MONITORING OF PESTICIDE RESIDUES AT NATIONAL LEVEL (MPRNL) The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture is regularly
monitoring
the
pesticide
residues
in
food
commodities
and
environmental samples under the central sector scheme, “Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level”. The scheme was initiated during 2005-06 with the participation of various laboratories representing Ministry of Agriculture, Indian Council of Agriculture Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizer, Ministry of Commerce and State Agricultural Universities across the country. The scheme involves monitoring and analysis of pesticide residues in agricultural commodities in different agro-ecological regions of the country to address the concerns for food safety and impact of pesticides on India’s food and agricultural trade.
Program & Scheme : The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture has started a Central Sector Scheme, “Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level” in food commodities and environmental samples during 200506 with the participation of various laboratories representing Ministry of Agriculture, Indian Council of Agriculture Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizer, Ministry of Commerce and State Agricultural Universities across the country. The scheme is on-going with the participation of 22 (twenty two) laboratories all over the country. Five of these have been designated as core laboratories to provide technical guidance and support to the associated laboratories in each zone. As per the
approved technical programme during the annual workshop of the scheme, the participating laboratories collect the food commodities samples from various Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) markets and Public Distribution System (PDS), irrigated water and soil samples from intensive agricultural fields across various parts of the country and analyze them for pesticides residues. Since October 2006, the participating laboratories have monitored pesticide residues in various food commodities such as vegetables, fruits, cereals, spices, pulses, milk, animal feed, fish, meat, tea, honey, dry fruits, egg, soil and water. The central sector scheme is monitored by two committees, namely, Steering Committee and Technical Committee. The policy decisions related to the scheme are under the preview of the Steering Committee headed by the Joint Secretary (Plant Protection), Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) while the Technical Committee, headed by the Assistant Director General (Plant Protection), Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) takes care of the technical issues related to the scheme. The Project Coordinating Cell of AINP on Pesticide Residues is the nodal centre for implementation of the scheme. The Network Coordinator, All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues, IARI, New Delhi is the Member Secretary of the scheme and is the nodal person for the day to day implementation of the scheme related to financial and technical matters and submission of monthly report, annual report and need based information to the DAC. The main objectives of the scheme include:
To test pesticide residues and other contaminants in food commodities and environmental samples like soil and water
To identify crops and regions having preponderance of pesticide residues in order to focus extension efforts for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Good Agriculture Practices (GAP)
To strengthen infrastructure at Quarantine stations to prevent entry of food and food commodities which have pesticide residues above maximum residue limit (MRL).
Testing / Certification of pesticide residue in
export / import
consignments
Targets & Achievements Financial Target: The total expenditure incurred under the Scheme during the period from October, 2006 to March, 2012 is 41.54 crore upto March 2012.
Physical Target: During October, 2006 to March, 2012 a total of 67,992 samples of the various food commodities such as vegetables, fruits, cereals, spices, pulses, milk, butter, fish, meat, tea, honey etc. and environmental samples like soil and water were collected across various parts of the country analyzed for the presence of possible pesticide residues. Pesticide residues were detected in 6281 (9.2%) samples and out of which 1051 (1.5%) samples were found to contain residues above their Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) / Codex notified Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) limit. Status of Pesticide Residues in different Food Commodities and Environmental Samples (October, 2006-March, 2012) Duration Oct,06-March,07 April,07-March,08 April,08-March,09 April,09-March,10 April,10-March,11 April, 11– March,12 TOTAL
Sample analyzed 1061 7089 13348 14225 15321 16948 67992
S.No
Commodity
1. 2. 3.
Vegetables Water Fish/crustacean/meat/e gg Fruits Rice Wheat Milk Butter Spices Tea Honey TOTAL
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Private NABL accredite d labs
Pesticide/ Aflatoxins/ Heavy Metals/ Antibiotic Residues in food commodities and environmental samples GRAND TOTAL
2007 -08 2529 1643 859
200809 4368 3564 1440
200910 4748 3624 1480
201011 5128 3684 1520
471 133 151 126 122 80 43 15 6172
1980 876 792 612 612 540 252 60 1509 6 800
1980 876 792 612 612 540 252 60 1557 6 1600
1980 876 792 612 612 540 252 60 1605 6 1700
1980 876 792 612 612 540 252 60 1653 6 1900
8391 3637 3319 2574 2570 2240 1051 255 6943 6 6000
1589 6
1717 6
1775 6
1843 6
7543 6
NIL
6172
2011- Total 12 5508 22281 3744 16259 1560 6859
Physical Target achieved during the period from 2012-13
Target no. of samples to be tested: 16,888 Total target of sample tested from April to January 2013 : 12676 Percent (%) of sample tested against Target : 12012 (94 %)
1. Attached Office : The participating laboratories are: 1.
Project Coordinating Cell,
All India Network Project on Pesticide
Residues, LBS Building, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 2.
Dept. of Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab
3.
ICAR Unit No.-9, BTRS Building, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat
4.
Dept. of Entomology, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Maharashtra
5.
Dept.
of
Entomology,
College
of
Agriculture,
Kerala
Agricultural
University, Vellayani, Kerala 6.
Division of Soil Sci. & Agril. Chemistry, IIHR, Hessaraghatta Lake Post, Bangalore, Karnataka
7.
Dept. of Entomology, RAU, Agricultural Research Station, Durgapura Jaipur, Rajasthan
8.
College of Agriculture, Department of Entomology, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad ,Andhra Pradesh
9.
Dept. of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
10.
Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT), Sector – 20, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, Haryana
11.
National Institute of Occupational Health, P. B. No. 2031, Meghani Nagar, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
12.
Western Region Referral Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Public Health, Bombay Veterinary College, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra
13.
MPEDA, MPEDA House, Panampilly Avenue, Kochi , Kerala
14.
Pesticide Toxicology Laboratory, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Lucknow, Utter Pradesh
15.
Trace Organic Laboratory, Central Pollution Control Board, Parivesh Bhawan, East Arjun Nagar, Delhi
16.
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nehru Marg, Nagpur, Maharashtra
17.
Regional Plant Quarantine Station, Haji Bunder Road, Sewri, Mumbai, Maharashtra
18.
Regional Plant Quarantine Station, G.S.T. Road, Meenambakkam, Chennai , Tamil Nadu (*)
19.
AINP on Pesticide Residues, Directorate of Research, Research Complex Building, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal
20.
Dept. of Entomology, Dr.Y.S.P. Univ. of Horticulture & Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh
21.
National Plant Quarantine Station, Rangpuri, New Delhi
22.
National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM) , Hyderabad (*) CARI, Port Blair (The samples from CARI are analyzed at RPQS, Chennai)
2. Publications : Circulations : Minutes of the technical Committee held on 26.12.2012 are attached
Minutes of the 24th Meeting of the Technical Committee of the central sector scheme, “Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level” held on 26.12.2012 at 2.30 p.m.in the ICAR Committee Room No. 2, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi
The 24thmeeting of the Technical Committee (TC) was held at 2.30 P.M. on 26 th December, 2012 under the Chairmanship of Dr. T. P. Rajendran, Chairman, Technical Committee and Assistant Director General (Plant Protection), ICAR for the Central Sector Scheme “Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level” held ICAR Committee Room, KrishiBhawan, New Delhi. The list of participants is annexed as Annexure-I. Dr.Dheer Singh, ADG (PFA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, NirmanBhawanand Dr.S.K.Saxena, Director, EICcould not attend the meeting. At the outset, Chairperson welcomed the participants. Member Secretary presented the Action Taken Report (ATR) of the 23rd meeting of the Technical committee.
The following points were taken up for discussion: Progress of the scheme During the period of April 2011 to March 2012, 16,948 samples of vegetable, fruits, spices, cereals, pulses, milk, animal feed, fish/crustacean, tea, honey, meat, egg, soil and ground water were collected and analysed for the possible residues of organochlorine, organo-phosphorous, synthetic pyrethroids, carbamates, herbicides etc. by 21 participating laboratories. Out of these 290 (1.7%) samples were found above maximum residue limit (MRL) as prescribed under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) / Food Safety Standard Authorty of India (FSSAI) of Ministry of Health and Family welfare and CODEX. The committee deliberated on the issue of the detection of non recommended pesticides and decided that the soft copy of the monthly progress reports of the monitoring scheme shall be sent to Plant Protection Advisor (PPA) every month based on which the PPA will will take up withthe concerned State Agricultural Departments for the required corrective action and the copy of the same may be sent to the PP Division of DAC and Member Secretary. The sixth annual workshop of the scheme was held on May 12, 2012 at ANGRAU, Hyderabad. Annual report submitted to DAC and PPA. Proceedings and Technical programme submitted to DAC and sent to participating laboratories (Action: Member Secretary and PPA)
Supervised field trials on for non-approved pesticides
The Member Secretary informed that multilocation supervised field trials have been initiated under AINP on Pesticide Residues on vegetables like okra, brinjal, tomato, chilli, capsicum, cabbage, cauliflower and curry leaf for triazophos, profenophos, acephate, ethion, cypermethrin, quinalphos and chlorpyrifos. Action: Member Secretary, PPA / Secretary CIB& RC)
Inclusion of new technical committee members:
The Chairman approves the nomination of four new members namely Dr.A.Madhawan, Assistant Director, FSSAI (
[email protected]) ;Dr. Balwinder Singh, Professor and Head, Department of Entomology, PAU, Ludhaiana, Punjab; Dr. P.G.Shah, Residue Analyst, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat and Dr. Hemanta Banerjee, Professor, Department of Agricultural Chemicals, BCKV, Mohanpur, West Bengal in place of Dr. S.N.Sinha, NIN, Hyderabad and Dr. C.S. Sharma,CPCB, Delhi
Crop Grouping
Member Secretary sent a letter to Joint Secretary (Plant Protection), DAC to speed up the process of crop grouping. It was suggested to send a copy of this to PPA and Secretary CIB&RC seeking the progress made in this issue.
(Action: Fund Position (2012-13)
Member Secretary, PPA / Secretary CIB& RC)
The Member Secretary informed the committee that a sum of Rs. 3.00 crores have been received so far as first instalment in the month of June 2012 and there is an acute shortage of funds to run the scheme. The Chairman requested the Under Secretary, DAC to take-up the issue with the competent authorities of DAC. Sufficient funds must be provided to the participating laboratories for hiring of vehicle, procurement of chemicals, maintenance of equipment’s etc. (Action: DAC)
NABL Accreditation of participating laboratories
In spite of repeated request and reminders, some of the participating laboratories have not obtained the NABL accreditation of pesticide residue laboratory. The Committee recommended thatthe warning letter may be issue by the DACto these non-accredited laboratories for getting the accreditation by April, 2013 otherwise the laboratory will be discontinue from the scheme and withdrawal of all facilities provided under the scheme. (Action: Member Secretary and DAC)
Testing of food commodities and environmental samples by private NABL accredited laboratories
The Under Secretary informed that the draft MOU for identified private laboratory is under active consideration and will be finalised shortly. (Action:
DAC)
Procurement of new equipment’s
The procurement of new equipment’s would be initiated after the approval of EFC memo of the 12th five year plan. The Chairman asked the Under Secretary to send a copy of the monitoring scheme EFC memo to the Member Secretary for inclusion of
justification of new equipment’s, contractual manpower etc., if not included in the document. (Action:
DAC and Member Secretary)
Inclusion of new laboratories
The Committee recommended the inclusion of EIC laboratories (per sample basis) CIFT, Kochi (per sample basis) and RPQS, Kolkata (regular basis) for strengthening the geographical coverage of the scheme. (Action: The meeting ended with the vote of thanks to the Chair.
Organization chart: Joint secretary, Department of Agriculture & Cooperation
Dr. K.K. Sharma, Scheme Coordinator AINP, IARI, New Delhi
Plant Protection Adviser, Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage Storage
Deputy Directors (NPQS/RPQS) PPOs (Chemistry)
APPOs
Research Associates Senior Research Fellows
DAC)
Budget and Expenditure:
Budget Status of XI Five Year Plan (2007-12) in respect of Central Sector Scheme "Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level" Amount (in Lakh) Year
Opening Balance
Sanction
Remittance
Total Fund Available
Expenditure
Closing Balance
1
2
3
4 (1+3)
5
6 (4-5)
2007-08
338.86288
1000.0
840.0
1178.86288
1166.46279
12.40009
2008-09
12.40009
1000.0
959.91756
972.31765
963.53519
8.78246
2009-10
8.78246
1000.0
955.0
963.78246
917.48048
46.30198
2010-11
46.30198
1000.0
600.0
646.30198
578.29796
68.00402
2011-12
68.00402
500.0
380.0
448.00402
437.50700
10.49702
The total expenditure is Rs. 4063.28342 Lakh upto March, 2012. Since 2011-12 the depository budget system was changed to the budgetary system for three laboratories i.e. NPQS, New Delhi and RPQS – Mumbai & Chennai. The total expenditure for these three laboratories during 2011-12 is Rs.91.09 Lakh. Hence the total expenditure incurred under the Scheme during XI Five Year Plan is 4154.37342 Lakh upto March 2012.
