India: Centre exploring options to check spurious pesticides

Concerned over rising incidences of spurious pesticides, especially in Punjab and Haryana, the Central government is exploring various options, including strong legislative framework and making QR code mandatory on every product sold by the manufacturers. Besides this, the manufacturers are seeking services of private detectives to curb the menace.

A few months ago, the Punjab government had also banned the sale of pesticides manufactured by a company at Dera Bassi and seized many spurious, unauthorised and expired products worth crores.

Similarly, spurious pesticides were seized in Sirsa and Jhajjar recently in Haryana. Overall, in the current fiscal there have been 15 cases of detection of spurious pesticides in these states and large quantities of counterfeit products were sealed.

“The case of spurious agrochemicals or pesticides is cause for concern. So we are exploring multiple options to put a check on it,” said P Raghavendra Rao, Secretary, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India, who was in the city today.

According to industry, the rural markets are flooded with fake products and farmers have no choice but to purchase these. These are not only of poor quality but may be harmful also.

“These counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product. Counterfeit products tend to have fake company logos and brands resulting in patent or trademark infringement. They may also include toxic elements such as lead which is harmful for health,” said RG Agarwal, Group Chairman, Dhanuka Agritech Ltd.

Sources said the Agriculture Ministry would soon issue a notification making QR Code mandatory on every product sold by the manufacturers.

“Taking cognisance of high prevalence of spurious pesticides, the industry is also hiring private detectives to check the menace,” Agarwal said.

Punjab contributes 10% to the total pesticides sales in India while Haryana accounts for 7%. The total market size for agrochemicals in India is around Rs 20,000 crore and around 350 companies are engaged in the manufacturing.