PESTICIDE TECHNICAL Introduction Indian agriculture has witnessed a phenomenal growth in foodgrain production during the last four decades or so as it rose from 51 million tonnes in 1950-51 to a production of 203.04 million tonnes in 1999-2000. Equally there has been a remarkable increase in horticulture, livestock, milk, fish and poultry production. The high yielding varieties grown under adequately higher inputs like fertilizers, water and pesticides played a key role in the enhanced production. In intensive agriculture, the higher usage of inputs have been key component of our production strategies. However, the pests, diseases and weeds are known to take heavy toll of almost all the crops grown globally, Such losses in agricultural production due to insect pests have been estimated to the tune of Rs.6000 crores per annum in India. Our present day protection technologies are highly pesticides intensive. This has further created conditions more conducive for higher pest multiplication in different crop eco-system.   Bio-Fertilizers There are about 70 companies in India in the large, medium and small sector manufacturing or marketing bio-pesticides mainly neem based. However, a lot of work still needs to be done by these companies in determining efficacy and shelf life of their products in actual field application. Organic Farming Indian agriculture has been heavily dependant on the use of chemical pesticides in the last four decades as a result of which a number of insects have developed resistance to them. In a few districts in Kerala, farmers have started taking up organic farming in paddy fields where the cost of input is one-third compared to te costs of chemical farming. In the west mainly in the United States and Europe, organic agriculture is spreading on a faster note. Infact in Germany baby organic food is having a market share of 50%.   Research and Development Very little original research work is being done in India presently on pesticides as research for developing new product is extremely expensive and time consuming. Experts point out that development of a new agrochemical or drug molecule can take up to 10 years and cost US$ 50 million on an average which is beyond the means of most of the Indian companies. Even after the discovery of new products, the generation of data and the number of toxicological tests required to be conducted take years to complete. Most of the research at present is directed towards discovering alternate processes of manufacturing for existing products. Indian Agribusiness Systems Limited, through extensive research has managed to create a database on the various molecules. Molecule wise / Company wise production, total market size for different molecules, average market prices for the formulations can be made available to you on customized basis. Click here to make such a request