Why farmers are at risk as India pushes back against global curbs on deadly insecticide

For over two years, Rajeshwar Madankar has struggled with constant body pain and headaches.

It began when the 27-year-old farmer from Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district sprayed the insecticide, chlorpyrifos, on his cotton farm one morning.

He made the mistake of not covering his face. “That day it was windy, and I accidentally inhaled some of the insecticide,” he said.

By the evening, he had a headache. In a few days, he was vomiting almost every evening.

Chlorpyrifos is used on a variety of food crops to control soil-borne insects, mosquitoes and roundworms. Eating, inhaling or touching the insecticide can lead to nerve and muscle damage. The World Health Organisation lists it as “moderately hazardous”. Studies link it to possible a cancer risk and growth concerns in newborns, apart from neurotoxicity.

“We usually mix 20 ml to 30 ml of the insecticide in a bucket, he may have used more,” said Aakash Suresh Masram, another farmer in Yerad village.

At the Yavatmal district hospital, the staff ran blood tests. “The doctor told me that the insecticide led to poisoning,” Madankar told Scroll.

Other farmers suspect that the insecticide has been damaging their health too, Masram said. “Several farmers in our village have stopped using chlorpyrifos insecticide after Madankar’s illness,” he said.

The farmers’ fears have been vindicated at a global meet of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in Geneva that ended on May 9. The convention is an international environmental treaty that aims to reduce the impact of pollutants on human health by encouraging countries to limit or stop their use.

The organisation has decided to eliminate the use of chlorpyrifos in a phased manner.

But Indian farmers may not benefit from the decision.

India, along with seven other countries, has sought an exemption from the decision, raising concerns among experts of continued health risk to farmers from the insecticide.

Several countries including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Uruguay and Iraq, along with the European Union, last fortnight supported the inclusion of the insecticide in Annex A of Stockholm Convention. This document mandates the gradual elimination of the insecticide.

India opposed its complete elimination because it says that there is a lack of alternatives to chlorpyrifos, which, it says, is need to ensure the country’s food security. It said it will continue to use chlorpyrifos for the next five years for at least 12 crops – wheat, rice, gram, beans, sugarcane, barley, apple, groundnut, onion, cotton, mustard and brinjal.

However, AD Dileep, chief executive officer of Pesticide Action Network in India, argued that there are easily available chemical and non-chemical alternatives to chlorpyrifos.

“No consultation was held by the government with experts before it sought an exemption,” Narasimha Reddy Donthi, an international campaigner on climate change, told Scroll. “The decision seems to be industry driven. We fail to see any apparent reason for the continued use of such a harmful chemical,” he added.

In 2023-24, 1416.22 metric tonnes of chlorpyrifos were consumed in the country. Currently, India and China are the largest producers of this insecticide.

The Indian government’s stand is surprising given that its own panel had recommended a ban on the insecticide.

In 2018, a sub-committee formed by the Union agriculture department reviewed the use of 27 pesticides and insecticides, including chlorpyrifos, and concluded that all 27 may be banned in India. In 2023, however, the central government banned only four out of the 27 pesticides.

Health concerns

It is difficult to establish a direct link between the insecticide and its health impact due to the paucity of adequate scientific studies to prove the adverse effects.

“But it is well established that chlorpyrifos is highly toxic, especially for farmers, children and workers in the field,” said Kumar, from the Pesticide Action Network. “There is no safe level of exposure to it.”

In 2024, Punjab banned 10 pesticides used for paddy cultivation due to high residues in the harvested crop. One of the insecticides was chlorpyrifos, which was found beyond permissible limits in basmati rice, leading to export rejections.

Another 2013 study in ScienceDirect found chlorpyrifos residues in breast milk in Punjab, raising concerns over pesticide exposure in breastfed infants.

Lack of government monitoring

Donthi, the campaigner who works with Pesticide Action Network, said in a field survey report in 2022, they found rampant use of chlorpyrifos by farmers on various crops.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India also raised an alert on chlorpyrifos’ use in an advisory to all states in 2019. The letter stated that tests carried out on multiple vegetables found that “residues of chlorpyrifos were exceeding the maximum residual limit” set by the authority.

Another study in 2024 found chlorpyrifos residues in 33% of food samples tested.

Pranav Rawat, an apple grower from Shimla in Himachal Pradesh said he is aware of the long-term impacts of spraying the insecticide. Despite that, he said that apple farmers continue to heavily rely on chlorpyrifos in the state.

“It’s easily available in the market and the government gives it on subsidy,” he claimed. “It’s also very effective in killing the insects. But that itself should be an indicator about why it is very harmful to human health as well.”

He added that usually farmers are more interested in its immediate ability to kill insects, rather than thinking about the long-term health impacts.

Rawat stopped the use of chlorpyrifos in 2023. He now uses neem oil which he has found to be less harmful on pollinators like bees.

He also explained that farmers tend to exceed the maximum permissible quantity of the insecticide. “If for example the recommended level is to mix 200 ml of chlorpyrifos per 200 liters of water, farmers use 400 ml or even 600 ml. No one is there to check and regulate farmers on the ground.”

Aashesh Mehta, an apple cultivator in Himachal Pradesh, however said that awareness amongst farmers is rising. “Not everyone uses this insecticide,” he said. “I have never used it.”

With inputs from Vaishnavi Rathore

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