Committee to review proposal to ban 27 pesticides

New Delhi: The government has appointed an expert panel to review industry’s objections to the proposed ban on 27 widely used pesticides which officials say are harmful to animals and humans.“The committee, led by chairman TP Rajendran, former assistant director general of ICAR, is likely to submit its report in three months. His report will decide the fate of those 27 pesticides which the government wants to ban,” said a senior agriculture ministry official, who did not wish to be identified. These are part of the 66 contentious pesticides which are being reviewed for their toxicity. In 2018, the government had already banned 18 of them.In May 2020, the government said it would ban these pesticides. The government initially gave industry and pesticide companies 45 days to respond to the proposal. Later, after the intervention of agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, the deadline was extended to 90 days from the date of notification. But the matter remained pending even after 90 days, and now a decision is likely to be taken after the expert committee’s review.“The government’s intention to ban pesticides created a flutter in the industry. Industry lobbied hard to defer the ban, which resulted in delay,” said the official. “The government sought proof and studies from companies manufacturing these pesticides that can show that these chemicals are safe. Now these will be vetted scientifically by the committee.”Among these 27 pesticides – which are widely used, and some of these were used to kill locusts recently – industry and companies are said to have strongly defended 23, by submitting scientific evidence.“We don’t have much objection if four pesticides – methomyl, butachlor, dicofol and dinocap – are banned. But we strongly defend usage of the remaining 23 pesticides,” said Harish Mehta, senior advisor, Crop Care Federation of India, an industry body. He said the 27 pesticides comprise 12 insecticides, eight fungicides and seven herbicides, involving 130 formulations. “All these pesticides are highly effective. We export pesticides worth Rs 23,000 crore to several countries including the US and these 27 pesticides constitute 40% of it. We don’t think these are harmful enough to be banned,” said Mehta.The pesticide manufacturers also fear that the ban may hand over a ready export market to Chinese companies, which are competing directly with Indian companies in this space . Apart from, the banning will put an additional financial burden on farmers as the cost of these contentious pesticides range between Rs 275-450 a litre as against the cost of their alternatives which are being imported at Rs 1500-2000 a litre. 80469779

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