The Hindu Business Line : Agro-chem group seeks removal of excise duty, sales tax

Cropped
About 20-30% crops are destroyed due to pests every year.
Of the 180 million hectares under crops, only a fourth protected against pests, diseases.
APG says elimination of excise duty, sales tax on pesticides will increase its use.

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Ahmedabad Feb. 14 Strongly advocating increased use of pesticides in protecting crops in India, the Agrochemicals Policy Group (APG) on Wednesday cautioned that the country might fall short of 50 million tonnes of foodgrains by 2025-30 if urgent steps are not taken now to minimise loss.

At present, about 20 to 30 per cent of crops are destroyed due to pests every year. The Central Government should eliminate 16 per cent excise duty and four per cent sales tax on pesticides for encouraging their increased use by farmers.

At present, the tax component of pesticides' price is as high as 32 per cent, according to Mr S. Kumarasamy, Chairman of APG, the apex body of three leading associations of the crop protection industry.

Currently, an average of only 480 gm of pesticides are used per hectare in the country compared to Taiwan (17,000 gm), Japan (10,700 gm), the USA (4,500 gm) and Europe (3,000 gm). Due to this, crop yield levels are very low. Even at the current low level of usage, pesticides are being used more in protecting export-oriented crops. "If we could double the pesticide usage from the current Rs 4,000 crore, our farmers would get an additional income of Rs 20,000 crore per annum," he asserted.

Possible shortfall

Between 1951 and now, the foodgrain production has gone up from 50 million tonnes to 215 million tonnes due to extended irrigation, hybrid seeds, use of pesticides, mechanised faming implements and high-tech inputs. By 2030, India's population is projected to overtake that of China, necessitating urgent steps to increase food grain production, without which we could face shortfall of 50 million tonnes per annum.

An equal amount of foodgrain is now stored in Indian warehouses as buffer stocks. Even if India became a foodgrain importer, transportation of wheat and rice from the ports to the six lakh villages would not be possible, said Mr Jay Narayan Vyas, a planning expert and former BJP minister.

The global market of pesticides is worth 25 billion while that of India is 650 million (Rs 4,000 crore). India's pesticide exports have increased from Rs 600 crore a decade ago to Rs 3,500 crore now and is expanding at a three to four per cent rate per annum, he said.

Training farmers

The governments have one-lakh agriculture extension officers who can be aggressively pressed-in to educate the farmers to increasingly use pesticides to protect their crops, they told reporters here. Mr Vyas pointed out that India, which had 16 per cent of world population, had only four per cent of fresh water resources. As a result, food, water and energy security would be the prime concerns of the country in the near future.

Mr Kumarasamy said that out of the 180 million hectares under crops in India, only a fourth was being protected against pests, diseases and weeds. India uses only two per cent of the total pesticides used in the world. Only by protecting crops by increased use of pesticides could India really become a food surplus and secure country for its long-term economic development.

Lambasting some NGOs for their alleged role in dissuading the farmers against use of pesticides and other "anti-developmental" activities, Mr Rajubhai Shroff, CMD of United Phosphorus Group, said APG itself has started working with the Confederation of NGOs in Rural India (CNRI) to educate the farmers on the safe and judicious use of pesticides.

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