Small Tea Growers Seek Nadda's Intervention for MRL Notification of Two Pesticides

An association of small tea growers on Thursday wrote to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, seeking his intervention for early notification of maximum residue limits of two pesticides, and claimed that the absence of such a regulatory measure was exposing producers to crop losses.

Two approved pesticides - acetamiprid and imidacloprid - are among the most effective molecules for controlling major tea pests, but the "absence of notified MRLs has created uncertainty in their use, exposing growers to the risk of crop losses and reduced productivity", Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Associations (CISTA) said in the letter.

MRL represents the maximum legally permitted concentration of a pesticide residue in an agricultural product. In tea production, an MRL is a trading standard governed by good agricultural practices to ensure consumer safety.

After supervised field trials and comprehensive residue data generated by the Tea Research Association (TRA), the Central Insecticides Board & Registration Committee (CIB&RC) approved the label expansion of both molecules for tea in January this year, the small growers' body said.

The Tea Board of India subsequently incorporated them into the Plant Protection Code in April, formally recommending their use to growers, it claimed.

"We are not asking for any relaxation of safety. We are asking for sanity. Notify an ad hoc or temporary MRL now, based on the data already submitted, pending the final gazette notification. This is a routine, scientifically grounded interim measure. The delay in granting it is what is unsafe for the grower, for the industry, and for the tea economy," CISTA president Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty said.

Both molecules are "indispensable" for controlling the tea mosquito bug, one of the most destructive pests in the Northeast tea belt, capable of wiping out a substantial share of the crop in a single season, he said.

The association also appealed to FSSAI to treat the matter with the urgency it deserves and to act before the current season inflicts irreversible damage on India's small tea growers.