Srinagar, Aug 12: Fifty-eight of the 1,489 fruit and vegetable samples tested in Jammu and Kashmir between 2023 and 2026 were found to contain pesticide residues above the Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the Centre told the Lok Sabha.
The figures were presented by Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in response to a starred question by Dr Bhola Singh on the excessive and indiscriminate use of pesticides in fruit and vegetable cultivation. The testing was carried out under the Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level (MPRNL) project, which the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has been running since 2005-06.
At 3.9 per cent, J&K’s rate of samples exceeding MRLs was higher than the national average of 3.1 per cent, calculated from 2,223 non-compliant samples out of 70,652 tested across 23 states and Union Territories over the same three-year period.
Among the 23 states and UTs tested, Telangana recorded the highest violation rate at 5.9 per cent (486 of 8,198 samples), followed by Haryana at 6.4 per cent (152 of 2,371). Several states, including Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, recorded zero non-compliant samples.
What MRL means
Under FSSAI regulations, an MRL is not a safety threshold in the everyday sense; it is the maximum level of pesticide residue legally permitted in a food item when the pesticide has been applied correctly, in line with Good Agricultural Practices and data provided by the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIB&RC). Under Section 3(zz)(xii) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, food is deemed unsafe only when pesticide residues exceed the quantities specified in FSSAI regulations. A sample crossing the MRL does not mean the entire produce category is unsafe; it flags a specific instance where that legal threshold was breached.
How monitoring works
Samples under MPRNL are collected from retail and wholesale markets, cooperatives, Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets, farm gates and organic outlets, and analysed by 40 participating laboratories. GPS coordinates of each collection point are recorded to aid traceability, and farm-gate samples can be traced back to their growing areas.
The government’s reply, however, does not specify what pesticides were detected in the 58 J&K samples, which crops were involved, by how much the MRL was exceeded, or what enforcement action, if any, followed.
Awareness & training measures
The ministry said MPRNL results are shared with state and UT agriculture departments to train farmers on the safe and judicious use of pesticides approved by the Registration Committee, as per label directions.
Between 2021-22 and 2025-26, 1,353 Farmer Field School programmes benefited 46,969 farmers, 680 two-day Human Resource Development programmes reached 37,664 farmers, 2,384 awareness campaigns on safe pesticide use reached 76,702 farmers, and 2,548 seed treatment campaigns benefited 81,048 farmers nationally.
The government also cited the National Pest Surveillance System, an AI and machine learning-based platform that promotes bio-control agents and bio-pesticides, recommending chemical pesticides only when necessary and at prescribed doses.
The reply added that 21 states have constituted committees to monitor pesticide residues and promote Good Agricultural Practices, and that the MPRNL project has been approved for continuation till 2028-29.
Growers’ association flags testing gaps
Bashir Ahmad Bashir, chairman of the Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers and Dealers Association, said around 90 per cent of pesticides available in the local market are “fake” or sold without adequate quality testing, and that fruit growers have been demanding more pesticide-testing laboratories in Kashmir for the past three to four years.
He said pesticides should not be allowed into the market without proper approval and quality checks by authorities, including the Agriculture Department and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST).
