Spurious and substandard pesticides worth around Rs 1,200 crore are palmed off to unwary farmers every year. This results in a net loss to the farmers of crops worth about Rs 6,000 crore.
These estimates have been compiled by the Agrochemicals Policy Group (APG), a pesticides industry body that aims to promote the safe use of plant protection chemicals.
Indeed, a sizeable number of suicides by cotton growers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and other states over the past few years have been attributed to the use of spurious pesticides that caused widespread crop losses.
According to APG chairman S Kumarasamy, most spurious pesticide-making units are located in western Uttar Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and western Maharashtra. Indira Market in Delhi is said to have become the leading centre for the sale and distribution of these fake pesticides.
“Spurious products are sold mostly in under-developed markets like eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and the north-east, though one can also easily get such products in developed markets like Nashik, Pune, Bangalore, Guntur or Warangal,” Kumarasamy pointed out.
Makers of spurious pesticides usually imitate popular and expensive brands from multi-national and leading Indian manufacturers that have better acceptance among the farmers.
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Some counterfeit pesticides do not contain any active plant protection ingredient and largely comprise materials like talcum powder, chalk powder, any odd solvent or just kerosene. Others may contain some active ingredient but only a fraction of that mentioned on the label.
Since most spurious pesticide manufacturing and sale operations are conducted without bills and invoices, the government loses excise revenue of around Rs 168 crore (at the rate of 14 per cent) every year.
The state governments also lose VAT revenue (4 per cent) worth around Rs 48 crore, according to the APG estimates.
APG attributes the thriving spurious pesticides market to inadequate legal and other preventive action by the authorities concerned against manufacturers and traders of fake and sub-normal pesticides.
India’s pesticides industry is overseen by the Central Insecticides Board (CIB), a regulator created under the Insecticides Act, 1968. It is also responsible for the registration of agro-chemicals.
The state agricultural departments are also involved in enforcing the Insecticides Act in terms of issuing manufacturing licences, environmental clearances and monitoring the distribution and quality of the products.
“Despite such an elaborate system of controls, unscrupulous elements manage to produce, distribute and sell substandard and spurious pesticides without any fear of the law,” said Kumaraswamy.
“They actually manage to escape from the clutches of the law often because the local authorities either turn a blind eye or are partners in the crime,” he added.
Kumaraswamy suggested that, as with the pharmaceutical industry, the adoption and adherence to good manufacturing practices should be made mandatory for pesticides manufacturers.
He said state- level pesticide testing laboratories also needed to be revamped and equipped with modern technology to ensure better monitoring of the pesticides quality.
At present, most of these laboratories lack qualified analytical chemists and proper analytical instruments and reagents. Their analysis reports are often questionable as a result.
However, the overall Indian agricultural pesticides market is quite small by global standards. Although India accounts for around 17 per cent of the world’s total cultivated area, it accounts only for 3 per cent of global pesticide consumption.
About 80 per cent of the country’s crop land, comprising largely rainfed area and small farms, is seldom treated with plant protection chemicals. The cost-benefit ratio of pesticide use is reckoned to be about 1:5.