Green, Environment-friendly Pesticides Enter the Mainstream Market   

There are three reasons for China's constantly increasing consumption of green, environmentally friendly pesticides. The first factor is that the government has strengthened its supervision. For those pesticides that have high toxicity and high residue and easily cause high residue risk in agricultural products, registration is banned and usage is restricted, which is very directly causing adjustments in the product mix of pesticides. The second factor is that pesticides that have been declining in effectiveness, such as imidacloprid, quinclorac and bensulfuron-methyl, are being replaced. Due to many years of use, their killing effect on weeds is declining and they are being replaced by some new herbicides. The third factor is that there are special needs in the production of green foods. Food producers care more for the safety of pesticides. The use of pesticides with high toxicity and high residue, in particular, is restricted to avoid impacts from excessive pesticide residue on the economic benefits of planting.
   The large-scale use of pesticides in China for many years has caused pollution of different extents to the environment, mankind and animals. Requirements on pesticides - insecticides in particular - for high effectiveness, low toxicity, low residue and no pollution have been getting higher and higher in recent years.
   The prohibition of the use of five highly toxic pesticides, including methamidophos, began January 1st, 2007 and the use of fipronil has been restricted since October 1st, 2009. Now, many different products have quickly become mainstream in the market after tests and demonstrations: insecticides with high effectiveness, low toxicity and low residue such as chlorfluazuron and profenofos; compounds combining special effects and quick effect such as buprofezin and dimethacarb; and single-component concentrates such as pymetrozine, profenofos, hexaflumuron, emamectin benzoate and chlorpyrifos. Over the past three years, China's vegetable planting area has expanded by more than 450 000 hectares. The use of hazard-free pesticides has been upgraded remarkably. Demand for fungicides with high effect, low toxicity and low residue is estimated to be 20% higher than three years ago. Fungicides with increased demand include copper sulfate basic, copper oxychloride and copper hydroxide in inorganic fungicides, mancozeb, thiophanate-methyl, carbendazim and chlorothalonil in synthetic fungicides and jinggangmycin, mycoin and kasungamycin in biological formulations. In herbicides, the sales volume of alachlor, butachlor, trifluralin and thiobencarb has dropped. Herbicides with a drastic sales increase are mostly products that have only recently become attractive in China such as glyphosate, acetochlor, metolachlor, fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, nicosulfuron and 2,4-D. Among the imported pesticides, difenoconazole/propiconazole blend fungicide produced by Syngenta AG of Switzerland and three insecticides - thiamethoxam, pymetrozine and chlorantraniliprole/thiamethoxam blend - can effectively control the incidence of diseases and pests in paddy fields and reduce the frequency of pesticide application. The per-area consumption of such pesticides is remarkably reduced, and they are clearly effective in maintaining crop output. Their market sales volume has therefore increased by more than 20%. Chlorpyrifos and mancozeb, produced by Dow AgroSciences of the United States, chlorantraniliprole, produced by DuPont of the United States, and chlorfenapyr, produced by BASF of Germany, have remarkable effectiveness on pests and mites and have therefore won high praise from farmers in China.
    Developing green, environmentally friendly pesticides, nurturing China's own brands and enhancing core competitiveness have become goals for all Chinese pesticide producers today. Yang Shouhai, Chairman of the Board of the Red Sun Group Corporation has said that to enhance international competitive advantage and gain product market share in the insecticide sector the company has launched a green, environmentally friendly pesticide project to create 3 000 t/a of chlorfluazuron capacity and 3 000 t/a of pymetrozine capacity with RMB450 million raised by the company itself. It is expected that the market demand for pyridine heterocyclic pesticides in China will exceed 100 000 tons in 2012.
   Jiangsu Kesheng Group Co Ltd is a large private enterprise that is in a growth period today. The company aims at international frontier technologies in pesticides R&D and highlights the innovation and production of nicotinic varieties. It has undertaken an insecticide piperazine commercialization project in cooperation with East China University of Science and Technology.
   Sichuan Lier Chemical Co Ltd is mainly engaged in herbicide production, including clopyralid, picloram and fluroxypyr, which are all members of the pyridine family of herbicides. Its worldwide sales volume of clopyralid and picloram is second only to their inventor, Dow AgroSciences. The proportion of product exported has been kept above 80% in the past three years. In the global financial crisis and the slack pesticide market in 2009, the company still managed to reap a net profit of RMB101 million, an increase of 16.82% over the previous year.
   China has paid much attention to the protection of the environment and to food security in recent years and also has taken various measures to protect farmers' interests, increase farmers' income and enhance farmers' confidence in investing more money and effort in production. The consumption of environment-friendly green pesticides in agricultural production is therefore constantly increasing in China.
   Jiangsu province is vigorously disseminating green prevention and control technologies. The use of biological pesticides with super high effectiveness, low toxicity and low residue in fields is encouraged so as to reduce the consumption of chemical pesticides. To boost the slack sales of biological pesticides, Wuxi of Jiangsu province offers loans with a 50% discount for purchasing biological pesticides, hoping to vigorously disseminate biological pesticides such as emamectin benzoate, abanectin and validamycin. Moreover, quite a few provincial and municipal governments are guiding farmers to use green, environmentally friendly pesticides for crops, with satisfactory results.