Discriminatory policies making local agrochemicals a ‘Bonsai Sector’

 
The prerequisites for the development of a nation are the identification of local resources and the mobilization of these resources. After the independence, Bangladesh was one of the 10 poorest countries of the world where 75% of the people were uneducated, the average life expectancy was 45 years and majority of the people were malnourished, hungry and poor. Only resource available was agricultural land. The Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman successfully identified this resource and wanted to make the agricultural sector self-sufficient.

If we look at different sectors, we can find remarkable development in agricultural sector in terms of value. Unfortunately, this development does not seem to be profitable & sustainable due to some underlying factors. If the government takes appropriate steps by identifying those underlying factors/reasons, then the agricultural sector will be much stronger, sustainable & profitable. The more developed the country is, the more developed their agriculture system.

 According to WB 2020, Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies of the world and the economic development is highly remarkable. The economic development of Bangladesh has surpassed the neighboring countries in some regards.  Despite the remarkable economic development of Bangladesh, the farmers are poor. More than 40% of the nation�s work force are deployed in agriculture whereas agriculture sector contributes only 11.52% to the GDP. Half of the total workforce is deployed in this sector but why the GDP contribution is so negligible? The competitiveness of the local industry as well as the agriculture industry will be tough to uphold just after LDC graduation.

So, without any further delay this is the high time to reform our policies so that local industry is developed. To make the agriculture sector sustainable & profitable, it is a must to produce & manufacture all the possible agricultural inputs in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, we are currently importing more than 90% of those inputs. Today, the plight of the pesticide sector in Bangladesh and the things to be done for agricultural development are discussed in this news.

Bangladesh despite being a land of agriculture is missing optimum level policy support in protecting its harvests and plants by using domestically produced agrochemicals instead of imports. Unlike pharmaceuticals, local investments in manufacturing pesticides for agriculture are not in a good shape, making the country heavily dependent on imports. Though the officials took different good measures in different times since independence of Bangladesh, effective steps are yet to be taken in manufacturing their own pesticides as import substitutes.

There were scopes to develop pesticides manufacturing like pharmaceuticals in the country. Currently local pharmaceuticals whose current market size is over Tk270 billion are meeting more than 97 percent of the domestic demands and only 3 percent is imported. On the other hand, more than 90 percent agrochemicals are being imported and only 10 percent is manufactured locally. Whereas like pharmaceuticals� it was possible to make the country�s agriculture sector dependent on 97 percent with local productions and this agrochemical market could be bigger than pharmaceuticals.

A chronology of steps to protect agriculture plants: In the mid-1950s, a wing of the central plant protection department was inaugurated in Dhaka under the Agricultural Department of the then Pakistan government. Up to 1973, Agricultural Department procured and distributed pesticides free of charge to farmers under the assistance of FAO, USAID and Japan government. A standardization committee was formed under the leadership of Deputy Director of Plant Protection Wing (PPW) in 1971 where heads of different research institutes and other specialists were the members of the committee. Agricultural ministry of Bangladesh issued an order to sell all types of pesticide in the open market with50 percent subsidy in 1974 which were later withdrawn in 1975 and there were initiatives for the privatization process of the pesticide sector in 1976 and the Pesticide Association of Bangladesh was formed involving all local suppliers.
In 1977, Bangladesh National Parliament ratified the Pesticide Ordinance 1971. In 1979, the Ministry of Agriculture issued a gazette notification mentioning the handover of the process of procurement and distribution of pesticides to the private sector. In 1985, The Pesticide Rules were published and the implementation process of the pesticide rules came into force at respective levels and in 2018, Bangladesh National Parliament passed the Pesticide Act 2018.

Contribution of agrochemical sector to farmers and economy: Pesticide technologies add millions of dollars a year to Bangladesh�s economy by increasing farmers� harvests and improving crop quality and it helps to ensure safe and affordable foods to eat that increase life expectancy of Bangladeshi peoples. It enables farmers to produce more crops per unit area, thus reducing deforestation and conserving natural resources.

Pesticides used in stored products can prolong the viable life of the produce, prevent huge post-harvest losses from pests and diseases and protect the grain so it is safe to eat. Pesticide innovations allow farmers to drive over their field�s fewer times, which save up millions of working hours and allow farmers to engage with non-farm activities to earn more for their livelihood.

Patent law benefits in pharmaceuticals industry and non-availability of same law in agrochemical Industry and its effects: After exemption of patent laws from patent rights in Bangladesh (an LDC group member) though pharmaceuticals enjoying full local productions, agrochemicals are being deprived by multinational companies, local importers and also local administration. The government introduced Drug Policy as Drug Control Ordinance Act in 1982 and later made necessary and required amendments to it that pharmaceuticals industries started flourishing with establishment of state-of-art industries and catering 97 percent of local demand. Whereas, no policies yet to take place under facilities provided by the World Trade Organization for manufacturing agrochemicals locally in Bangladesh.

At this growing discrepancy, the local agrochemicals manufacturers were united and formed a common platform named Bangladesh Agrochemical Manufacturers Association or BAMA to bargain their issues. The formation of the association was due to the discrimination in patent product with monopoly business, existing single source, existing anomalies in policies of raw material import & sell to local importers, absence of rules for technical production, growing influence in PTAC and Sub-PTAC by MNC importers & local importers, the discrimination and influence of 2-3 PTAC members on registration and also to raise voice against the same PTAC personnel�s engagement in product registration.

To end this discrimination, we under BAMA banner suggest the government to adopt the following steps to enhance local agrochemicals:  First of all (1) �Patent Protection Law� exemption should be fully implemented in agrochemical Industries in Bangladesh before LDC graduation 2. Manufacturing licenses for local manufacturing of agrochemicals should be issued to the local manufacturers with the open source (as in case of Pharmaceutical Industries). Any local manufacturers can import materials any time from a list of DAE validated sources 3. Policy & rules formulation and implementation should be there followed by issuance of manufacturing license for raw materials manufacturing 4. NOC Rule which is time consuming & incurs huge losses before clearing should be abolished 5. Positive policy & rules formulation and implementation for the sale of locally manufactured agrochemicals to local importers 6. Policy & Rules Formulation and implementation permitting export of locally manufactured agrochemicals7. Participation of the representative of the manufacturers association in the Govt. committees like Pesticides technical Advisory Committee (PTAC), Sub-PTAC (as in Drug Control Committee (DCC) etc. of DGDA) should be ensured for policy formulation8. Same PTAC members are engaged with chemical testing and field trials along with being in the PTAC. It might raise the concern of conflict of interest. It requires essential reform as like the regulatory body of Pharma industry. 9. Making a list of essential agrochemicals which should be exempted from any kind of patent right protection and this has to be implanted on an urgent basis as Bangladesh is nearing the LDC graduation.

Agrochemicals could be a sustainable, safe, affordable and profitable for farmers and an import substitute sector. But this industry is overlooked in Bangladesh whereas other countries have developed their capacity and infrastructure with government support. So, it is a demand for the time and we believe that the officials would feel the necessity of allowing local manufactures with proper policies and be in favor of enabling their own capacity for local manufacturing of the agrochemicals for a safe and secured agriculture.
 
-    The writer is Group Managing Director, National AgriCare Group & One Pharma Ltd. Expert Member, Drug Control Committee and President, Bangladesh Agrochemical Manufacturers Association (BAMA)
 
�In the pie it is seen MNCs cover 55 per cent market share, 43% by local importers and local manufactures only 2%�