Pesticide Regulation Part-5 Ban or Not to ban Pesticides: How to address this issue?

Pesticide Regulations Part-5

(To read earlier parts, please search on this blog with 'pesticide')

Ban or Not to ban Pesticides: How to address this issue?

Why and How to review existing Pesticides?

By:

Vijay SARDANA

Advocate, Delhi High Court

Techno-legal Expert on Agribusiness 

& Consumer Products Industries

& 

Priyanka Sardana, Advocate, Supreme Court of India

& 

Aastha Sardana, Researcher on Legal Matters

For any responsible government food safety and food security are non-negotiable in governance agenda. NGOs and Newspapers frequently cover the issues related to pesticides and their negative impact on food safety and the environment. These articles do impact public opinion which builds pressure on policymakers and judiciary.

The recent prohibitory order on 27 pesticides created a serious debate in society. Let us address the same in a holistic manner. In this article, we will cover, what should be the role of legislation in such a situation. In the future article, we will discuss how to address public opinion against pesticide. Please feel free to contact in case, more inputs are required on how to address these issues.

Regulate or Ban the Pesticide:

Governments regulate pesticides for many reasons. The main objective of controlling any hazardous product or activity is to protect human health and the environment from risks associated with the product or activity:

This includes the protection of:

• Product application-related people
• The Consumers
• The public
• The crops
• The livestock
• The wildlife
• The water bodies
• Other natural resources

When it comes to pesticide, regulation should also consider:

• The effectiveness of pesticide products for their proposed use
• Ensuring a fair market for manufacturers, importers and distributors of pesticide products.

Purpose of Pesticide Management Legislation:

Legislation is one of the tools that governments use to achieve the above stated objectives, by regulating the:

• Manufacture,
• Importation,
• Transport,
• Storage,
• Sale,
• Use
• Disposal of pesticides
• Disposal of empty pesticides containers

Why Effective Management of Pesticide is important?

Pesticides can have a broad bearing on many aspects of human, animal and plant life. It is important that all regulations dealing with the following issues must work in close coordination:

• Specific pesticide legislation,
• Legislation on human and occupational health
• Legislation on Environmental protection,
• Legislation on Agricultural practices
• Legislation on International trade

All these issues will tend to affect pesticides in overall regulatory framework’

What should be considered while regulation pesticides?

All countries and societies are at a different stage of development. It will be useful to factor in the ground realities before finalizing the legislation.

The good practices emphasize that governments when regulating pesticides, should take full account of the following factors such as:

• Local Needs
• Social and Economic Conditions
• Levels of Literacy among users
• Climatic Conditions
• The Availability & Affordability of Appropriate Application Equipment
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Monitoring of pesticide use in the local context

Any review of pesticide legislation should thus start with a review of this broader regulatory framework.

Government has the right to review the existing pesticides:

With time and with the overall advancement in the sector existing national pesticide legislation may have become outdated with respect:

• Objectives, priorities and needs may change
• Institutional responsibilities may change,
• Changes in the regulatory and institutional framework
• Information about hazards and risks may change 
• Due to new needs and issues arising in the country
• Applicable international or regional standards.
• Regional collaboration and harmonization may be introduced or new trade requirements may become important, for instance, when non-compliance would affect export of agricultural produce.
• Countries may wish to harmonize their pesticide legislation with non-binding international guidelines for ease of doing business or to promote exports

Why inconsistency occurs in pesticide laws?

Inconsistencies within the regulatory framework for the control of pesticides often result in controversies. Various stakeholders develop their own understanding of the provided terminology. The major reason for inconsistencies in the legislation and their understanding are due to:

• Varying definitions of pesticides and related terms,
• Overlapping mandates for different agencies with pesticide management responsibilities and
• Conflicting provisions regarding allowed pesticide use.
• Different laws or regulations may use the same terminology in a different context
• Different laws or regulations developed without the necessary coordination or on an ad-hoc basis to deal with specific problems in specific contexts.

Why conflicts are increasing in Pesticide Management domain?

There are many reasons leading to increasing conflicts:

• Clash of commercial interest between various stakeholders
• The power struggle between various departments due to contradictory provisions in different pieces of legislation that may grant the same or overlapping powers to different ministries, departments or agencies.
• Duplicative administration of some tasks or gaps in coverage.
• For Example: Any pesticide falls in the domain of agriculture, health, chemicals, trade, manufacturing, pollution, environment, labour, etc. It may be unclear to the user or even governments themselves which system is responsible for the regulation which aspect of the pesticide.

What is the way forward?

In modern world reforms, it is expected governments to optimize the integration of responsibilities of various ministries and departments regarding regulatory control of pesticides.

In the ease of doing business era preferably through one pesticide law that applies to all pesticides may be a better option, which can be framed in consultation with all relevant stakeholders.

Besides redesigning the pesticide legislation, there also may be a need to strengthen some provisions of other pieces of legislation by making them specifically applicable to pesticides.

Reviewing and revising pesticide legislation should also advance an overall objective to develop unified legislation covering all aspects of pesticides.

What modern pesticide management regulation should cover while updating pesticide legislation?

• The main reasons for updating pesticide legislation should be based on the need of the society in the country.
• Law should ensure consistency in the overall regulatory framework with effective connections between pesticide legislation and other relevant legislation with minimal contradiction or overlap.
• Law should clarify any issues related to responsibilities, authority or mandate of the institutions involved.
• In the fast-changing world, the law should incorporate provisions to address new requirements stemming from recent developments or updated priorities.
• Governments must consider and facilitate multidisciplinary approaches to pesticide management;
• Today, as part of many global treaties, it is our moral obligation to comply with requirements of international agreements and recommendations.
• In the end, the purpose of any legislation is the welfare of the people and law should facilitate the harmonization of the requirements with trading partners and the countries within the region.
• Ease of doing business will also promote investment and will create an overall welfare of society.

New Pesticide Management Bill'2020 is an opportunity, let it address this issue to avoid any controversy in future.

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Disclaimer: This article is for general information. For any specific techno-legal discussion, you may contact the authors.