Draft Pesticide Management Bill 2025: Indian Government's seizure of State Government's Rights and Food sovereignty

The Union Ministry of Agriculture has released a new draft Pesticide management bill regulating chemical pesticides used in agriculture for public consultation till February 2,2026.

India has more than 350 pesticides registered to be sold. These pesticides are used in agricultural food production. Out of 350 pesticides sold in India, more than 120 are highly hazards pesticides(HHP). This HHP are extremely poisonous even at a very low dosage. Many of these pesticides are banned in many countries. These pesticides used are known to be carcinogenic causing cancer, neurotoxins, causing genetic changes and causing infertility among people. Yet, these thing go unrecognized in the new bill.

Right now, many of these pesticides are called forever chemicals which means they live forever. These Pesticides are mixed with water since they are used in farms making our drinking water toxic. Some years ago, there was an huge issue of pesticides presence in cocacola. In court, Cocacola submitted that they are using water from the river and the river itself has pesticides residue leading to pesticides presence in their products. Likewise, all rivers and drinking waters are contaminated by pesticide. In India every day, 4000 cancer cases are registered. Experts point unregulated pesticides as the reason. Yet, these things are absolutely undiscussed in the bill showing the lethargy of the Union Government.

Moreover, under current structure, registration of pesticides is done based on study submitted by the corporate companies and there is no way of independent scientific verification. This issues is also not addressed in the new bill.

Also, this bill designed to strip states of their agricultural rights. It is structured in a way that allows the Indian government to seize the power to make agriculture-related decisions from the states. The authority to register new pesticides for sale rests entirely with the Union government. States have no rights in this matter. Furthermore, only the Union government can ban a specific pesticide in a state. For example, in 2017, hundreds of people in Maharashtra were severely affected by the Monocrotophos pesticide. Many also died due to pesticide poisoning. However, disregarding the state government's concerns, the Union government continues to sell that pesticide to farmers.

Currently, the state government does not have the power to completely ban a pesticide in its state. At most, a state government can ban a pesticide for only up to 90 days. The Union government has not granted any authority to the states regarding pesticide sales.

Also, liability part is missing. In countries like USA, the liability of pesticides is on the manufacturer and it proves to be effective. Yet, there is no clear definition of liability even in the new bill.

Agriculture is included in the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution. This means it is a state subject. The Union BJP government's attempt to legislate law on pesticides, which are under the state , without respecting the Indian Constitution, exposes the anti-constitutional face of the Union BJP government.

Through this, the Union BJP government has abandoned the farmers welfare and all people those who consume food. The new pesticides management bill makes a mockery of India's regulations at a global stage. Through this, the Union BJP government has handed over the Indian people and farmers to multinational corporations selling pesticides.

This article was written by Karthik. He is an Organic farmer preserving the local Indigenous paddy seeds of Kolumam village in Tamil Nadu for the past 8 years.

Wanna Dive deeper into this subject?

Listen to our podcast on Understanding Pesticides with Dr. Narasimha Reddy, a policy expert working against pesticides in Agriculture for a decade. Click here to listen to our podcast.

Read the draft Pesticide management bill, 2025 orginal text by clicking here,