FMC India, a leading player in agrochemical sector, has seen its turnover increasing to about $400 million from about $40 million in past seven years and has been growing above industry average of 6-7 per cent, thanks to its targeted approach to provide latest technologies to small and marginal farmers.

In an interview with BusinessLine, FMC India’s president Ravi Annavarapu covered topics such as natural farming to application of pesticides through drones and why the country’s agriculture is poised for sustainable growth. Excerpts:

Q

Government has announced subsidy scheme to promote use of drones in application of pesticides. How do you view this development?

I think drones are key for spraying pesticides. A lot of awareness is required for the farmer and there will be a whole new layer of infrastructure and service providers to be developed. A service provider will have to develop a network of people who are trained and knowledgeable. I think that will take some time. I applaud the government for bringing in the regulatory clarity so quickly.

Q

Will it reduce or increase the consumption of pesticides?

It will improve the efficiency of applying pesticides. It will reduce the losses due to weeds. Above all, it will develop rural entrepreneurship as they will be trained by companies like us on how to safely and efficiently use these products. Also, spurious products will give way to right products, unless somebody really colludes. Newer technologies will give way to older chemistries. So, we are optimistic that drones would do significant good to the agriculture.

You are supposed to spray in a certain way. Insecticides should be sprayed with the fine mist, herbicides are supposed to be sprayed with code stop droplets which have to fall on the specific weed for it to have the right efficacy. With a drone you can tune the approach – at the right place, at right time in the right way.

Q

Whether drones can really replace the entire spraying operations, which are currently done manually?

At this point we get to see a lot of work going on. We are doing trials with drones. There’s a lot of learning, globally. I know it’s not going to replace manual spraying totally. Companies like ours have a role to play because we understand how to use drones in other parts of the world. It’s about bringing that learning during the trials. But it won’t be applicable to all the segments. Need for manual intervention will be there while using boom sprayers or tractor-mounted sprayers.

Q

As the government has changed the narrative towards a chemical-free farming, where do you see yourself in bio-pesticides or other biological products?

We are one of the leaders in the biological space, globally. We have some of the best and most advanced biological products – specific strains comparable to performance of chemical pesticides. The challenge we have is the regulatory environment in India. You cannot make an application to the Central Insecticide Board, there’s no provision for it. The government has to recognise that global technologies will really help the farmers in organic sector also.

Our objective is to bring those technologies to India and then grow them here, so that ‘Make in India’ happens.

Q

How is India’s R&D environment in agriculture? Because mostly what we hear is from public sector and very few in-house developments in the private sector.

It takes a long time, seven years almost, from the time you start evaluating a new candidate to the time it hits the market. India is one of the longest regulated regimes compared to anywhere globally. In other places, it could take as short as one to two years. There is room to streamline the process to accelerate the access of new technologies for the farmers. Though the approval of the Central Insecticide Board is valid all over the country, there is also State licensing. Some States are relatively quick, some take a little longer. You’ve got to get manufacturing licenses, so wherever you are making these products, each state has to provide you.

Q

How do you view the Pesticides Management Bill?

There are a lot of views around that. We are also actively trying to get our perspective heard through the industry associations. There’s still a lot of room for incentivising innovators and giving data protection. People who are generating a lot of this initial data on a new molecule globally, it’s accepted practice to give them data protection. There are also some provisions on criminal offence which the government should really reconsider.

Q

With regard to your business in India, how has been the performance?

The India business is somewhere between $370 and $400 million (₹2,800-3,000 crore) that we had shared with our investors last year. We have grown substantially – from $40-50 million range 6-7 years ago. India is a very attractive agricultural space overall. Farmers are hungry for high quality, sustainable products and we are here to invest in R&D in bringing those products. Globally, India is one of the top three markets for FMC, others are Brazil and the US. India is poised for growth (in crop protection) regardless of what you’re hearing as it is critical for food security.

Q

As you have also crop nutrients products, what is the ratio between crop nutrients and crop protection in your turnover in India?

Crop nutrients are relatively smaller business. Unfortunately, I can’t give you the exact numbers, but it is growing very rapidly. We are working with farmers to understand soil health deficiency. For me, it is really satisfying when you see what you’re providing. The difference that it is making from quality perspective, crop nutrition space has bright future in India.