MULTAN, May 2: The law which makes it compulsory for each distributor of pesticides in the Punjab to have on board at least 10 graduates in agriculture is yet to be implemented because of the delaying tactics of the provincial department concerned.

The federal government had made it compulsory under the SRO (statutory notification) 790 (I)/2005 that the each pesticides distributor should have on its payroll at least 10 agricultural graduates for Punjab, four for Sindh and two each for NWFP and Balochistan.

The number of farm graduates in a pesticides firm operating in Punjab was enhanced to 10 from three under the SRO, which was issued on Aug 5, 2005. However, the Punjab agriculture department reportedly made a mess of the situation by raising a point that whether the new law would be applicable to firms whose renewal was due before the issuance of the SRO and they had already submitted their applications for the purpose.

Sources said that the sub-committee of the Agricultural Pesticides Technical Advisory Committee (of the federal government) in its meeting held on Saturday last in Karachi had thoroughly discussed the issue and concluded that the law was clear and binding on all the pesticides distributors whether their registration was due before or after the issuance of the SRO.

The spirit behind increasing the number of agriculture graduates was said to improve extension services to growers. “However, some unscrupulous elements in the provincial agriculture department had been hatching conspiracy at the behest of some influential pesticides firms to defer implementation on what seemed to be a grower-friendly step,” sources said.

The APTAC sub-committee expressed satisfaction over the availability of pesticides. Sources said that a sizable quantity of pesticides had reportedly been lying as carryover in the warehouses of the distributors because of low demand last year. It may be added here that almost 85 per cent of the pesticides imported in country are sprayed on cotton as plant protection measure.

A proposal suggesting an increase in duties on the import of technical (active ingredient) material and formulated products also came under discussion in the APTAC sub-committee to what was propagated encourage ‘basic manufacturing’ of the pesticides in the country.

Sub-committee members representing farmers however opposed the idea, saying this would increase prices of all pesticides in the country, including that of the carryover stocks.

They argued that supposedly if someone claimed to have capability to do basic manufacturing of some of the pesticides, even then there was no logic to increase prices of all the products.

“The government should give such claimants some sort of incentives rather than making growers scapegoats,” they added.

Technical experts however said that the technology of Hydrocracker needed to do basic manufacturing and at present none of the pesticides importers/formulators had this type of facility. The sub-committee finalised proposals to be presented for approval before the APTAC in its meeting scheduled to be held on May 11.