Context: Recently, the Registration Committee (RC) under the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) has recommended to ban the use of antibiotics streptomycin and tetracycline.
Key Points

• They recommended antibiotics streptomycin and tetracycline were completely banned with immediate effect on crops where other options were available for bacterial disease control.
• The final report accepted the recommendation of the sub-committee on production, sale and use of streptomycin sulphate (9 per cent) and tetracycline hydrochloride (1 per cent). 
• The report also recommended that streptomycin and tetracycline use be phased out by 2022-end for crops for which no alternatives were available. Till then, the antibiotics could be used on crops strictly as per the label claim.

As per Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) assessment

• It had suggested measures to contain this malpractice and regulate it. 
• They  found that a 90:10 combination of streptomycin and tetracycline, was being routinely and indiscriminately used by farmers in high doses in crops.

Benefits

• World Health Organization recognises streptomycin as a critically important medicine for human use.
• They also brought to light that streptomycin had important use for previously treated tuberculosis (TB) patients, who make up over 10 per cent of the total estimated TB incidence in India. 
• It is also used in multidrug-resistant TB patients and in certain cases of TB meningitis (brain TB).

Significance of this move

• Although streptocycline use is allowed for eight crops by the CIBRC, it was found to be used on many more crops in practice.
• With this ban / phase-out, misuse of streptomycin and tetracycline in crops for which it was not approved will be checked. 
• This will also help plug gaps such as registering them in the name of pesticides or using them in an unregulatory fashion in the absence of prescription.
• CSE had earlier recommended that antibiotics should not be used as pesticides for crops, but preserved for treatment of bacterial infections in humans. It had shared its recommendations with all stakeholders concerned, including the CIBRC.
• Therefore, In line with CSE’s  recommendations, the RC also requested the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to initiate research on better and safe alternatives, such that these could be available for all recommended crops in a time-bound manner.