Dhanuka Group seeks action against ghost firms selling spurious pesticides

New Delhi: Agrochemical firm Dhanuka Group on Monday said there are many ghost companies selling spurious pesticides in the domestic market, and demanded crackdown against illegal trade as it impacts all stakeholders, including farmers.

Dhanuka Group has three manufacturing units located in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir. Its listed entity Dhanuka Agritech posted a turnover of over Rs 1,500 crore last fiscal year. In a statement, Dhanuka Group Chairman RG Agarwal pointed out that the share of illegal pesticides is estimated at 10-25 per cent of the total $80 billion global pesticides market, according to an international study.

"The illegal parallel market of agrochemicals is impacting farmers, industry, government, and environment," he said in a statement. Soil fertility gets severely affected due to the use of spurious products. Agarwal said sales of fake, counterfeit, duplicate and mis-branded products are hampering the growth of the domestic agrochemicals industry. "There are many ghost companies involved in the illegal practice of selling fake, adulterated, mis-branded, and counterfeit agrochemicals. There should be action against them," he said. Agarwal suggested that the central government should launch a national drive, in coordination with all states and union territories as well as private players, to crack down on illicit trade.

A national campaign should be run to create awareness among farmers about ill-effects of the use of counterfeit products. He expressed concern over crop losses of at least Rs 8 lakh crore annually due to pests and diseases, and said the per hectare consumption of pesticides in India is very low as compared to China.