How Agrochemical Industry is Evolving

Since most countries amended their policies to minimize the use of chemical pesticides and instead promote the use of biopesticides, this kind of growth is supported.

Biopesticides are being largely adopted by the agriculture industry, owing to a smaller number of regulations on product approvals and the low cost of product development. It takes nearly USD 250 million and 10 years to develop new pesticide products. Also, it takes 12-13 years and roughly USD 130 million for the development of GM crops. However, a biopesticide or biological can enter the market in 3-5 years, with roughly USD 3-5 million development cost, which is impacting a positive trend of the biopesticides market across the world.

China accounts for the largest share among other countries in the global fertilizer market. Chinese consumption of inorganic N,P and K fertilizers is reducing due to reducing cropland area. The cropland area under fruits and vegetables is increasing, while the area under cereals is decreasing. The large production of cereal crops, like rice and wheat in India, is the major factor supporting market growth. Consumption of pesticides is rising steadily in India.

In 2019-2020, 72,515 metric ton of pesticides were used by farmers all over the country. Data reveals that only eight states in India account for more than 70 percent of the total consumption. With a growing emphasis on environment and sustainability, Indian government is enforcing clean production and environment friendly agriculture policies, which may lead to a decline in synthetic pesticide usage in the country. However, the government has encouraged the use of microbial pesticides, which is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

Need for Improvement in Certain Areas

The continued use of agrochemicals is identified to have adverse effects on animal life, human life and general soil health. It causes some of the serious diseases such as asthma, alzheimer and diabetes are caused by the use of agrochemicals. Agrochemicals are vital to protect crops and maximise yields, but farmers in India often lack information about what is available in the market and how to use them in the best possible way. Public and private sectors must work in partnership to increase awareness among farmers for the right and timely use of agrochemicals. Also, government should take a lead in organising awareness programs and reach out to farmers even in the remote areas.

By building strategically placed agrochemical units, not only the supply chain and inventor management hiccups can be avoided, but also the transportation costs related to raw materials can be brought down relatively. Also, embracing emerging new age technologies such as IoT (Internet of Things) can help in real time tracking of farm to fork and should be used effectively by transporters. The need to create new products and molecules that can benefit the local farmers and suit their agricultural conditions should be seen as an integral part of agricultural development.

Future Ahead

As the demand for food products is increasing, the landmass available for agriculture is gradually decreasing due to the heightened effect of urbanisation, which is providing an impetus for the farmers to use different agrochemicals to increase land productivity and maintain soil health. The positive trend and the integrating farming practices in the country are expected to propel the industry growth rate of agrochemicals in India in the future.