Hyderabad, Dec. 11 -- BioAgri 2025, India's largest conference on sustainable biological agriculture, began on Wednesday at Ramoji Film City with scientists and industry leaders raising alarm over the growing pesticide-residue crisis threatening India's Rs 50,000-crore basmati export market.
Delegates said major buyers such as the EU, Japan and Iran are now insisting on near-zero residue levels, with the EU reducing the permissible limit for tricyclazole to an extremely stringent 0.01 ppm-equivalent to one gram in 100 tonnes. EU alerts on Indian rice rejections have surged from three in 2020 to 37 in 2024, even as exports to the region more than doubled between 2019 and 2023.
Experts noted that demand for residue-free food is also rising ...