Indian Farmers Increase Adoption of Crop Protection Products
20 September 2011 The Indian agrochemical industry is reaping the benefits of a labor shortage and greater adoption of pesticides and other chemicals. Industry growth is expected to be 20 percent per year for the next five years.
Indian farm incomes have steadily risen as commodity prices have increased. Indian agrochemical companies have seen a rise in sales due to farm income growth. Some executives expect a 15 percent increase in their company’s domestic agrochemical sales by year-end.
In addition, government policy mandating unemployment wages above normal wages has caused a labor shortage. This has caused farmers to turn to chemical weeding.
“With the growing unavailability of labor and the associated rising cost, farmers are switching from manual weeding to herbicides,” says Aseem Kumar, vice president, corporate planning, Nagarjuna Agrichem Ltd.
Nonetheless, the country’s monsoon season is the single biggest factor still determining the outcome of the crop protection industry in India, says Rajesh Kumar, deputy general manager, Willowood Limited.
“A normal monsoon would easily see the industry growing steadily with normal growth being witnessed in crop chemical products,” he says.
For more information about India’s agrochemical market, look for the cover story in FCI’s October issue.
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