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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Draft Bill on regulating pesticides could punish farmers who use spurious products, experts fear -Mridula Chari

Draft Bill on regulating pesticides could punish farmers who use spurious products, experts fear -Mridula Chari

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published Published on Feb 23, 2018   modified Modified on Feb 23, 2018
-Scroll.in

The proposed law is almost identical to the United Progressive Alliance’s 2008 Pesticide Management Bill.

Months after more than 40 people in three states were reported to have died in the second half of 2017 after being exposed to spurious pesticides, the Bharatiya Janata Party government has begun consultations on a new Pesticides Management Bill.

The deaths in rural Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana highlighted the fact that the Insecticides Act of 1968 that currently regulates pesticides has grown rusty, 50 years after it was introduced.

Even before these deaths, the need to update the new regulatory framework for pesticides had been noted. The Economic Survey of India of 2015-’16 had observed that indiscriminate pesticide use had resulted in pesticide residues being found in the food Indians are eating. With India’s agrochemical industry expected to grow 14.5% over the next five years, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture in 2016 recommended the formation of a Pesticide Development and Regulation Authority to make oversight more effective.

The draft Pesticides Management Bill greatly expands on the Insecticides Act of 1968 in defining usage and registration norms and other regulations. It addresses the manufacturing, field usage and disposal of pesticides. It also codifies harsher punishments for manufacturers of spurious pesticides.

The proposed legislation is identical in structure and largely in detail to the Pesticides Management Bill of 2008 that had been drafted by the United Progressive Alliance. The proposed legislation had been introduced in the Rajya Sabha, but never passed.

Consultation meeting

On January 11, the first consultation meeting for the new Bill was held with representatives from all states, of pesticide companies and a few farmer groups. Though the Bill was not presented to farmer groups before the consultation, some pesticide industry representatives seemed to have copies and were prepared when asked for their inputs at the meeting, according to people present.

Nonetheless, farmers had some suggestions. “We have asked for some amendments to be made to the bill including harsher punishments for companies,” said Badrinarayan Chaudhary of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, one of the groups invited for the consultation. This includes demands for the Bill to mandate clear usage guidelines in local languages on labels of pesticide boxes and to tighten penalties on manufacturers of spurious or sub-standard pesticides.

The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh pointed out that, in its attempt to tighten regulations, the Bill could end up punishing farmers who use spurious pesticides. The Bill says: “whoever uses or causes to use” a pesticide in contravention of its provisions is liable to be imprisoned or to pay a fine up to Rs 5 lakh. It does not define the term “users”. The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh said the end users of pesticides are most often farmers, who are not responsible for the quality of pesticides and often not well informed about correct usage. The ambiguity in definition has raised fears that farmers and agricultural workers could be prosecuted for no fault of theirs.

Scroll.in’s attempts to contact the official responsible for drafting the Bill to seek a clarification were unsuccessful. This story will be updated if and when he responds.

Please click here to read more.

Scroll.in, 23 February, 2018, https://scroll.in/article/869565/draft-bill-on-regulating-pesticides-could-punish-farmers-who-use-spurious-products-experts-fear


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