IGI Logo

Government think tank Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand has said that India's agro-chemical industry has the potential to grow more than the current nine per cent notwithstanding the competition from China. He also observed that many Western countries are shifting from agrochemicals to biopesticides and the Indian industry needs to pay attention to this aspect. He urged the Agro Chem Federation of India (ACFI) to come out with a document on ease of doing business in agrochemicals.

Chand has stated that the agrochemical industry has achieved a miracle growth of 9% and much of this growth rate has happened during the Covid-19 pandemic years when the production activities were seriously disrupted. Despite economic and production disruptions, the domestic agrochemical industry had shown an impressive growth between 2017-18 and 2022-23. That apart, India's exports have crossed $5 billion and even surpassed China according to different data sources.

The Niti Aayog member further stated, if India can achieve a nine per cent growth rate in the absence of favourable China factor, the China competition is not as hard it was in the past. He said ‘we can easily raise this growth rate from nine per cent to anything in the realm of reality’. On biopesticides, he said the industry needs to ponder why many Western countries are shifting from agrochemicals to biopesticides. He added that the agrochemical industry needs to focus on innovation to minimize pollution and also come out with a document on ease of doing business with compliances.