India's crop insurers seek data protection law to expedite farm innovation

New Delhi: Five of India's largest crop insurers have jointly asked the government to include a provision for the protection of regulatory data in the draft Pesticides Management Bill, 2025, arguing that the absence of such a framework is slowing the entry of newer, safer pesticide molecules into the country.

In a joint statement, Crystal Crop Protection, Rallis India, Dhanuka Agritech, PI Industries and Godrej Agrovet, all members of industry body CropLife India, sought a five-year, time-bound data protection window starting from the first registration of a new molecule or new use.

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Under the PRD (protection of regulatory data) provision, a company that generates the safety, efficacy and residue data required to register a new molecule would get exclusive access to that data for a fixed period, after which the molecule would open up to the rest of the industry, including generic manufacturers and small and medium enterprises.

Industry executives say the economics currently discourage anyone from bringing new chemistry into India. Registering a new molecule costs an estimated Rs 40-50 crore and takes six to eight years of local trials, but without protection, a later applicant can access the same data within a year for around Rs 75 lakh.

"A limited window restores that incentive, and once it ends, the molecule is open to the whole industry," the companies said in a joint statement, adding that the change would not affect any product already registered in the market since it would apply only to new molecules and new uses.

Citing a CropLife India-Yes Bank knowledge report, the companies said India loses 10-35 per cent of its farm output annually - worth roughly Rs 2 lakh crore - to pests, weeds and diseases, with resistance and climate-driven shifts in pest patterns making the case for newer, lower-dose molecules more urgent.

They also pointed out that India has registered only 380 of the roughly 1,200 pesticide molecules in use worldwide, a gap they said limits both farm productivity and the competitiveness of India's agrochemical exports, which need newer chemistry to meet tightening residue limits in overseas markets.

The industry also flagged what it called two under-discussed benefits: curbing the practice of hundreds of identical registrations for a single molecule, which drives prices down to levels that encourage overuse and counterfeit products, and channelling more research work - including stewardship and resistance-management responsibilities during the protected period - into Indian laboratories and field stations.

On the international comparison, the companies noted that China offers six years of data protection and is now the world's largest agrochemical exporter, while Thailand, Brazil and the United States offer up to ten years, and the European Union offers ten years - extended to thirteen for low-risk and biological products. India currently has no such provision.

Ankur Aggarwal, Chairman of CropLife India and Executive Chairman & Managing Director of Crystal Crop Protection, said a time-bound data protection window would bring farmers newer tools sooner, "and every molecule it brings in early belongs to the whole industry once the window closes."

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Gyanendra Shukla, Vice Chairman of CropLife India and MD & CEO of Rallis India, said the exporting countries India competes with "adopted data protection and grew stronger for it."

Rahul Dhanuka, Managing Director of Dhanuka Agritech, and Mayank Singhal, Vice Chairperson & Managing Director of PI Industries, echoed the call for a predictable framework, while N K Rajavelu, CEO of Godrej Agrovet, said extending protection for low-risk products, as the EU does, could encourage "climate-friendly molecules" for Indian agriculture.