Challenges and opportunities in the current regulatory environment for agrochemicals in India
As the world’s most populous country with more than 1.4 billion people, India should boost its food production to meet rising requirements. In FY23, the country reportedly produced more than 329 million metric tons (MMT) of food grains. However, estimates indicate India must produce almost 400 MMT to ensure food security while offering subsidised food for the needy.
Misperceptions and the ground reality
It’s in this context one needs to view the role of agrochemicals, popularly termed pesticides. The term ‘pesticides’ raises negative perceptions despite the key role they play in raising food productivity and boosting farmer incomes. Agrochemicals comprise various crop protection chemicals that are indispensable for the growth and sustenance of agriculture.
If the industry is well supported by an enabling environment, agrochemicals hold the potential to transform India into a global food basket in the coming years. Despite vast opportunities, multiple challenges make this goal a distant dream due to the restrictive regulatory environment. Yet, agrochemicals are a potent weapon against thousands of pests, weeds and plant diseases that destroy crops.
Sri Lanka’s experience with organic farming
Unfortunately, there are popular misperceptions that agrochemicals should be abandoned in favour of organic farming. Though organic farming is useful for small landholdings, it can’t feed a populous nation like India. We must learn from Sri Lanka’s disastrous experience with organic farming. Believing that organic farming could offer yields comparable to traditional agriculture, the Lankan government imposed a nationwide ban on chemical fertilisers/pesticides in 2021, forcing two million farmers towards organic products. Within six months Sri Lanka was forced to import $450 million of rice, despite being self-sufficient in the crop earlier, even as domestic prices soared by around 50 per cent. The pesticide ban also devastated Lanka’s tea crop, previously its primary export and major forex source.
Therefore, India can’t afford to experiment with organic farming. Also, concerns regarding the adverse impact of agrochemicals are being adequately addressed by new molecule discoverers. Consequently, the domestic safe toxicity level dosage is now as low as 10 grams per hectare and India is capable of maintaining minimum-residue limits.
Challenges-cum-opportunities
Notwithstanding these benefits, agrochemicals are a highly regulated industry. Enhanced emphasis on product safety has led to a significant increase in the cost and time required for novel molecule discovery and development. It takes ₹2,000+ crore and 10-12 years to introduce a new molecule in the market. During this process, scientists test and evaluate more than 1.6 lakh different molecules or substances, before identifying a viable discovery.
Apart from preventing crop loss, the judicious use of agrochemicals promotes sustainable agriculture. Its significance is apparent when one realises that an estimated 67,000 diverse pests attack crops globally. As per estimates, around a third of potential crop yield is destroyed by pre-harvest pests, weeds and pathogens with some crop losses going up to almost 100 per cent. Government estimates indicate India loses ₹1.48 lakh crore of annual agricultural produce due to damage caused by around 30,000 weed species, 10,000 plant-eating insect species and 3,000 nematode species.
Moreover, crops infested with fungal pathogens pose a potent threat to human lives. In all cases, agrochemicals are the best means of crop protection. Besides being extremely efficient, they are easy to use, readily available and cost-effective, leading to high returns on investment since the shelf life of products is improved.
India ranks as the fourth-largest agrochemical producer worldwide while being a net exporter. By 2025, the country’s agrochemicals market is anticipated to touch $8.1 billion. Nonetheless, the use of agrochemicals is currently low in the Indian market, standing at barely 0.27 kg per hectare.
Some Select Solutions
As noted earlier, one of the major challenges is the high R&D costs and the long innovation timelines, which are exacerbated by the slow pace of registration for new molecules. To make the agrochemicals space more sustainable, the regulatory authorities should streamline the registration process, ensuring this is done within a year.
Rising raw material costs are another major challenge since the country imports almost half of its technical grade needs from China. This depresses margins because of macroeconomic factors and the high inventory due to the seasonal demand. The Centre should intervene by establishing cluster areas for agrochemical players to manufacture technical-grade raw materials via its “Make in India” mission.
Awareness campaigns must also be held to promote the safe handling and use of pesticides. Poor handling by local dealers and improper use by untrained farmers often lead to health issues, giving the industry a bad name.
To reiterate, Indian agrochemicals record one of the lowest global usage, which is also based on an extremely small product range because of the minimal number of registrations. All this needs to change if India aims to promote food security and food safety. This will require a balancing act between agrochemical innovation and safety alongside environmental concerns. Additionally, one requires policy reforms that promote R&D for greater innovation and incentives to improve the quality of agri inputs.
Increasing the responsible use of agrochemicals along with a range of novel products sold by reputed manufacturers under brand stewardship programmes can catalyse a game-changing impact on India’s agricultural productivity. Doubling of farmer incomes could then become a ground reality, sooner rather than later, which will finally witness agrochemicals receiving their due credit.
The author is Founder-Director – Safex Chemicals Group