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World’s first super-efficient sorghum field herbicide Quinotrione successfully developed

The sorghum planting area in China spans over 6.66 million hectares, with sorghum mostly used for brewing. As the tannin content of Chinese sorghum is higher than that of imported sorghum, China’s top eight liquor brands, including the famous Moutai, all use Chinese sorghum for brewing. However, superweeds such as the wild broomcorn millet can have a serious impact on the growth of sorghum. Therefore, weed control has remained a key constraint to the cultivation of sorghum.

This constraint was cleared during the field trial of Quinotrione, jointly developed by the Central China Normal University and Cynda Chemical. From August 12 to 14, a field observation was conducted in Jarud Banner, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, to view and evaluate the outcome of a national key research program, High-Efficient Low-Risk Micromolecule Pesticide & Formulation Research. An expert group headed by Song Bao’an, the research program's lead expert and president of Guizhou University, along with some 80 industry representatives, attended the observation. The observation also saw the participation of officials of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs relevant to the research program.

All the experts agreed that Quinotrione is the world’s first superefficient herbicide, which can be applied to sorghum safely and efficiently. Quinotrione not only overcomes the issue of phytotoxicity which exists with other herbicides but also clears problems caused by superweeds such as the wild broomcorn millet which cannot be controlled by other herbicides. Quinotrione will now serve as a technical safeguard for the sorghum industry, much to the benefit of liquor brewing companies.

Quinotrione's pesticide registration is being undertaken by Cynda Chemical and it will be industrialized by Cynda Chemical with its own proprietary right. It is an HPPD-targeted novel herbicide, which for the first time achieves the application of an HPPD inhibitor to the sorghum field for the control of monocotyledon weeds and dicotyledon weeds, thus solving the technical barrier in controlling the wild broomcorn millet and speedwell.

From 2018 until now, the program research team conducted a series of field trials of the mixed use of Quinotrione and atrazine for weed control in the sorghum fields of Qiqihar in Heilongjiang, Da’an in Jilin, Hulun Buir and Tongliao in Inner Mongolia, Changzhi in Shanxi, Hanhua in Shandong, and Huairen in Guizhou. The results of the trials turned out to be very satisfactory, yet safe to sorghum.

Song Bao’an said that the successful development of Quinotrione is a great achievement as a result of the cooperation between Central China Normal University and Cynda Chemical. He hoped that the two sides would strengthen collaboration and innovation, as well as push forward the registration process of Quinotrione and prepare for its industrialization. He said that efforts were needed to speed up the formulation of the field application procedure for the product. This research program has generated a new technical achievement which will contribute to improving agricultural production.