Dr KV Raghvan, director Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in his presentation at Asia- Pacific Crop Protection, has however stated that India needs to adopt product development oriented approach for achieving sustainability in the highly competitive global market in the next millennium. When chemical pesticides were introduced in India as early as 1940, they were considered as modern miracles for achieving complete pest controls. After nearly four decades, momentum started gaining in the the developed countries against uninhibited use of chemical pesticide.

However the concept of IM started gaining ground since it tries to avoid the above problems in the first place and instead allow natural defenses ofplants to act against pests. It provides for minimised pesticide use, enhanced environmental stewardship and sustainable systems. It also decides when to use these methods viz., to deal with pests when the health of plants is in jeopardy. The important components of IPM are less toxic chemical pesticides, biopesticides and biocontrol of pests by employing pheromones and kairamones, he said.

Asia-Pacific region holds great promise for the agro-chemical sector in view of its high consumption potential and growing industrialisation. The intra-regional stresses and strains need to be addressed through appropriate industrial and trade policies, he said Structurally, pesticide molecules will undergo significant changes in the future to become more specific and eco-compatible. From the process point of view, shortened and high performance synthesis enriched through novel chemistry and bio-technology will provide immense opportunities and challenges to the researchers in Asia Pacific region. A number of enablingengineering sciences have to be employed to provide the cutting edge to these technologies. While a range of new application techniques will receive serious attention, IPM is likely to be the most significant in the growth process, he said. He also pointed out that fertiliser consumption in developing Asia is much higher than the world average. The same is not true in the case of agro-chemicals because of the wide disparities in their consumption in Asia-Pacific region. India's consumption of fertilisers per hectare was 69 kilograms against pesticide consumption (Rice) was just 1.8 kilograms, almost one fifth of the consumption in Korea.

Republic of Korea consumed 425 kilogram of fertiliser against 6.4 kilogram pesticide per hectare. Similarly China consumed 265 kilograms and 5.4 kilograms, respectively. Indonesia's consumption of fertiliser vis-a-vis pesticide was lower than China but higher than India at 109 kg and 3.9 kg, respectively. The free trade environment under new WTO regime has created newequations within Asia Pacific region. The countries like India, which operated under sub-optimal scale of production and protected market before 1992, are facing severe competition from countries like China, South Korea and Taiwan which operate on much favourable scale of production. Advocating the need for littoral countries of Asia Pacific region to forge new collaborations and partnerships to minimise the intra-regional contradictions, he said that the recent economic crisis in South East Asian countries has aggravated the situation.

In view of this he said that Indian pesticide Research and Development is totally process oriented which needs to be rectified to product driven research to meet the challenges of new patent laws. This change in management calls for replacement of import substitution culture with innovation, high level of R&D investment for facilitating modernisation and new capability development.