits /spurious products. However with the enforcement mechanism being poor in absence of a strong legal procedure, criminal convictions are rare. Enforcement has to be a coordinated effort between central and state agriculture departments and the local police. IPC (Indian Penal Code) or CrPC (The Code of Criminal Procedure), should be amended to incorporate provisions to deal with crimes related to counterfeit/spurious products. It is important for all stakeholders like the Government, NGOs and industry, farmers, dealers and local police to partner and address this menace.

The crop protection industry, especially the large R&D based companies including members of CropLife India, engages in technology development (newer molecules &innovations) which helps progress towards a sustainable agriculture through effective crop protection while practicing product stewardship. Product Stewardship is a holistic product life-cycle approach whereby benefits of using these products are maximized through responsible and judicious use while risks are minimized through educating the farmers as end users and Agri-input dealers against indiscriminate and incorrect usage.  While a sincere effort is made by industry towards awareness creation for farmers, there is need for much larger effort through collaborations with Central and State Governments whose agri extention infrastructure could be leaveraged for farmers’ outreach.

Agri-input dealers being the source of information for farmers on pest and disease management due to their direct contact with farmers, over 1.6 lakhs licensed dealers across the country have been issued advisories by the Department of Agriculture and Co-cooperation (DAC), through the “Grow Safe Food campaign”to create awareness on illegal and counterfeit products while educating them on penal actions for selling illegal crop protection products. The nation-wide initiative is aimed at promoting awareness and capability-building efforts such as hands-on training for farmers on the Responsible Use of chemicals, GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) and IPM (Integrated Pest Management), to improve the quality of country’s agriculture produce, grow safe food and address challenges faced by agriculture exports in terms of technical barriers to trade.The efforts aim to educate farmers, agriculture extension workforce, Agri-input retailers, district agriculture officials and NGOs, on the responsible use of chemicals, warehouse management for secured pesticide storage, awareness on counterfeit products, usage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) in fields.

Further, technologies are available to screen on the spot presence of spurious chemicals in bio products which will go a long way in enforcement to control counterfeit/ spurious products. It is pivotal for the Government to protect Indian agriculture from counterfeit/ spurious products so that the right products reach the farmers and safeguard development of new technologies that can help assure food security.

Crop Life India is an association of technology driven crop science industry, committed to responsible crop care and crop production for the safe and sustainable development of Indian agriculture. It promotes the benefits and responsible usage of crop protection products, as well as sound science based regulatory system to protect people and the environment, timely access to crops, usage of new pesticides to support a sustainable agriculture system in India. It is a unit of Crop Life International, a global federation of the plant size industry in over 90 countries.