Lok Sabha Question No. 2539 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-19
Subject: Quality Control Laboratory
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Goddeti Madhavi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2539

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 19 TH  DECEMBER, 2023

## QUALITY CONTROL LABORATORY

2539.  SHRIMATI GODDETI MADHAVI:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण मंũी be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware that the State Government of Andhra Pradesh has set up a state-of-the-art Biofertilizer and Organic Fertilizer Quality Control Laboratory, said to be the first of its kind in the State, to enable farmers to increasingly use micro-organisms to increase farm production;
- (b) if so, whether the Government plans to set up similar facilities for promoting the use of organic fertilizers to increase farm production and reduce the practice of indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticide;
- (c) whether the Government is planning to provide additional financial assistance to States under PM PRANAM apart from the 50 per cent to help States develop and adopt alternative fertilizers and practices; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण मंũी (SHRI ARJUN MUNDA)

- (a) : In the State of Andhra Pradesh for quality check of Bio and organic fertilizers Quality Control lab is established at Nellore under centrally sponsored scheme - National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, Soil Health Management component during 2014-15.
- (b): Under Soil Health & Fertility Scheme of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), financial assistance @ of Rs. 85 lakh is provided to the State Governments for setting up of Biofertilizers and Organic Fertilizer Quality Control Laboratory.

Government of  India  is  recommending  soil  test  based  balanced  and  integrated  nutrient management through conjunctive use of both inorganic and organic sources (manure, biofertilizers, green manuring, in-situ crop residue recycling etc.) of plant nutrients with 4Rs approach i.e right quantity, right time, right mode and right type of fertilizer for judicious use of chemical fertilizers and to reduce use of chemical fertilizers. In addition, split application, use of slow releasing fertilizers including neem coated urea and growing leguminous crops are also advocated. The Government of India is promoting the Biofertiliser, Organic Fertiliser as alternate source of nutrients.

The Government of India is implementing various schemes in order to promote the use of organic fertilizers by the farmers, the details of the schemes are as under:

- (i)  Market  Development  Assistance  (MDA)  to  Compressed  Bio  Gas  Plants  for  sale  of Fermented  Organic  Manure  (FOM)/Liquid  Fermented  Organic  Manure  (LFOM)  & Phosphate Rich Organic Manure (PROM): Based on the budget announcement and the recommendations of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC), the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in its meeting held on 28th June, 2023 approved the Market Development Assistance (MDA) to promote Organic Fertilizers. Support under MDA @₹ 1,500/MT which will be given only for the manure produced at plants under umbrella GOBARdhan initiative covering different Biogas/CBG support schemes/programmes of stakeholder Ministries/Departments such as Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme of MoPNG, 'Waste to Energy' programme of MNRE, Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) of DDWS, etc. with total outlay of  ₹ 1,451.84 Crore (FY  2023-24  to  2025-26),  which  includes  a  corpus  of  ₹360  Crore    for  research  gap funding, etc.'
- (ii)  PM-PRANAM  Scheme:  The  Cabinet  Committee  on  Economic  Affairs  (CCEA)  in  its meeting held on 28th June, 2023 has approved the 'PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness Generation, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother-Earth (PM-PRANAM)'. The initiative aims to complement the efforts initiated by States/UTs to save the health of  Mother  Earth  by  promoting  sustainable  and  balanced  use  of  fertilizers,  adopting alternate fertilizers, promoting organic farming and implementing resource conservation technologies. The PM-PRANAM scheme is operational for a period of three years (FY 2023-24 to FY 2025-26).

Under the said scheme, 50% of the fertilizer subsidy saved by a State/UT in a particular financial  year  by  way  of  reduction  in  consumption of  chemical fertilizers  (Urea,  DAP, NPK, MOP) compared to previous 3 years' average consumption, will be passed on to that State/UT as Grant.

These initiatives  of  the  Government  are  expected  to  address  the  imbalanced  use  of chemical fertilizers thereby reducing chemical fertilizer use.

- (iii) Parampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain development in North East Region (MOVCDNER): Government of India is implementing dedicated schemes for promotion of organic farming in the country viz. Parampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East  Region  (MOVCDNER)  since  2015-16.  Under  these  schemes,  farmers  are

encouraged to take up organic cultivation using organic inputs and the schemes provide end-to-end  support  to  farmers  i.e.  from  production  to  marketing  of  organic  produce. Hands on training to farmers about on-farm production of organic fertilizers and its use are integral part of these schemes. Farmers are provided a subsidy of Rs 31000/ha/3years under PKVY and Rs. 32500/ha/3 years under MOVCDNER for various organic inputs. An amount of Rs 684.84 Crores has been earmarked for promotion of organic farming for the year 2023-24.

- (iv)   ICAR has developed improved and efficient strains of biofertilizers specific to different crops and soil types to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers in agricultural production.  In addition, split application and placement of fertilizers, use of slow releasing N-fertilizers and nitrification inhibitors, growing leguminous crops and use of Resource Conservation Technologies  (RCTs)  are  also  advocated.  ICAR  also  imparts  trainings  to  different stakeholders, organizes front-line demonstrations, awareness programs etc. to educate farmers on all these aspects.

Further, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare through its Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), ICAR and 36 Central Integrated Pest Management Centers (CIPMCs) located in 28 States and 2 UTs, etc conduct various training programmers such as Farmers Field Schools, two/five days HRD programmers, Kisan Goshthis, IPM Exhibitions and Seed Treatment  Campaigns,  where    awareness  is  created  amongst    farmers,  Pesticide dealers/State agriculture functionaries on use of bio pesticides, bio control agents and botanical formulations as an alternative to chemical pesticides for pest management, safe and  judicious  use  of  chemical  pesticides  in  accordance  to  the  dose  and  label  claim instructions as approved by Registration Committee (RC), as last resort.

Moreover,  CIPMC's  bio-control  laboratories  produce  various  bio-pesticides  and  biocontrol agents such as Metarhizium, Beauveria, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Ttrichoderma spp,  Isaria  fumosorosea;  Trichogramma  spp.,  Chilonus  blackburni,  Reduviid  bug, Rhynocoris marginatus, Chrysoperla zastrowisillemi, Cryptolaemus montrouzeri, Goniozus nephantidis, Sycanus collaris, Psuedomallada astur and release them in field for management of various pests and pathogens.

Further,  Government  of  India  has  taken  various  steps  to  promote  the  use  of  bio pesticides. Simplified guidelines have been formulated by RC for the registration of bio pesticides. For bio-pesticides, provisional registrations are being granted under Section 9(3B) of the Insecticides Act, 1968 alongwith the permission for commercialization during the provisional registration period of two years based on the confirmation of molecular identity of the strain from ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms  (ICAR-NBAIM)  and  quality  verification  of  the  product  from  Central Insecticide Laboratory (CIL).

There  are  06  State  Bio-Pesticide  Testing  Laboratories  (SBTLs)  spread  across  the country  for  analysis  of  Bio-pesticides.  Further,  Government  of  India  has  notified  08 Regional  Bio-  Pesticide  Testing  Laboratories  to  supplement  the  resources  of  the States/UTs in quality control of Bio-pesticides. Similarly, the Central Government has also set up a Central Insecticide Laboratory as a National Referral Laboratory u/s. 16 of the Insecticide  Act,  1968.  The  details  of  Bio-pesticide  Testing  Laboratories  in  India  are enclosed as Annexure- I .

(c) & (d): Under the PM PRANAM Scheme, 50% of the fertilizer subsidy saved by a State/UT  in  a  particular  financial  year  by  way  of  reduction  in  consumption  of  chemical fertilizers (Urea, DAP, NPK, MOP) compared to previous 3 years' average consumption, will  be  passed  on  to  that  State/UT  as  Grant.  Apart  from  this,  no  additional  financial assistance to states is proposed under PM PRANAM.

## Number of Bio Pesticide testing Laboratories in India

## (A) STATE BIO-PESTICIDE TESTING LABORATORIES

| No.   | State/UTs   |   Number of Laboratories | Location              |
|-------|-------------|--------------------------|-----------------------|
| 1.    | Maharashtra |                       04 | Pune,                 |
| 1.    | Maharashtra |                       04 | Amravati              |
| 1.    | Maharashtra |                       04 | Thane                 |
| 1.    | Maharashtra |                       04 | Aurangabad            |
| 2.    | Rajasthan   |                       01 | Durgapura             |
| 3.    | Telangana   |                       01 | Malakpeta (Hyderabad) |
|       | TOTAL       |                       06 |                       |

## (B)REGIONALBIO-PESTICIDE TESTING LABORATORIES

| S. No.    | State/UTs                                                     |
|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1.        | Regional Pesticide Testing laboratory (RPTL), Chandigarh      |
| 2.        | Regional Pesticide Testing laboratory (RPTL), Kanpur          |
| 3.        | Regional Central Integrated Pest Management Centre, Faridabad |
| 4.        | Regional Central Integrated Pest Management Centre, Guwahati  |
| 5.        | Regional Central Integrated Pest Management Centre, Lucknow   |
| 6.        | Regional Central Integrated Pest Management Centre, Bengaluru |
| 7.        | Regional Central Integrated Pest Management Centre, Kolkata   |
| 8.        | Regional Central Integrated Pest Management Centre, Nagpur    |
| Total: 08 | Total: 08                                                     |

## (C) CENTRAL BIO-PESTICIDE TESTING LABORATORIES

|   S. No. | Name of Laboratories                                                                                                    |
|----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Indian Agriculture Research Institute (Division of Entomology), Pusa, New Delhi                                         |
|        2 | G.B. Pant University of Agriculture &Technology (Center of Advance Studies in Plant Pathology), Pant Nagar, Uttarakhand |
|        3 | Regional Research Laboratory (Department of Biotechnology), Jammu                                                       |
|        4 | Assam Agriculture University, (Department of Entomology), Jorhat, Assam                                                 |
|        5 | Mahatma PhooleKrishiVidyapeeth (College of Agriculture), Pune, Maharashtra                                              |
|        6 | University of Agriculture Science (Department of Agriculture Entomology), Dharwad, Karnataka                            |
|        7 | Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu                                                               |
|        8 | Central Insecticide Laboratory, Faridabad                                                                               |
|        9 | National Institute of Plant Health Management, Rajendranagar, Hyderbad                                                  |

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