Farmers in India can use glyphosate till further orders from the court

The Central Government had banned the use of the herbicide Glyphosate directly by farmers in October 2022 stating the effect of glyphosate on the health of humans and animals. As per the notification released, it could be only used by Pest Control Operators (PCOs) for spraying in farmers’ fields.

In November 2022, the Delhi High Court had put a hold on the implementation of the notification for 3 months and said that the government shall be revisiting the matter. This case of Glyphosate came up for hearing in court this month. The Center had sought further adjournment of the matter for 4 months and said that the review of the notification is underway.

The government told the Delhi High Court that the notification that glyphosate will be used only by Pest Control Operators (PCOs) will not be implemented till further orders from the court. The next hearing in the Delhi High Court will be on 7th December 2023, till then this notification will not be implemented.

An industry expert told Krishak Jagat, ″The decision to implement Glyphosate use by ‘PCOs only’ is impractical & adds on to farmers’ cost which the government has been trying to reduce to increase their profitability. This is a wise decision to revisit the order issued.″

The industry is of the view that the farmers are well-equipped and trained to use crop protection chemicals, including Glyphosate for their field operations without any difficulty. Moreover, there is no practice in the rural markets of trained PCOs to carry out such operations.