Swiss NGO links pesticide to Indian farmer deaths

Geneva, Switzerland - The Swiss NGO Public Eye called on Tuesday for an export ban on the pesticide Polo, produced by agriculture giant Syngenta, implicating it in the death of 20 Indian farmers last year.

Syngenta, bought by ChemChina for US$43bn in 2017 in China’s largest ever foreign takeover, has rejected the allegations by Public Eye.

‘There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Syngenta’s product Polo was at all responsible for the incidents that have occurred’, the company said in a statement.

Last September, officials in the western Indian state of Maharashtra reported that 20 farmers had died and hundreds of others were in hospital after inhaling poisonous pesticides while spraying crops.

After visiting the affected Yavatmal region and interviewing farmers and their relatives, Public Eye said there was strong evidence that Polo - specifically its active agent diafenthiuron - was responsible for the poisoning.

Public Eye noted that while the evidence was not conclusive, the spraying of Polo was a common link among those who died or fell sick.

The NGO also said farmers in Yavatmal likely inhaled excessive amounts of the insecticide last year as cotton plants grew higher than normal, forcing them to spray closer to their mouths.

Officials in Maharashtra reportedly opened a criminal investigation targeting Syngenta over the deaths, but the status of the probe is not known.

The European Union banned diafenthiuron in 2002.