Concerned over sale of fake pesticides, a parliamentary panel has asked the government to tighten regulations to check production, sale and use of counterfeit agro-chemcials with provisions of stringent penalties.A Committee on Estimates on Wednesday presented a report on Promotion of Climate Resilient Agriculture, Natural and Organic Farming Through KVKs.The panel raised “serious concerns about the widespread issue of counterfeit pesticides and their harmful effects on agriculture”. The committee stressed on the need to increase the number of insecticide inspectors at the state level and strengthening the capacity of overseeing officers at the central level.It also suggested expanding and improving testing facilities to ensure supply of quality pesticides. The panel noted that penalties for offences related to “misbranded” insecticides under Section 29 of the Insecticides Act are insufficient to deter offenders. It also expressed concerns over low conviction rate.Between 2019-2020 and 2023-2024, of the 3,60,614 samples analysed, 9,233 were found to be misbranded, leading to 2,588 prosecutions and only 185 convictions. “The committee is very concerned over the low conviction rate and stressed the urgent need for stronger regulations to tackle violations under the Insecticides Act,” the report said.The panel recommended that regulations should be tightened to curb the production, distribution, and use of counterfeit pesticides by “amending the Insecticides Act, 1968 to include provisions for stringent penalties to ensure repeat offenders are held accountable.” The panel sought clarification from the agriculture ministry about steps taken to address this problem.The ministry informed the panel that there are 11,080 state-level insecticide inspectors across 25 states and two Union Territories, with an annual testing capacity of 77,040 samples. The Centre deploys 207 central insecticide inspectors, and there are two regional pesticide testing laboratories in Chandigarh and Kanpur with a combined annual capacity of 3,100 samples. Any disputed samples are sent to the Central Insecticides Laboratory (CIL) in Faridabad, which processes 1,600 samples annually. If samples fail to meet the required standards, prosecution is initiated.
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