GoodAgro: A Pesticide Formulation Expert Committed to Making a Change to Agriculture

In 2016, many Chinese agrochemical businesses suffered downturns and began adjusting their business strategies in hopes of finding new sources of growth. At that moment, there was a high-tech formulation processing enterprise, which quietly initiated a revolution in the Chinese paddy rice market. 
 

Nanjing GoodAgro Co., Ltd. was founded in 1995, and in 2001 began its agrochemical formulation product processing for exports. Over the last 15-years of technical preparations, and after following through on high-standard purchasing orders from international buyers, the company has today grown into an internationally high-quality pesticide formulation manufacturer. In 2016, GoodAgro successfully switched from an OEM manufacturer to an independent brand owner for supplying domestic and international markets with its paddy rice herbicide and novel floating macrogranule, developed after long years of work. The released product provides growers with a revolutionary herbicidal model, which is highly regarded by those in the industry. This formulation technology-based product, in conjunction with the ongoing land reform throughout China, will bring about a profound change to millions of farmers’ lifestyles. GoodAgro, which is already well-known in the international arena, is going to step into the center of this market with an independent brand image.
 

Public praise and achievement originating from the 16-year technical accumulation 
 

Since 2001, GoodAgro has not only positioned itself to be a pesticide formulation developer and manufacturer for export purposes, but has also worked hard to accumulate 16 types of formulation products and 600 formulation processing techniques by its continuous creation and innovation of formulations, processes, products and craftsmanship. During its non-stop high-end formulation development course, GoodAgro has established itself as China’s pesticide formulation leader, which has provided a solid foundation for promotion of its brand image in domestic and international markets. 
 

In the export business for 15-years, GoodAgro has adopted a variety of competitive tactics to cope with the homogeneous competition among the industry. The company targets high-level formulations which are difficult to process, and has made effort in all aspects, such as formulation research, technical preparation, processing equipment, technical specifications and formulation qualities. The company adheres to its business philosophy “to have what others do not have, to upgrade what others have, to quit from what all others are doing”. At present, GoodAgro provides the world’s most advanced formulations and has become China’s pesticide formulation leader.
 

WDG granulation technology reaching internationally advanced level 
 

 

For WDG formulation, GoodAgro gave up China’s mainstream fluidized-bed granulation in 2010 and built China’s first continuous and clean rotary granulation production line, which became a model in the industry. In 2013, the company made a large investment in introducing an international automatic spraying and drying flow granulation process, which is a pioneer in the change of process from dry-type granulation to wet-type granulation. This process is a totally closed, automatic, continuous and clean granulation system, where granule size is controllable and granule strength is excellent. The pyraclostrobin so processed has a high product fineness, which can reach a nanoscale degree. The product’s suspension percentage reaches as high as 95%, exceeding the product standard of multinationals. This raises liquid granulation in the pesticide industry to an advanced international level.
  

The wet-type granulation’s superiority over dry-type is the following: dry-type granulation is from wettable powder, its processing method causes difficulties in controlling dust, other than in clean production. Wet-type granulation, however, can achieve automatic and clean production. The wettable powder size of dry-type granulation is usually 44 microns, while that used in wet grinding can reach 1-5 microns, which contains better dispersability, disintegration and suspension percentages. In the course of renovation of the WDG formulation, GoodAgro has formed its distinctive competitive edge. In 2017, GoodAgro will still provide WDG formulations on an OEM basis using its own brands - pyraclostrobin + polyram 62.5% WDG, thiamethoxam 25% WDG, dinotefuran 25% SG. Further, glufosinate-ammonium 88% SG will become available in the domestic market.
 

Floating macrogranule driving a revolutionary rice weed control 
 

After offering customized processing services in the international market for 16-years, GoodAgro has begun to target the domestic market. There are not enough innovative businesses in China’s pesticide formulation market, particularly in offering competitive pricing in recent years, which continues to increase. Most manufacturers concentrated on marketing promotions, focusing on finding crop solutions. Under such circumstances, while being backed up by its innovative and differentiated strategies and technical preparations, GoodAgro has created an innovative formulation which drives a revolutionary herbicide application for China’s paddy rice, being China’s first floating macrogranule. This is Gengshangpao. 
 

Paddy rice is one of the most widely planted crops in China, with a total planting area of 450 million mu. However, paddy rice planting is the most labor-intensive work in all farming. Traditional spraying in the field and the soil-fertilizer mixed spraying-based weeding methods take much time and labor. Multiple and repeated pesticide applications have resulted in higher weeding costs, while efficacy and safety are not secured, being also unsafe for application operators. At present, China is experiencing a land transfer campaign, as large numbers of farmers are moving to cities and small towns, which could result in a serious shortage of rural labor in the future. Therefore, adopting labor-saving and simple methods to perform farm work has become a major consideration when farmers choose a method of crop protection application. Gengshangpao caters to the needs of the new agricultural era, and it has the ability to assist rural labor, through the use of a new weeding method with a floating macrogranule. 
 

The Gengshangpao floating macrogranule was developed based upon 2 active ingredients - pretilachlor and pyrazosulfuron-ethyl, which are both safe and have a price advantage due to use use of technical materials. When using the product, farmers just toss the water-soluble bag containing granules onto water surfaces along field ridges, as the macrogranule immediately disintegrates in a radial pattern and disperses evenly on water surfaces, thus giving full play to the pesticide’s efficacy. Gengshangpao has reduced the procedure of “twice-closing and once spraying” to “a single closed spraying”, which is not only time-saving and labor-saving, but also reduces the number of applications. This has reformed the traditional rice field weeding method. 
 

So far, Gengshangpao has been successfully and widely applied in China’s main rice production regions, such as in Heilongjiang and Jiangsu provinces. According to an estimate, the use of Gengshangpao enables a reduction in labor costs of Yuan 600, as well as pesticide costs of Yuan 300 per hectare, which means that a 30-hectare rice farm owner in Heilongjiang province can save some Yuan 25,000 on a quarterly basis. There are over 60 million Mu of rice fields, most of which grow machine-transplanted seedlings. The change due to “twice-closing and once spraying” into “a single closed spraying” will bring about considerable cost-saving benefits. 
 

As a follow up to Gengshangpao, GoodAgro begins another innovation which seeks to control the direct sowing of rice fields, paddy rice malignant weed and resistant weed, having developed a floating macrogranule using benzobicylon and pyraclonil as main ingredients. As regards the control of rice sheath blight disease and rice blast, GoodAgro has made a great advancement in developing a floating macrogranule using thifluzamide, fenoxanil and azoxystrobin as main ingredients, which can kill bacteria parasites on water surfaces and systemically prevent the formation of bacteria in rice. This is a creative method for controlling rice sheath blight disease and rice blast, with the focus on “prevention, rather than control”, which calls for changing traditional spraying methods in the field. This application further updates the time-savings, labor-savings and reduction in the use of pesticides. For domestic market explorations in the years ahead, GoodAgro will focus on the idea of “throwing” and continuing its efforts to develop revolutionary products for the control of paddy rice insects, disease and weeds, which supports requests for changing agricultural production models, and also supports the policy of reducing the use of pesticides. 
 

Moving towards the peak of global pesticide formulations with thin-shell quick-release microcapsule suspension technology 
 

 

GoodAgro is the world’s third ranking manufacturer, next to BASF and Syngenta, and has successfully developed the second-generation microcapsule suspension (quick release), being China’s sole company offering such technology. The first-generation microcapsule suspension uses organic solvents as technical materials, which become capsule-core, this with low active ingredients, and has a thick shell, normally at 5-50 μm, and a capsule wall material of 5-10%. Because of its slow release and lack of speed of release, it must be used only in a closed environment, which is very restrictive for use in large fields. The 450g/l pendimethalin CS, developed by GoodAgro, has less than 1% capsule wall material, with a micro-capsule size being 5 - 8 μm in average, providing a low-melting point for technical material. No organic solvent is used, and this kind of formulation is environment-friendly, and the suspension system can endure dozens of freeze thawing tests (-18-20). The product is not only released quickly, its field efficacy is comparable to EC product but, with the slow release effect of a microcapsule, offers a long-lasting function for 45-60 days. This feature enables capsule suspension to be widely applied in crop fields.
  

In 2016, GoodAgro built two 2,000-ton microcapsule suspension production lines, while meeting internationally advanced levels. Following its 450g/l pendimethalin CS, GoodAgro targeted the more difficult 480g/l trifluralin CS. The melting point for trifluralin is only 450C, which has a high vapor pressure and high volatility, being more difficult for processing than high-content pendimethalin CS. So far, there has been no report of commercialized applications in the world. GoodAgro is the company that will make the first move towards the peak of world’s pesticide formulation production via its creation of its micro-capsule technology. Furthermore, its Dursban 36% CS and the 250g/l lambda-cyhalothrin CS had earlier entered international markets. 
 

Seed-coating agent landmark established to international standard 
 

China’s 13th Five-Year Plan requested reductions in pesticide use, which is one of the measures taken to transform agricultural production. Seed-coating can effectively prevent and control insect pests and disease in crop seedling, thus save time, labor, reduce pesticide use and increase yields. Seed coating is, therefore, becoming an important product for registration, which is now being put on a fast track for development. 
 

GoodAgro has a 15-year history of industrialized FS production, specializing in FS processing for export on an OEM basis, having produced accumulated quantities of 5,000 tons. Since 2012, GoodAgro has become China’s pesticide formulation industry leader, having utilized its technical superiority to register 7 FS products, which are of the same, or near, the FS quality of multinationals. There is, indeed, a gap between Chinese FS products and those of multinationals, in terms of quality and varieties, particularly a large gap between Chinese enterprises and Syngenta or Bayer CropScience. GoodAgro is determined to move into this sector, this being a strategic goal for the transformation of the company. 
 

Over the last 3 years, GoodAgro has made efforts in quality improvement in 4 areas, according to international standards: 1) Granule size is controlled to high standards. Seed coating is a high-risk formulation, crop leaf surfaces are hundreds, and up to thousands of times larger than seed coating, as seed coating bears a high concentration of pesticides, FS granule size has a serious impact on the safety of seeds. GoodAgro uses imported advanced third-generation grinding and full cold chain processing techniques, which could control FS size at D90＜2μm, D50＜1μm, having reached the quality standards of multinationals; 2) Imported high molecular auxiliary agents and film-forming agents are used to enhance the rheological property of FS grinding, storage and coating. Good rheological property facilitates lower viscosity, even if for high demand products, such as imidacloprid 600g/LFS and thiamethoxam 48% FS. The appearance looks thin, with easy dumping, better levelling and lower film fall off; 3) Color paste of international standard is used to achieve a finished look of a seed coating agent; 4 ) Biostimulants are selected worldwide, which not only enhances the rooting and growth of coating agents, but also helps to resist damage from the cold. 
 

At present, GoodAgro’s series of seed coating agents include 600g/l imidacloprid FS, thiamethoxam 48% FS, 200g/l carboxin+200g/l thiram FS, fludioxonil 2.5% FS, 30g/ l difenoconazole FS, 60g/l tebuconazole FS and 62.5g/l metalaxyl-M + fludioxonil FS, have each been released to the Chinese domestic market. 
 

Future: entry to international markets with innovative formulations and high-end products 
 

Based on successful practices in the Chinese paddy rice market, GoodAgro is planning a promotion of its Gengshangpao macrogranule and the 450g/l pendimethalin CS to rice growing countries in Southeast Asia, such as the world famous rice production and exporting country Thailand, where rice planting areas account for 50% of the country’s total cultivated land, reaching 9.5 million hectares. Thailand has 2 rice growing seasons – the raining season and dry season. 45% of the planted rice in the raining season is transplanted rice, which has a strong potential for GoodAgro’s Gengshangpao. GoodAgro is looking forward to cooperating with local partners in the introduction of Gengshangpao and the 450g/l pendimethalin CS into Thailand, and will then gradually expand into the Southeast Asian market. Concerning dry season crops, pendimethalin is the largest soil closed herbicide variety in the world, which is registered for wide applications to some 90 kinds of crops covering cereals, economic crops and vegetables. At present, GoodAgro has registered the 450g/l pendimethalin CS for use in cotton, soybean, corn, dry direct sowing rice and potato. The product has been exported to Africa and South America. The 480g/l trifluralin CS is being promoted to Australia, which is the world’s largest market in the world. 
 

Furthermore, GoodAgro is currently locating excellent biostimulants from throughout the world to expand the product mix of GoodAgro, to assure that GoodAgro will be able to provide overall protective solutions to crop growth, via crop pest control and the stimulation of the crop’s own nutrition. Based on the biostimulant, GoodAgro is prepared to develop seed coasting agents using biostimulants as additives to facilitate the growth and development of crops, including heading and fruit bearing. 
 

GoodAgro is looking forward to exchanges and cooperation with global stimulant manufacturers to jointly create superior product to benefit growers throughout the world.