There is more than technology

The Agricultural Prices Commission however regularly publishes cost data and one gets a fairly accurate picture from it of pesticide application. I had used this once in a BICP study and have always wondered as to why policy-makers ignore this source of information. It is true that pesticide application in irrigated high yielder paddy and long staple cotton areas are indeed very high and rising. In fact in most such areas they are way above “recommended” levels. Apart from the high yielders the new hybrids also need a high level of protection, since they don’t have the sturdiness of the traditional paddies, now grown mainly for taste. We don’t have data on tree crops but knowledgeable marketmen said this segment is also growing and in some areas perhaps there is overapplication.

There is no question that in these high density areas pesticide applications are way above required and safe levels and the problem of harmful residues is serious. On residues we really don’t have longitudinal monitoring data, but enough has been seen from fairly good sample studies to cause worries.

Once upon a time we had a solid policy of control. It was a babu‘s dream. Also a complete nightmare, for the intelligent woman. It didn’t make any sense at all. Things have improved, but the mindset continues. All bulk pesticides were controlled at the level of each plant, in terms of capacity, technology, production and price. Batches of production were allocated to formulations and these in turn to districts. Each stage was under price control. In 1988 when I got Tiwariji to put 15 bulk pesticides on OGL with a tariff, all hell broke loose and the government recanted. Eventually, the policy got through in the Nineties with the same tariff rates although the rupee had deprecated.

The world of course was racing ahead. Grandma would use neem and castor to store grain. They had found out she was wise and a whole series of biotic pesticides and sex-inhibitors and so on which grandma had not heard of, were coming on stage. India has not only self-banned pesticides. She is terribly slow in importing and adapting the newer ones. There is some streamlining, but a lot more needs to be done.

All controls on delivery channels, prices and movements/storage must go. They are proven counter-productive. Instead, the existing parastatals should either close down or recognise so that they provide alternative efficient delivery channels. Ditto for co-ops. There are three regulation issues. Environmental monitoring, strict quality control through well designed sample checks and a nationwide farm education prrogramme.

If you work on the assumption that every batch of the duwai as it is called is controlled by the government for quality, you don’t control anything. Sample checks and stiff punishments work all over the world. Why not in India? We have neither a mechanism of detailed tracking of crop level use or misuse of pesticides or their effects either on yields or on residues or pollution. Monitoring is partial and experimental in nature. Available sample data is seldom used for policy-making. The ODA’s programme of farm education had worked well in experimental areas, but is now being given up. This important educational programme should be a part of the new agricultural technology project ICAR is doing with the World Bank.

There is a need of leaner knowledge-based regulation system with specified objectives. The private sector must be encouraged to build alternative distribution outlets in many poorly-serviced areas. The process of introducing of newer and more effective pesticides must be substantially simplified. This is particularly so for the latest technologies which are imported. Safety and effectiveness are all important, but shouldn’t take more time than in other civilised countries. If we begin with saving grain, we may soon move to producing more by delivering better seeds to the farmer. The Technology Development Board should work for not only biotechnology-based medicines and immunologicals for human beings but also for agriculture. The issue as always is not technology, but institutions and system, which will get us there.