Farmers have to brace themselves for a steep hike of prices of pesticides and other crop protection products this kharif.
The Association of Pesticides Manufacturers expects the hike to be between five and 30 per cent across all products, including fungicides and weedicides.
The industry feels that it has to pass on to the farmers the increase in prices of certain raw chemicals, mostly imported from China.
“The hike will be most in the weedicides segment, which has shown the maximum growth in the crop protection market. Today weedicides have a share of almost 30 per cent in the market,” V.K. Garg, the association’s Vice-President and General Manager (Marketing-South India), Insecticides India Ltd, said.
For instance, glyfocate, a popular weedicide, which cost about Rs 230-235 a litre, could go up to over Rs 300, he points out.
The Rs 10,000-crore crop protection market may mirror an over 20 per cent growth this fiscal, as monsoon expectations are so far positive.
On Insecticides India Ltd, Garg said the company would be focussing on new technologies that would produce cheaper new generation products. “Today, only 20 per cent of the farmers were using technology products due to their costs. Our target is to provide cheaper products through indigenous technology,” he said.
The company, through a tie-up with Japanese major Otsuka Agri Techno, is setting up the first of its kind R&D facility at Chopanki, Rajasthan, which will be fully operational by December this year.
“By the end of the current fiscal, we hope to bring out at least three new products, which would have a total new chemical composition,” he said.
While the existing technology-based products are priced three to four times more than the conventional products, IIL expects its new generation products to be double than the conventional products.
IIL, which notched up a Rs 650 crore turnover last year, will also launch another two or three products through marketing tie-ups with MNCs this year. It recently launched a curative fungicide for paddy crop called Pulsor through a marketing tie-up with Nissan Chemicals.