A White Paper on Pesticides use in the world and India

To the surprise of many, here is the authentic information about pesticide consumption in India vis-a-vis other countries.

India has the largest area (141 million ha) under agricultural crops.

India is the second largest agricultural producer ($367 bn) in the world.

India accounts for 1.7% of the global pesticides use.

The European Union accounts for >11% of global pesticides use.

The European Union uses > 600% higher pesticides than India.

Many countries in the EU such as Spain, France and Italy who have much smaller area under agri- culture and produce much less when compared to India use more pesticide than India.

Japan that has <5 million ha under agriculture (compared to India’s 141 mill.ha) uses over 53000 tons - very close to India’s consumption of 60280 tons. The intensity and frequency of use of pesticides in Japan is very high when compared to India.

It is so in many other countries. But the perception created by the foreign funded NGOs is that in India there is excessive use of pesticides.

This is a false allegation and it totally lacks empirical support.

Countries in the EU are the main source of funds for the environmental activists based in India. Pesticides (Tech) Consumption in European Union

The agenda of these foreign funded NGOs is clear. It is to tarnish the image of Indian agriculture globally as desired by their donors.

The purpose of this white paper is not to present a case against pesticides use. Pesticides are essential tools in farming in protecting the crops against pests and diseases and their role is at par with medicines in human society. The purpose of this paper is to bring out solid facts regarding pesticides consumption in India vs. rest of the world and to expose the false propaganda by foreign funded NGOs active in India. Because of their scare mongering and smear campaign, our agricultural exports suffer considerable prejudice and discrimination in the international trade.