New Delhi: The central government's move to ban the usage of 27 commonly-used pesticides, weedicides and fungicides, for being harmful to humans and animals have met with stiff protest from farmers and pesticide manufacturers. The move will defeat the very purpose of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for Make In India, Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI), an agro-chemical industry body has alleged.
"All the 27 molecules have been approved by Indian government, meeting all scientific evaluations for safety and efficacy. Today, Indian companies have both resources and skilled man-power to produce the pesticides and now the government is banning them," Harish Mehta, Senior Advisor, the CCFI told ETV Bharat.On May 14, the Ministry of Agriculture had issued a draft notification, intending to ban the chemicals. In the notification, the ministry had given all stakeholders time till 27 June to submit their objections and suggestions.
"The banned pesticides are widely used by farmers for the past 40-50 years and if the chemicals are banned, then they will be forced to import it from countries like China, Japan and USA. Thereby, giving a market worth Rs 13,000 crore to our Chinese competitors alone," he added.
However, the industry is not happy with the move and intends to register its strong objection with the government.
According to CCFI, there is a total domestic market of pesticides worth Rs 6000 in India. The move will not only stop the manufacturing of the chemicals but also bring export earnings of the Indian industry worth Rs 7000 crore to a standstill.
Moreover, these pesticides account for 40 percent of the domestic market and the alternative available to the farmers will be branded, readymade and expensive ones produced by the multinational companies (MNCs).
Recently, while addressing an virtual conference, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the exports of the chemicals will not be banned and announced that the time for inviting comments from pesticides manufacturers and other bodies, has been extended from 45 days to 90 days. But the industry expressed grave dissatisfaction over the recent development too.
A week after writing a letter to the agricultural ministry and Central Insecticides Board & Registration Committee (CIBRC), CCFI wrote another letter asking on what grounds the ban was initiated, for which the body has not received any response yet.
