European Union wants endosulfan banned

After seizing India’s legitimate generic drugs as counterfeit, the European Union (EU) is at India’s throat again. This time, stifling a pesticide, which is liberally used by the farming population.

The 27-member EU bloc has been lobbying to ban endosulfan through Stockholm and Rotterdam Conventions, which work on chemicals, and of which India is a member.
Says a source closely associated with the Indian government, “Every pesticide is dangerous if used incorrectly. EU wants a ban on endosulfan, as it is a low-priced generic pesticide, and they want India to push for expensive pesticides which cost a bomb.”
The source says that a ban on endosulfan would prove disastrous for millions of farmers who rely on it. Although organic farming is growing, a vast section of farmers use pesticides.

A litre of endosulfan costs Rs 220, against the Rs 2,000 per litre which imidachloprid (which the EU is pushing) costs, says Rakesh Kalani, a cotton and wheat farmer from Ramsara district in Punjab.

“Some companies sell imidachloprid for Rs 1,000 per litre. Another pesticide coregen costs about Rs 700 for just 60 ml. Farmers can’t afford such expensive pesticides. We have been using endosulfan for over 15 years and haven’t noticed any problems,” says Kalani.

According to C S Bedi, chairman of the Tea Research Association, though tea is a small user of pesticides, endosulfan has been popular among the 1.2-1.4 million directly employed by the tea industry. “There has been no hazard whatsoever.”

Experts say that at the Stockholm Convention, EU bans only those pesticides that are not manufactured by its members and are unimportant for them.

According to S Ganesan, chairman, international treaties expert committee, Germany, a key member of the EU, had produced and supplied nearly 50% of the world’s consumption of endosulfan between 1955 and 2006.

“The production of endosulfan stopped in the EU in 2006, and immediately in 2007 EU started lobbying for a ban. So if endosulfan was dangerous, why did the EU use it for over 50 years? India has started using it only in the 1980s.”

Statistics show that despite having only 8% of the world’s agricultural area, EU is the world’s largest producer, user and exporter of pesticides. 

In 2007, the global crop pesticides market was $33.19 billion, of which EU alone accounted for $10.42 billion, while India was $1 billion, according to data by agrochemical industry consultant Phillips McDougall.

“Despite having 10% of the world’s agricultural area, India consumes a fraction of pesticides and the major chunk is by EU, which wants to maintain its leadership and eliminate competition from low priced products,” says Ganesan.

An observer, who attends the Stockholm Convention, says scientific data submitted by developing countries and objections raised by India remain on paper.

“Data from India receive step-motherly treatment. All proposals made so far at the Convention, barring one, have originated from the EU.”

According to the submission made by India at the Stockholm Convention in 2009 (a copy of which is with this newspaper), India has said that the decision taken on the European Commission’s proposal regarding endosulfan suffers from a series of procedural, technical, legal and ethical improprieties.