Conference on Agrochemicals

January 12-13 2006

Keynote Address by: Mr P Mazumdar, President, Croplife India Ltd & Executive
Director, Syngenta India Ltd

· Mrs Satwant Reddy, Secretary, Dept. of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, GoI

· Mr H F Khorakiwala, Sr Vice President, FICCI and Chairman, Wockhardt Ltd.
· Mr Rajju Shroff, CMD, United Phosphorus Ltd
· Mr Vivek Bharati, Advisor, FICCI,
· Colleagues and

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Amongst the significant changes brought about by globalization, the opportunity for the
Indian Agrochemical Industry has increased manifold. The potential and hence the
responsibility of our industry has been enhanced primarily in 2 segments.

1. In India's quest for increased Agril output, along with quality inputs, irrigation, and
infrastructure, Chemical pesticides are indispensable. The Agro Chemical Industry has been
doing a Yeoman service to Indian agriculture in minimizing Crop losses and improving
productivity.

2. The benefit of quality seeds, other inputs and irrigation could not have been harnessed
without the Crop Protection offered by our industry.

Global companies get products banned in their countries. From the PL-480 days barely two
and a half decades ago, Indian today enjoys food security and looks forward to becoming the
food basket of the world. Food availability in the country has to grow to meet the demands of
the existing and future population.

These production increases have to come from our over-stretched land resources. With 140
m hectares or nearly half of land area already under cultivation 50 million of which is
irrigated and cultivated twice (making a total 190 million hectares of gross cultivated area)
the improvement has to be achieved through enhanced productivity. We have to feed and
clothe 16% of world population on less than 2% of the landmass.

3. Globalization - WTO provisions would open up export opportunity of Agricultural Products,

which can be a huge growth engine. Quantum leap in agricultural exports is possible with
newer and safer technologies.

Consumer today expects a year round supply of healthy and above all safe food. Over the
last 30 years, development in Crop Protection Products have helped in fulfilling these
demands at a lower cost than ever before.

The safety of the food that we eat is of paramount importance. Unfortunately, in the recent
years, consistent efforts are being made to seriously undermine public confidence in the
safety of food.

The consumers desire for no or very low residues is well appreciated. This needs to
be balanced with the necessity of high quality food, continuity of supply and
sustainable production - all at a reasonable price. Continuous innovation, has lead
to development of Crop Protection products with:

1. Lower use rates and better degradability leading to a lower environmental loading
2. Improved human safety profile for farmers, workers and consumers
3. High-biological efficacy
4. Selective control of pests, diseases and weeds
5. Increased safety to specific beneficial - naturally occurring insects and organisms.
India needs country specific research and investment opportunities; proper
legislation on Patent and Data Protection to exploit intellectual skill

• Farming community would benefit with wider choice of new chemistry & continuous
availability of old generic products.
• Quantum lead in Agricultural Produce exports is possible only with the help of newer
and safer technologies.
• India can immensely benefit from this development.
• Major strength of India is availability of skilled manpower.
• Requirement concerns the issues of patents and data protection.

Globalization will open up opportunities for India to exploit our brainpower and develop new
technologies; with the product patent now in place it should help our local talents to develop
new chemical solutions to meet not only the growing demand of food but also that of the
quality and safety. This in turn will help us to attract investment in manufacturing besides
research.

Our capacity in developing process and manufacture has been proved beyond doubt this will
immensely help in establishing sustainable linkages forward and backward, globally, thus
providing momentum to our growing Agrochemical Industry.

Globally our competitiveness is appreciated but we must not lose sight of the capability and
the aggressive approach of our neighbours in the northeast. To access such global
opportunities, we would however require regulatory support and appropriate positioning.

We should harmonize the specifications (adopt FAO Specs) and the Data requirements for
granting market access. One World Market - One Sett of Data ! Industry is taking steps to
provide details of the Global Specs & Data Required.

Over half of the Global market is generic, and by adopting the FAO Specs, we should be able
to access the Global market with out proven efficiency in Process development and
manufacturing.

Besides quality, Crop Protection product largest impact is on quantity of food produced. In
order to feed a growing would population with a variety of food, which offers a healthy
balanced diet, the contribution of the Crop Protection products should not be underestimated.
Judicious use of Crop Protection products is and will continue to be key to sustainable
agriculture in most production systems.

Crop Protection products are crucial for optimizing the use of scarce resources, including
land, water and labour besides feeding and clothing the growing population.

If there were no Crop Protection Products, we would dramatically less capable of providing
enough food of good quality - GLOBALLY!

I am glad that the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and FICCI have come forward to
organize this Conference, I have no doubt the deliberations over the next two days will help
us to evolve the right strategy to enable our industry to take full advantage of the
globalization for the benefit of our country in general and the agrochemical industry and our
agriculturists in particular.

Thanking you for your patience.