Pesticide Management Bill 2020

Pesticide Management Bill 2020

On 12th February 2020, the Union Cabinet approved the Pesticides Management Bill, 2020, which, the government claims, to regulate the business of pesticides and compensate farmers in case of losses from the use of artificial/ false agrochemicals.

Key Points:

• The Pesticides Management Bill is to be introduced in this session. 
• Today the pesticide business is regulated by 1968 rules which have become age-old and need immediate rewriting.
• In February 2018, the Centre released a draft of the pesticides Bill which aims to replace the existing Insecticides Act of 1968. 
• A key proposal in the 2018 version of the Bill was to raise penalties on the sale of prohibited or spurious pesticides to ₹50 lakh and up to five years’ imprisonment, from the current ₹2,000 and up to three years’ imprisonment. 
• It is unclear if these provisions have been retained in the latest version of Bill that was cleared by the Union Cabinet.