PAN India response on the Draft Banning of Insecticides Order 2020

PAN India welcomes the Gazette of Government of India to ban the 27 pesticides and urges the Agriculture Ministry to review all the remaining pesticides registered in India with the same criteria used for assessing the 27 chemicals and come up with stringent regulatory measures, including a possible ban of more hazardous pesticides.

The government of India is considering banning of 27 highly toxic pesticides, which are currently used in India but are already banned in one or more countries. In a gazette notification issued on the 14th of May 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture issued a draft order intended to ban 27 pesticides and sought comments or suggestions from those who are likely to be affected by the decision.

Many of them are highly hazardous pesticides with the potential to cause severe health effects such as hormonal changes, neurotoxic effects, reproductive and developmental health effects, carcinogenic effects, as well as environmental impacts such as toxic to bees.

Many of them are highly hazardous pesticides with potential to cause severe health effects such as hormonal changes (Product Detail: ) neurotoxic effects (Product Detail: ) reproductive and developmental health effects (Product Detail: ) carcinogenic effects (Product Detail: ) as well as environmental impacts such as toxic to bees.

Many of them reported to have data deficient for regulatory purposes and noted that alternatives are available for all of them.

The following are the list of pesticides proposed to be banned which include insecticides (Product Detail: ) fungicides and weedicides:

2,4-D (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-24-d )

Acephate (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Acephate)

Atrazine (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-atrazine)

Benfuracarb (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Benfuracarb)

Butachlor (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Butachlor)

Captan (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Captan)

Carbendazim (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Carbendazim)

Carbofuran (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Carbofuran)

Chlorpyriphos (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-chlorpyrifos-chlorpyriphos)

Deltamethrin (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Deltamethrin )

Dicofol (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Dicofol)

Dimethoate (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Dimethoate)

Dinocap (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Dinocap)

Diuron (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Diuron)

Malathion (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Malathion)

Mancozeb (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Mancozeb )

Methomyl (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Methomyl )

Monocrotophos (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Monocrotophos)

Oxyfluorfen (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Oxyfluorfen)

Pendimethalin (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Pendimethalin)

Quinalphos (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Quinalphos)

Sulfosulfuron (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Sulfosulfuron)

Thiodicarb (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Thiodicarb)

Thiophanate-methyl (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-thiophanate-methyl )

Thiram (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Thiram)

Zineb (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Zineb)

Ziram (Product Detail: https://www.chemrobotics.com/product-Ziram)

Some of them are already addressed by State-level regulations/bans in India:

Monocrotophos was banned briefly by Adilabad District Collector and Ooty District Collector due to rampant illegal use and toxicity potential on food, environment, and farmers in 2019.

In 2018, Punjab Agriculture Department had sought to review licenses and not to issue fresh licenses for five (2,4-D. benfuracarb, dicofl, methomyl, and monocrotophos) because of harmful effects on human beings and environmental sustainability and economic viability.

Maharashtra government prohibited two of them (monocrotohos and acephate) in 2017 as they were implicated in the high incidence of pesticide poisonings among the cotton farming community.

The State of Kerala already banned some of these pesticides such as monocrotophos, carbofuran, atrazine, etc. back in 2011 on the grounds of public health concerns.

Impact food security and agriculture production:

Analysis by PAN India shows that currently 289 pesticides are registered for use in India and these 27 pesticides form less than 10 percent of them. Hence banning these 27 pesticides would not impact food security and agriculture production in the country as the assessment of the government found that alternatives are available to all of them. As several pesticides are registered and approved for use in India for a single crop pest combination, banning some of them would not affect crop health management but would definitely contribute to reducing the toxic burden of communities.

Source: http://www.pan-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/PAN-India_PR-_Draft-Pesticide-ban-order-21May2020.pdf 

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