The inaugural session at the AgroChem Summit 2023, organized by the Indian Chemical News (ICN) on February 24, 2023 at The Park Hotel in New Delhi will witness discussion on the existing policies including regulations, schemes, and incentives besides the support required in terms of digital adoption and creating awareness among stakeholders.

The deliberations at the session at the inaugural edition of titled, ‘Policy Support For Growth of Indian Agrochemicals’ are aimed at highlighting the challenges at the policy level and the realistic solutions that could address the requirements of the industry.

Arun Baroka, Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India who will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest. Other speakers in the session include: Rajju Shroff, Chairman Emeritus, UPL Group; R. G. Agarwal, Group Chairman, Dhanuka Agritech; Simon Thorsten Wiebusch, Executive Director, Bayer CropScience; Dr. Kalyan Goswami, Director General, ACFI; and Pravin Prashant, Editor, Indian Chemical News.

Interested stakeholders can register as delegates by clicking on the link (https://www.indianchemicalnews.com/agrochem-summit-2023/register.php).

The topics to be covered under the session include Tackling stringent regulations; Eliminating spurious products from agrochemical markets; Increasing farm acreage and maximizing farmer income; Incentivizing R&D by domestic manufacturers; Analyzing Pesticides Bill 2022; Adoption of digital technologies; and Creating awareness among farmers.

As predicted by latest knowledge reports, India has the potential to become “The Global Manufacturing Hub” for Agrochemicals due to a number of favourable factors such as low manufacturing cost driven by availability of labor and tax benefits, technically trained manpower, under utilised production capacity, seasonal domestic demand, and low usage etc. There is a huge domestic market for growth and equally promising are the opportunities in the Agrochemicals export space.

In this context, the Summit themed as "Making India A Manufacturing Hub" has lined up the country’s top agrochemical industry experts.  The inaugural edition aims to bring all stakeholders of the agrochemicals sector under one platform to brainstorm on the growth opportunities, safe and judicious use of agrochemicals by farmers, and current issues to draw a roadmap for the future direction of the Indian agrochemicals sector.

The Summit will focus on: Policy Support for Growth of Indian Agrochemicals; Enabling Regulatory Ecosystem for the Growth of Agrochemicals Industries; Role of Drones in Agrochemicals Sector; Collaborative Approach to Realistic Agrochemicals Potential; and Agrochemicals 2030: The Future Perfect.

The brainstorming by the experts at well attended sessions is expected to help curate a comprehensive review of the Agrochemical sector, understanding the challenges as well as the opportunity that the segment offers. It also aims to develop a synthesis of ideas on policy initiatives and support, long and medium term action for the sector from within and outside in order to bring momentum and catalyze an action plan that is the need of the hour.

The Summit is supported by Platinum Partner - UPL; Gold Partners - Godrej Agrovet, BASF, FMC, Dassault Systemes Solize, Carbanio, and Auxilife (a unit of GPC); and Associate Partner - Resistotech and Super Scientific Works. The event is supported by Industry Association Partners - PMFAI (Pesticides Manufacturers & Formulators Association of India), Croplife India, ACFI (Agro Chem Federation of India), and CCFI (Crop Care Federation of India).