PROPOSED DATA PROTECTION COMMITTEE ON AGROCHEMICALS SHOULD BE

According to international rules, the patent period is 20 years, after that giving any kind of data protection is illegal which will give license for looting the farmers by MNCs and their Indian partners.

- KRISHAN BIR CHAUDHARY

It has been learnt that the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has constituted a multi-ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary (Plant Protection) Mr. Faiz Ahmad Kidwai. The first task assigned to this committee is to find out how data protection can be given to companies bringing pesticides to India whose patent has expired for 20 years so that they can make huge profits by selling their agrochemicals to the Indian market and farmers at many times the price and exploit Indian farmers.

It should be known that in the last several years, many attempts have been made by multinational companies and Indian industries associated with them to change the rules related to the Insecticides Act 1968. The only objective of all these efforts has been to capture the Indian market in some way or the other and exploit the farmers.