HEADQUARTERS, FARIDABAD
o
Planning & Coordination Unit
Planning & co-ordination unit of the Directorate assist to the Plant
Protection Adviser in maintaining close co-ordination between
various Schemes/Programmes on various technical matters
including handling of VIP references and Parliament Questions.
o
Documentation & Pesticides Unit
Documentation unit
Plant Protection Strategy and activities have significant importance
in the overall crop production programmes for sustainable agriculture.
Plant Protection efforts aim at minimizing crop losses due to ravages of
insect pests, diseases, weeds, nematodes, rodents, etc. Enforcement of
Destructive Insects& Pests Act (1914) for prevention of exotic pests,
promotion of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Implementation of
Insecticide Act,1968 for regulating production and use of pesticides,
monitoring and control of desert Locust in the Scheduled Desert Area
and Human Resource Development in Plant Protection through training
are the major programmes in the gamut of Plant Protection.
The documentation unit of the directorate collects & compiles the
data fortnightly from various divisions/schemes of the Directorate and
submits to DAC .Theses data includes;
1. IPM (Integrated Pest Management):
Pest surveillance, Release of Parasitoides & Predators, Augmentation &
Conservation of natural eniemes, number of FFS conducted, Number of
AEO’s & Farmers trained.
2. Locust Unit:
Locust population, ground survey in SDA (Scheduled) & constant
monitoring including global locust situation.
3. IIA (Implementation of Insecticide Act):
Number of Pesticide Samples Analyzed in Chemistry, Bioassay, Medical
Toxicology & Packaging & processing Divisions.
4. Plant Quarantine:
The Import & Export data including the inspection of consignment,
Number of Import Permit /PSC Issued and revenue collected.
The documentation Unit also prepares the Annual Report of the
Directorate besides publication of the Plant Protection Bulletin which is
published quarterly.
Pesticides Unit
The Pesticides Unit of the Directorate monitors data on pesticides
including demand and availability of pesticides in various states for
adoption of timely crop protection measures. The Unit coordinates with
the States/ UTs, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Department of
Chemicals& Petrochemicals and pesticide industry for assessing the
demand of pesticides for ensuring their timely availability. It also
collects/compiles data on pesticides consumption (indigenous &
imported) , production, import/export and sale points for the distribution
of pesticides in the country. Major demand of the pesticides in the
country is met from the indigenous production for control of diseases,
insect pests and weeds. The demand and availability position of different
pesticides was reviewed during the Zonal Conferences on inputs for
Kharif and Rabi with the State representatives of the Departments of
Agriculture. It was informed that the overall availability position of the
different pesticides is satisfactory. In the recent years, the consumption
of pesticides (chemical & Bio) has shown a downward trend from 75,000
Metric Tonnes in 1991-1992 to around 59,485 Metric Tonnes in 20112012 due to popularization of Integrated Pest Management approach
which includes cultural, physical and mechanical, biological and need
based use of safest chemical pesticides including neem based biopesticides in harmonized manner as well as use of low dose new
molecules, ban on the Heptachlor, Chlordane and BHC etc. and the
cultivation of Bt Cotton etc. Presently, there are about 1, 78,979 sale/
distribution (as on 13.02.13) points of pesticides in the country to ensure
easy availability of pesticides to farmers.