Holding close to 15% of global market share, India has emerged as one of the largest producers of agrochemicals in the world. Yet the industry has a huge unrealized potential due to the low level of agrochemical consumption at the domestic front. Meanwhile, the inclusion of agrochemicals among the 12 champion sectors, latest pesticide management bill and the production linked incentive scheme have raised hopes for a positive change.

In this context, leading experts recently deliberated the current scenario within the agrochemical industry at the NextGen Chemicals & Petrochemicals Summit 2022 organized by the Indian Chemical News on July 21-22, 2022. The session, ‘Agrochemicals: Looking for a Balanced Growth’ was moderated by Avinash Nayak, Principal-Energy & Process Industries, AT Kearney.

 “Having emerged as one of the crucial pillars of support for the economy, the Indian agrochemical industry has the potential to emerge as a global leader. India holds more than 10% of global share and has Rs. 42,000 crore valuation. Our exports today stand at Rs. 24,000 crore as compared to Rs. 12,000 crore just ten years ago, said Dr Vishal Choudhary, Deputy Industrial Advisor, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Govt. of India. 

“The domestic market dynamics since the last 2-3 years suggest that herbicides with 45% share dominate the market, followed by fungicides at 27%, and insecticides at 21%. Consumption of agrochemicals is less than 1% whereas in China it is 43% and in the US it is more than 10%. This opens new opportunities for the industry as it is because of good quality and highly efficacious agrochemicals we have been able to increase our food grains production to 300 million tonnes,” added Dr Choudhary.

Outlining the outlook, Dr Choudhary said: “Agrochemical sector emerged as a champion sector during the pandemic. Going forward, the strategy must be to adopt the maximum value chains to cover the intermediates while setting up new facilities or upgrading existing facilities. By capturing the value chain, manufacturers can produce two to three products in a single facility. That has been an approach of the industry as there has been an increase in production of intermediates and key starting materials. In terms of sustainability, companies are taking up new initiatives. Industries that are focused on manufacturing pesticides, can produce green chemistry. Reduction in hazardous chemicals and adoption of green chemistries means more revenue generation for the industry.”

“The last two years have been a roller coaster ride for the agrochemical industry. While 2020-21 was a good year for the agrochemical industry, 2021-22 hasn’t been so good. Again, I expect 2022-23 to be good. Last year there was an increase in prices because of the China effect and supply chain issues, propylene oxide shortage and rapid rise in crude oil prices. Agrochemicals has very less per capita consumption in India which is a very good opportunity. There is a huge export potential with growing inquiries from Latin America and South America as well as Asian countries,” said Dr Sunil Chari, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Rossari Biotech.

 “The future lies in circular economy. MNCs are cognizant of the fact that they have to adopt a circular economy but even domestic companies are working on new molecules. Gradually India is becoming very competitive in downstream manufacturing. The only concern is that there is more focus on active ingredients than intermediates which are still coming from China. This is where we have to put our heads together,” added Dr Chari. 

“India is fortunate to have the largest agrarian land as compared to the US and Europe but the amount of use of agrochemicals is far lower as compared to anywhere in the world.  From farming perspective, more than Rs 2 lakh crore worth productivity on the field is lost every year. 15-20% of the entire produce is lost because of improper care and lack of pesticide coverage. Therefore, there is a growing need for awareness. Farmers are becoming information savvy due to mobile penetration and role played by companies like FMC in providing the information about methods to increase the yield as today the yield is much lower as compared to global average. There is a significant room for the increase in yield besides overall agricultural growth and its ability to contribute to the Indian economy. The growth is very secular and this industry will continue to grow,” said Ravi Annavarapu, President, FMC India.

 The farmers and consumers are increasingly becoming aware about sustainability. Sustainability is no longer a buzzword in the agrochemical sector but has real implications. It will no longer be talked about from an environmental perspective but the kind of products and chemicals used. It is very important that those chemicals have the right sustainability profiles and also take care of the environment around you. It takes a lot of work on chemistry, biology and that kind of research that leads to the right kind of manufacturing and scale, added Annavarapu. 

“We often don’t give credit to the contribution of the agrochemical industry in sustainable agricultural growth in India. If you look at the productivity aspect, most of the agrochemicals in India have helped in cutting down the production losses from pests and disease attacks. These companies have been at the forefront of innovation, contributing to the 90% of the crop production products in use today. Such products have helped us to tackle the national crop emergencies,” said Dr KC Ravi, Chief Sustainability Officer, Syngenta India.

“Looking at the sustainability aspect, we don’t give credit to the industry in terms of how agrochemical companies have reduced the environmental footprint. The R& D based crop sciences industry has been launching new molecules with increased efficacy and reduced application rates. The application rates in terms of new insecticides such as organophosphates and carbamates during the 60s and 70s were as high as 3000 grams per hectare. Later during 80s the rates came down to 500 to 50 grams per hectare. Further advancements in moderate chemicals has brought it down even to 4 grams per hectare. The pursuit towards greener chemistry continues and industry is well aware about its responsibility. But the perception about agrochemicals has to be changed,” added Dr Ravi.

 “We are in a country where the demand is increasing day by day. However, we are not able to cope up with the losses due to pests, weeds etc. In a regulatory framework, it is important to have the safety information both for the farmers and the environment. To increase the growth in this sector, we need to provide information about right choices on use of agrochemicals to farmers, effective chain of pesticides reaching to the farmers and understanding the need as per location, crop and disease that is evolving with time,” said Pooja Vishnoi, General Manager & Regulatory Head, Auxilife Scientific Services.

 “We need to innovate new molecules and accelerate R&D. Regulations must evolve and should not hamper the access to the new molecules from other countries. A win-win situation for all stakeholders must be worked out.  Increasing the domestic demand as per requirement and increasing the export business has to be our focus,” added Vishnoi.

The NextGen Chemicals & Petrochemicals Summit 2022 was supported by the leading names of the industry. The platinum partner was Elliot Group. Regulatory Knowledge Partner was GPC. Gold partners of the event included Ingenero, Premier Tech, Carbanio and Deepak Nitrite. Among the associate partners were PIP and Huntsman. The industry partners of the event included AMAI, Croplife India, and ACFI.