AgroPages-Chinese pesticide registration officers suggesting to revoke paraquat registration-Agricultural news

In a recent pesticide registration review meeting, the review committee members had discussions on the issue of paraquat substitution registration. At the meeting the review committee found consensus to regard the toxicity of paraquat to be high toxic. In light of the unclarified safety problem of paraquat, majority of the review committee members suggested to stop paraquat registration approval procedure (including extension of registration) and also to revoke the approved pesticide registration of paraquat in due course.

As paraquat AS is apt to be mistakenly used, it causes high degree of lethality to human security. China revoked the paraquat AS registration and the production permit since the 1st July 2014. Starting from the 1st July 2016, the sales and the use of paraquat AS are prohibited in China. However it is a fact that the paraquat has been widely used in China, which has become an indispensable product for Chinese agriculture, so far there is not yet a desirable substitution.

Li Zhonghua, the Secretary General of China Crop Protection Industry Association said that the prohibition of paraquat at present time will create a gap, which will lead to an absence of the herbicide of this function. The current capacity of paraquat in China is approximately tens of thousands of tons while its annual output has reached 80,000 tons, which is closely linked to the 200,000-ton upstream pyridine capacity. Although export business has survived the regulation at this time, above half of the paraquat sales will be affected.

Shandong Luba Chemical holds the view that paraquat GW and the novel granule formulation have solved the problem of mistaken use to a large extent. The fundamental solution lies on an effective pesticide management such as the restriction on the sale and the standardization of use other than just a complete prohibition. The company hopes that a better substitution will arise.