As the global agricultural sector shifts toward sustainability, India has the potential to lead in biological pest management solutions. By fostering collaborative models and investing in R&D, the country can not only meet its own agricultural needs but also emerge as a global hub for bio-pesticide innovation.

Experts spoke on the topic ‘Collaborative Models – R&D, Innovation, Biological and Bio pesticides’ at the second session of second edition of AgroChem Summit 2024 organized by the Indian Chemical News in New Delhi on December 13, 2024. 

The session was moderated by Komal Shah Bhukhanwala, Director, R&D and IP, SML Limited who emphasized the disruption in the agriculture industry and need for sustainable solutions as the sector evolves.

“The bigger issue of hidden hunger has to be addressed amid a burgeoning population. The crop protection alone will not suffice as we need other technological solutions that need to be brought to India. If the country wants to become a global leader in agriculture, a lot of collaboration and creativity is required to understand and apply these technologies.”

Vipin Saini, CEO, Biological Agri Solutions Association of India (BASAI) said, “Globally, the biological segment including bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides and bio-stimulants are one tenth of the quantum of chemical pesticides and chemical agri inputs. In terms of use at global level, we have approximately 15 billion tonnes for bio-control, 7 billion tonnes for bio-stimulants and 4 billion tonnes for bio-fertilizers. The gap in India is almost half of it and thus there is a huge potential.

“This isn’t the first time that biologicals are in transact. The first registration committee was held in 1972 in which 15 chemical pesticides were approved and later in 1973, the country's two botanical pesticides were registered. It was not new for our country as we have been in the ambit.

“The 5 year Planning Commission report at that time had recommended attention to soil health. Currently, with the latest climate change report, environment concerns are being raised more vocally. Irrespective of whether being a chemical, biological or nutrition company, all of them are on the same page with respect to sustainability. The government's latest BIOE3 policy has earmarked a substantial amount for environmentally sustainable solutions for agriculture. Industry must check where they can fit in. In terms of challenges, we lack enough efforts in R&D and innovation. Most of the time the debate is about the chemicals versus biologicals but none of us are addressing the nano-technology applications in both chemical and biological pest control solutions.”

Anuja Kadian, Government & Industry Affairs Director (Asia Pacific), Corteva Agriscience, informed that the industry is already adopting sustainability. “At Corteva, we had decided that by 2025 we would not go ahead with any product that doesn’t match the sustainability requirements. We made this huge commitment irrespective of the risk of losing money. But due to this, we already met this criteria in 2023 and 2024 onwards, all the crop protection products that have come out our labs have notable improvement in one of the sustainability criteria, without any loss of bio-efficacy or efficiency,” Kadian said adding that most of the companies have realized that the burden of innovation cannot shift from one place to another. “There is a need for quicker commercialization and this is where the traditional companies have faced challenges. Traditionally, innovation is always leading the race the regulatory mechanisms lag behind. We may still come up with cyber security and AI laws but food on the table is also important.

“It could be done in a harmonized manner and Brazil is an example that must be followed as they have implemented a model of approvals within 24-36 months. There must be a separate regulatory mechanism for green molecules as a few of them are path-breaking.”

Dr. Kamlesh Pai Fondekar, Head - Research & Development, Godrej Agrovet Ltd. Said, “We live in a VUCA world which means Volatile Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous and when it comes to farming it is worse. We need to find innovative solutions to tackle these problems. From an agricultural point of view, our major worry is about increasing productivity. For that we can’t work in one direction to achieve the outcomes and we need a complete solution that should be sustainable.

“There has to be a two pronged approach. First is that we definitely need to work on precision agriculture which will take care of fertilizers, irrigation, and digitalization. The second purpose is about increasing productivity and here we can have integrated pest management with a combination of both chemical and biological solutions.

“While we can have chemical solutions with low toxicity but it alone cannot sustain the sustainability criteria. Therefore, we have to get the biological solutions as well. We need a combination of solutions including chemical, microbial, and biological. From an R&D perspective, we have to see from both productivity as well as crop protection.”

Dr. Smriti Kala, Scientist (Formulation), Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology said, “There are several constraints including sensitive nature with bio-pesticides due to which they cannot be accepted alone as the crop protection applications. At our institute, we are working on different delivery systems for microbials and plant based formulations to increase their efficacy and applicability in the field for pest management.

“I believe we require support from the industry for replacing the synthetic pesticides with bio-pesticide alternatives through adoption of our technologies. We also need to understand the requirements of the industry and for that regular meetings are a must to exchange the thoughts and create more effective solutions.

“The commercialization of R&D is also required and industry must come forward to collaborate with academia for that. Collaborations will help fulfill the requirements of Atma Nirbhar Bharat.”

Dr. Bathini Nagendra Babu, Principal Scientist, CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, “In terms of agriculture, there are many technologies developed by the institute and transferred to the industry. In the recent past, there were two agro-mission mode projects, one of which has already been constituted and another is ongoing.

“We often hold interactions with industry and there have been some good outcomes. So far 20 molecules have been shortlisted for technology transfer. Our core competency is the development of economically viable technologies.We have a great amount of scientific knowledge and infrastructure. If it is early collaboration, we can start from scratch and go to the field level and later scale it up.  

“Flora Agrichemicals is a prime department at IICT and it is working in three areas: crop protection chemicals, pheromones and botanicals. We have deployed the pheromone technology at many places and now state governments have been showing interest. IICT is well known for botanical extract analysis and validation studies. We are also focusing on the combination of chemical, biological and microbial solutions.”

Sachin Mundhe, General Manager, Meghmani Organics Ltd. said, “From the industry perspective, we often talk about the sustainability model but we must talk about the biological which are complementary to chemicals. Biologicals are derived from natural resources and these are quite available in the environment. However, to unleash its potential, we have to bring it into a usable form. That is where the formulation plays an important role.

“When we talk about microbials, it has a shelf life of 6-8 months only and that has become a big challenge and thus there has to be a collaboration between the government and private industry to improve the shelf life of these products. There is a need to set up the framework for the real life introduction of new technologies and innovations. Second one is the characterization and composition of these products and how it delivers the benefits of controlling pests, diseases and nutrition.

“In terms of regulations, we must study the models that have been adopted in various countries and standardize the regulatory framework. For promoting these tools, it has to be done with crop protection chemicals and biologicals. There is a need for an integrated approach for sustainable and productive farming.”

Dr. Vishal Choudhary, Scientist 'F', Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India said, “Agrochemicals are an important segment of the chemical industry as it is among the net exporters. For promoting innovation the government is encouraging more industry academia interactions. On the basis of recommendation from Prime Ministers’ Scientific & Technology Advisory Council, eight science and technology clusters are housed at IITs and CSIR institutes. It is a consortium that constitutes leading research institutes, MSMEs, startups and brains with an objective to provide solutions to the arising problems. At these clusters, industry is involved at the proof of concept stage so that these are implemented at the field level. 

“From an agricultural perspective, the clusters based in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune are working on pheromone based insecticides and environment friendly formulations are being developed. The nano-based formulations too are being developed.

“The CCUS mission for capturing the carbon and its utilization as acetic acid and as other building blocks. I would encourage the industry to interact with these clusters as more and more industry-academia interactions are required.” 

AgroChem Summit 2024 themed ‘Capturing Value Through Collaboration, Innovation & Disruption’ was supported by the industry associations including ACFI, BASAI, Croplife India, CCFI and PMFAI.  The Gold Partners of the event were Corteva Agriscience and Godrej Agrovet. The Associate Partner was Bayer Limited.