CropLife India (CIL), an association of 17 crop protection companies, has demanded that pesticide sales through online or e-commerce platforms be brought under the laws and regulations applicable to the conventional pesticide market. According to reports from Business Standard, Rahul Dhanuka, managing director of Dhanuka Agritech Limited representing CIL, stated that online and e-commerce platforms currently fall significantly out of the ambit of the law and miss on traceability and accountability towards farmers and consumers. Dhanuka emphasized that such platforms should face the same laws and regulations as conventional markets.
CIL has reiterated its demand that the government ensure five years of protection for regulatory data generated by agrochemical companies, warning that the lack of such a mechanism would discourage companies from developing newer and safer products in India. As reported by Business Standard, Dhanuka said a separate chapter must be included in the Pesticides Management Bill (PMB) to regulate digital and e-commerce platforms. The draft of this bill was released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
According to Mohan Babu, cluster commercial lead for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at Bayer CropScience Limited, reported by Business Standard, India has only 380 molecules available in different forms and structures, while the industry has provided crop protection solutions through 1,200 molecules globally. Babu emphasized that protection for regulatory data should be incorporated into the draft PMB to address this significant product availability gap.
Giridhar Ranuva, business director, Agricultural Solutions-India at BASF, highlighted the resource-intensive nature of product development, stating that developing an innovation takes a company nearly six to eight years and considerable investment, making it a resource-intensive process. As reported by Business Standard, Ranuva noted that other companies could enter the market at a fraction of the cost, discouraging investment in new products. Discussing patent status in the agrochemical market, Ranuva explained that roughly 20 per cent of products are patented, while another 15-20 per cent have recently lost patent protection and 60 per cent have been off-patent for some time.
