Chinese Officials Speak Out on Pesticide Residues

Pesticide residue, an issue attracting more and more attention from Chinese citizens, is different from excessive pesticide according to Zhou Puguo, chief of the Crop Production Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture.
   According to Mr. Zhou, the pesticides now in use are relatively safe, after China abandoned 33 kinds of high toxic pesticides (HTP) like methamidophos, reduced the HTP ratio to less than 2% from 30%, and increased the proportion of low toxicity products to at least 72%.
   Monitoring data suggests that consumption of pesticides that are unqualified with regard to residue has dropped to 10%, a long way from the level of 50% ten years ago. But such contamination of food has nearly disappeared. Qualified rates of pesticide residues are staying at 98% or above for rice and fruits and 95% or above for vegetables and tea.
   Plant diseases, insect pests and weeds could destroy as much as 70% of a crop, 40% of which can be avoided by using proper pesticides. In China – a large country with a small ratio of arable land to population – it is necessary to use pesticides to control plant diseases, insect pests and weeds so that a high yield of grain is ensured. In fact, as agricultural practices are modernized, farmers apply more pesticides. Therefore, most developed countries consume around 1.5-2.5 times more pesticides per hectare than developing countries, according to statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2000.
   To guarantee the security of agricultural products, pesticide residues should be limited in a safe range by
* controlling plant diseases and insect pests in other ways to decrease pesticide usage,
* standardizing pesticide application and
* popularizing bio-pesticides.
"Though residue standards are formulated mainly to ensure food safety, more and more countries regard the criteria as a technical barrier in the international trade," Mr. Zhou said. "So the criteria are based not solely on the security risk assessment but also on the needs of industrial development and international trade."
There are two main factors affecting residue criteria:
* For pesticides unused at home, residue standards are generally strictest.
* Different countries set different criteria even for the same crop. To unify the standards, Codex Alimentarius Commission is responsible for establishing international residue criteria. As the presiding country of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues, China tries best to enable its standards to approach international level.