Pesticide industry seeks tighter rules to curb fake products sales

The pesticide industry on Wednesday urged the government to tighten the regulation for e-commerce platforms selling crop protection products, warning that basic compliance checks are insufficient and calling for mandatory authorisation certificates to prevent fake products from reaching farmers.

Industry body CropLife India said that the government should issue clear rules under the existing Insecticides Act, 1968, and include explicit provisions in the draft Pesticides Management Bill to regulate online sales, as concerns mount over product authenticity and supply chain traceability.

“As digitisation is increasing in India, the usage of these platforms will grow. Pesticide is a regulated industry, and the entire supply chain should follow the regulatory framework,” CropLife India Chairman Ankur Aggarwal told reporters after a national conference on crop protection product sales on e-commerce platforms.

PK Singh, Agriculture Commissioner at the Ministry of Agriculture, said at the conference that basic compliance checks by e-commerce platforms, such as GST documents of sellers, may not be sufficient when hazardous agri inputs are sold online, emphasising the need for stronger quality assurance and traceability.Online sales currently account for less than 1 per cent of India’s INR26,000 pesticide market, but visibility on e-commerce platforms has risen since the government allowed online sales in 2021, Aggarwal said.

Under current regulations, a Principal Authorisation Certificate is required for individuals or firms seeking a licence to sell, stock, exhibit for sale, or distribute pesticides. The certificate is issued by the pesticide manufacturer to authorise a retailer or distributor to handle specific insecticides.

However, the rules do not explicitly specify requirements for e-commerce players regarding the certificate, creating what the industry says is a regulatory gap that allows platforms to enable the listing and sale of pesticides without clear accountability.

The draft Pesticides Management Bill, 2025, emphasises digital governance, online registration and traceability to combat counterfeit pesticides, but omits explicit regulation of online sales platforms, the industry body said.

“We are dealing with responsible chemicals, and there should be end-to-end traceability so that fake products do not reach farmers,” Aggarwal said, adding that companies have issued legal notices to e-commerce platforms over unauthorised sales and some have filed lawsuits.Courts have directed platforms to remove listings in some cases, he said.CropLife India said e-commerce platforms facilitating pesticide sales are not currently required to obtain licences or approvals, specifically under pesticide law, nor must they verify whether products listed online are endorsed on the seller’s licence or supported by valid Principal Certificates.

In inventory-based e-commerce models, pesticides may be stored, handled and dispatched from warehouses that are not licensed under the Insecticides Rules, even though identical activities require licensing in the offline supply chain, the association said.Subhash Chand, Secretary of the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee, said at the conference that while digitisation and e-commerce are expanding rapidly in rural India, they also bring new risks, stressing that the responsibility for quality, compliance and farmer safety must be shared by platforms and manufacturers.“The key ask at the moment is to immediately ensure the current Insecticides Act is fully implemented and applicable to even e-commerce platforms till the new bill is passed,” Aggarwal said.India’s pesticide exports are valued at  INR 40,000 crore.