Pesticide Laws and Regulations - Contest between for Science and Politics hurting the Progress

Pesticide Laws and Regulations in India

Need to address the conflict between Science & Politics in the law-making process in the national interest

By:

Vijay SARDANA FICA, MIMA

PGDM (IIM-A), LLB, M.Sc. (Food Tech) (CFTRI), B.Sc. (Dairy Tech)

PG in Intl. Trade Laws & Alt. Dispute Resolution. IPR, PhD (in Progress)

Advocate, Delhi High Court

Techno-legal Expert on Agribusinesses & Agri-inputs, IPR Issues,

Commodities Trade & Consumer Products Industries

&

Founder & Convenor

Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture Foundation, New Delhi

India and growing food security challenges:

The worldwide population is projected to increase to 9 billion by 2050 (United Nations). To accommodate this increase, food production will necessarily need to increase as well. However, new agricultural land is limited, so sustainable production and increasing productivity of existing agricultural land is an important aspect of addressing global food security.

India will be the country with the largest human as well as livestock population, shrinking land and water and a dream to become a USD five trillion economy in the next 5 years.

Food security has been described as a condition of humanity “…when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (Food and Agriculture Organization). Increases in the terrestrial agricultural production of food and fish farming will be necessary to ensure adequate food availability, but this is only part of the larger concept of food security that also comprises food access, utilization, and stability (Food and Agriculture Organization). Given that there is limited additional land available for agriculture and sites for fish farming coupled with increasing economic pressures to produce agricultural commodities for industrial purposes, including fibre and biofuels, strategies to increase agricultural yield will need to be used to meet the increase in food demand for the immediate future.

Role of pesticides in food security

Pesticides are substances used to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pest ranging from insects, animals and weeds to microorganisms, but inadvertent exposure to pesticides may adversely affect human health. For the near and foreseeable future, pesticides may be an important component of a comprehensive strategy to increase crop yield by preventing both pre and post-harvest loss to pests.

WTO, Pesticide Regulation and India

India is a signatory to WTO Agreements. The pesticide regulations are part of Sanitary or phytosanitary (SPS) measures which conform to the relevant provisions of this Agreement shall be presumed to be in accordance with the obligations of the Members under the provisions of GATT 1994.

Article 3.1 of SPS agreement clearly says that to harmonize sanitary and phytosanitary measures on as wide a basis as possible, Members shall base their sanitary or phytosanitary measures on international standards, guidelines or recommendations, where they exist, except as otherwise provided for in this Agreement.

Article 3.2 of SPS agreement clearly Sanitary or phytosanitary measures which conform to international standards, guidelines or recommendations shall be deemed to be necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health, and presumed to be consistent with the relevant provisions of this Agreement and of GATT 1994.

Article 3.3 of SPS agreement reminds that all measures which result in a level of sanitary or phytosanitary protection different from that which would be achieved by measures based on international standards, guidelines or recommendations shall not be inconsistent with any other provision of this Agreement.

New Indian Pesticide Laws will be under global scrutiny at WTO

According to Article 3.5, India is bound by the global obligation and all regulations will be evaluated and analysed by the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures provided for in paragraphs 1 and 4 of Article 12 (referred to in this Agreement as the “Committee”) shall develop a procedure to monitor the process of international harmonization and coordinate efforts in this regard with the relevant international organizations.

What are the obligations of India under WTO?

The world community is fully aware that countries may distort the facts and may do politics while formulating their internal regulations, which may impact the whole world, there are many International Conventions on Pesticides.

To address global concerns, several international instruments dealing directly or indirectly with pesticides or pesticide management have come into force. India is a party to WTO Agreements and various international treaties. The most important of these are:

• 👉The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals & Pesticides in Int'l Trade. (Rotterdam Convention),  
• 👉The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (Stockholm Convention),
• 👉The Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention),
• 👉The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol)
• 👉The International Labour Organisation Convention No. 184 on Safety and Health in Agriculture (ILO Convention 184).
• 👉Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)
• 👉Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), which is intended to standardize and harmonize the classification and labelling of chemicals.

Important: It will be useful for the growing economy like India to respect these international treaties and adopt these norms without favour or fear of vested interests and short-sighted political pressures. The global community will evaluate all the decisions taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and other related departments on the crucial issues related to pesticides.

Major Concerns concerning pesticide regulations in India

Policymakers must address them to make a credible governance system.

Issue 1. Wrong units are getting Manufacturing Registration of units under the Pesticide Act: There are concerns that wrong units and units without proper infrastructure and facilities are given licences. Inspection reports by field officers are not reliable.

Suggestion: In the new Pesticide Management Bill as part of Digital India Mission, all factory inspections must be video recorded and uploaded with GPS coordinates to a centralised portal from the site itself to ensure inspectors do not get chance to manipulate the facts so that this can act as evidence in case of any litigation and other safety concerns. Video of the manufacturing facilities must be a mandatory part of the submission for granting manufacturing licence. This transparency will also minimize the chances of human errors and the probability of corruption and wrong manufacturing certificates. Overall manufacturing and safety infrastructure in India will improve.

Issue 2. There are allegations of corruption in the application approval process and delay in the approval of filed applications.

Suggestion: Digital & Faceless transaction with the pesticide department will ensure transparency and evidence-based decision making and will address such allegations. Like tax departments and Courts in India, all are working on digital platforms. When a common man can deal on digital platforms all companies can also do the same. 100% digitalization should be adopted in all pesticide-related work and in related departments. This transparency will also minimize the chances of human errors and the probability of corruption.

Issue 3. What should be the priority for India, price or safety, concerning pesticides?

Suggestion: Price is always negotiable but safety cannot be negotiable. India in the globalised economy must focus on the safety of pesticides and their application. Competition is the best way to keep prices low and quality high. Encourage fair competition. Eliminate bad players and products.

Issue 4. China is focusing on quality, research and better technologies to improve exports and global reach. India is still stuck with chemicals which are banned globally and hesitant to change for a better future.

Suggestion: Use of banned and restricted chemicals will only hurt Indian trade and public health interest. Use of banned chemicals in the agriculture production system will hurt the exports of agriculture products from India. Can India export grapes and basmati rice if banned chemicals are used in production? For the growth of Indian agri-exports outdated and banned pesticides are the biggest hurdle. The Pesticide Management Bill must address this issue.

Issue 5. Parliamentary Standing committee has raised concern about the growing cases of adulteration and spurious pesticides. It is not only hurting farmers economically but also their health as well. This is growing evidence of corruption in the governance system. This is discouraging quality manufacturers as well.

Suggestion: All sample collection processes must be digitized and must be traceable as per good laboratory practices. Modern cost-effective technologies like QR Codes and barcodes must be made mandatory. Any opposition to the adoption of traceable technology should not be entertained.

Any laboratory not accredited by NABL, not having digital recording and no traceability system should not be allowed to test the samples for which are used for legal process and litigation. This may lead to injustice due to corrupt practices.

Issue 6. Lack of transparency in decision making creating space for political interference and corruption in decision making. This will compromise the future of India.

Suggestion: Many vested interests people know that decision-making system-related pesticide is not transparent and time-consuming. This is forcing them to spend time and resources to influence the political system in their favour. There is an attempt to use various political forces to influence the decision on scientific matters. Every decision of the ministry related to pesticide is viewed from a political lens. This is not good for the credibility of the decision-making system in India. This is not only hurting investments but also the introduction of new technologies in India. This must change to inspire confidence in all stakeholders.

Issue 7. Proposed Pesticide Management Bill lacks provision to control corruption.

Suggestion: The proposed bill has provisions for the penalty for manufactures and dealers, but silent on time-bound and credible complaint redressal mechanism of corrupt field officials. This is shaking the confidence of honest companies. This is also hurting the investment and development in India. China knows this weakness of Indian governance system. Hence not worried about schemes like Make in India and Production Linked Incentives (PLI) launched by the Government of India.

Issue 8. Many times Imported chemicals may be mislabelled to by-pass the customs duty and registration criteria?

Suggestion: It is common unfair trade practice to change the HS code or names of the product in the invoice to by-pass the custom duties and to by-pass regulatory restrictions. There should be a system to check such trading practices. Many countries have developed proper systems to check such unfair trade practices because this can be dangerous and can be misused by anti-national elements. This also needs urgent attention.

Issue 9. Most companies operate in various parts of the world. They abide by global regulations and norms.

Suggestion: Why do companies seek concessions when they want to operate in India on IPR issues, registration issues and other matters? Policymakers should review the whole process to attract investment and new technologies to India. The governance system should support research in India as well. China has decided to move beyond generics to research-based manufacturing to dominate the world market. Indian policymakers have to factor this while working on policies.

Issue 10. Bad quality and spurious products are flooded in the market, clearly indicating that sampling and testing systems are not effective and credible. Unfortunately, no one in the system is accountable to fix this anti-national activity which is not only cheating farmers but also hurting national food security.

Suggestion: The new Pesticide Management Bill must fix the accountability of the department and people responsible for product integrity.  The functioning of pesticide testing laboratories is always part of debate and discussion among policymakers and stakeholders. When laboratory results are used for litigation, they must be credible and transparent. There must be a  mandatory format for the test reports. All the related documents of laboratory samples used for analysis should be a mandatory part of the report. All test reports must be accompanied by ATR+chromatograms. This is the only way one can understand whether there was much manipulation of the samples or not. This transparency is a must and this is part of natural justice. Departments cannot and should not deny this right to the person; the whole sample is under scrutiny. Demand for a transparent system is a fundamental right.

Issue 11. Historically, before British rule, India was always known for innovations and intellectual property. The reason was very simple because there was an investment in intellectual property and there was respect for intellectual property in the country. In the 21st century, we all talk about knowledge as power but when it comes to the legal system, there is no provision to respect the same. Why? The Government of India is very much worried about data protection when it comes to e-commerce and IT services, traditional knowledge of India is herbal and ayurvedic systems in products like turmeric but not keen to protect the same data when it comes to agro-chemicals? Why?

Suggestion: R&D investment in India is less than 1% of GDP in India. We all want to stand against the Chinese products but we do not have the desire to spend on R&D, China is spending 3-4 % in China for a 10 trillion economy. This is a serious gap. India should invest a minimum of 2.5% of GDP on R&D. Otherwise, India will remain a country of traders. People will import and do blending and mixing and sell the product to farmers and make some profit. This is not good for the future of India. Unless we follow and develop good practices to encourage research in India and create an environment to protect and respect intellectual properties, why should anyone invest in research in India. Companies without visionary leadership will continue to operate like traders. The government must look into this seriously on an urgent basis.  

Issue 12. The fragmented and outdated approach is hurting India at all levels. Why there cannot be complete integration in digital Indian and why time-bound approvals are not possible. It takes over two years for a Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) approval of a laboratory by the Department of Science and Technology. There are no training programs for the officers working in agriculture inputs divisions about new and emerging technologies.

Suggestion: Excessive time required for approval can happen only under two situations, either there is a lack of competency in the departments or lack of desire or some ulterior motives of the people involved. There is no other reason for the delay. In these situations. Action must be there against people responsible for hurting national interest and accountability must be fixed. When the taxation department timeline can be fixed, why the same cannot be fixed in departments related to the agriculture sector.

If there are activities which are under other ministries and their inefficiencies are hurting the growth of the agriculture sector, it is high time the government just look at merging all related departments under one roof and till then create a coordination committee which must review the progress every week. Now, with video conferencing facilities with all officers, this can be done without any delay on a real-time basis from anywhere and at any time.  

Pesticide Management Bill 2020 and the way forward

Before revising or drafting pesticide legislation, due consideration should be given to the points raised above.

The following points will also help in revising and drafting the new Pesticide management bill for the progressive Indian in the 21st century.

1) Analysis of the national legal and institutional frameworks directly or indirectly relevant for pesticide management;

2) Identification of technical needs and regulatory failures, based on:

👉Field realities and experiences,
👉New pesticide policy objectives should be clearly defined;
👉Existing legislation; and
👉The International recommendations will help in improving the global standing of India
👉How to encourage, promote and respect new research in India
👉How to promote investment in India for manufacturing

3) Drafting, which usually involves a team composed of legal and technical experts;

4) Review of drafts with the involvement of key stakeholders to avoid any politics and unscientific justifications.

Important: All stakeholders should evaluate all the decisions taken by the policymakers on the above-mentioned parameters to ensure logical and transparent policy-making without pulls and pressures. The decision of the above-mentioned criteria should also be tested on technical and legal justification if required.

The Prime Minister has decided to improve the governance system and to make India USD Five Trillion economy to attract global investments. Five trillion dollar economy in a highly competitive globalised economy can only be built on trust and credible governance system. The only expectation from the decision-makers and Parliament of India is to make a credible, transparent system which cannot be influenced by vested interest and where honest and credible investors and products survive.

A testing time for the Policy Makers in the 21st Century

Can India ever become a world leader in agrochemicals by following an outdated mindset and preferring politics over science in the 21st century?

With the prevailing situations and mindset, a few companies and their well-wishers may gain, but the country will suffer. This is the testing time for the policymakers.

All eyes are on them. Every decision will be scrutinized by stakeholders in India and also by the international community.

Many suggestions given above can be done with immediate effect just by passing a proper office order or by issuing a Gazette notification.

Actions will speak louder than the words expressed in conferences and public forums. Vested commercial and political interests cannot be and should not be bigger than national interest.

If any discussion is required on how to implement the given suggestions, the author is keen to extend his experience and expertise.

Let us all work hard to make India a great economy once again.

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Presented at 9th Agrochemicals Conference, New Delhi. Theme: Role of Agrochemicals: Achieving the vision of $5 Trillion economy by 2025, organised by FICCI, New Delhi