Summary of Chinese pesticide formulation registrations

In the last a couple of years, with the progressing of China’s technical development, continued improvement to production process and pesticide formulating technique, the research and development of Chinese pesticide formulations are turning to high efficient, high safety, pollution-free and easy-to-use objectives towards development of water-based and granulated formulations with low-toxic, multi-functional and diversified properties.

If you want to get more information about the latest development of pesticide formulation technology in China from the aspects of technology, market, registration, policies, regulations, etc., please join the 2019 Ag Formulation & Application Technology Congress（FAT) to be held in November 14-15 in Hangzhou, China this year.


1. Regulatory Policies

The new Regulation on Pesticide Administration (2017 Revision) stipulates that “the setting of active ingredient contents and the type of formulations shall follow the principle of quality upgrading, protection of environment and promotion of sustainable agricultural development.” The follow-up Measures for the Administration of the Pesticide Registration have included the provisions governing the type and the content level of formulations, saying that “the formulation should be done in a scientific, rational and easy-to-use manner. A single formulation product with single active ingredient-based formulation shall not have more than three content levels. A mixture formulation product shall not contain more than two active ingredients,  and herbicide, seed treatment agent and exohormone shall not contain more than three active ingredients. A mixture formulation product with same active ingredient and formulation shall not contain more than three same ingredients and formulations, and shall not have three content levels. The classification of low active ingredient-containing pesticide, which is used without dilution and dispersion, shall be specified separately by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.” These provisions have effectively solved the serious problems of homogenized pesticide registrations and oversupply of some pesticides.

The amended Data Requirements on Pesticide Registration has specified requirement on production of new formulations, requesting provision of a justification or description of how the formulation is determined with respect to the formulations not specified in the national standard. Formulation repacking and temporary registration are revoked; the term of “similar formulation” is introduced versus the previous term of “same formulation”; incentives are increased for biopesticide registration in the course of registration of formulations; regulation of pesticide formulation-use adjuvant is enhanced, where the Measures for the Administration of the Pesticide Registration stipulates that “the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, dependent on the toxicity and hazardless of adjuvant, will regulate production of adjuvants and will in due course publish prohibition or restriction of the use of adjuvant or the amount of use of adjuvant. In case that a designated adjuvant is required for use, test data shall be submitted along with registration application.”

2. Registration Status

2.1 Basic Information

Up until the end of 2018, there are in total 39,186 registrations, 4,401 technical materials and 232 technical concentrates. Among the registered formulations, the type of formulations with larger volume of registrations include: 9,557 ECs, 6,891 WPs, 4,372 SCs, 2,646 ASs,1,943 WDGs, 1,187 EWs, 1,111 MEs, 920 ODs and 699 granules.

The registrations of total amount of novel formulations and proportion of novel formulations are both increasing year by year, of which the registrations of proportion of SCs, ASs, WDGs, EWs, MEs and ODs are increasing on a yearly basis. SCs has become the highest-increase formulation for many years, whilst conventional formulations such as EC and WP are decreasing significantly.

2.2 Analysis of Novel Formulations

By analyzing the novel formulation registrations since 2014-2017, it is noted that the stress of development has been laid on the formulations which could better utilize the physicochemical property of chemical pesticides. The herbicide varieties mainly include amicarbazone, propyrisulfuron, fluometuron, halauxifen-methyl, flufenacet, sulfosulfuron, metazosulfuron and glufosinate-P-ammonium which are developed into WDG, SC, SL, EC and EW; the fungicide varieties mainly include sedaxane, isopyrazam, metrafenone, mycophenolic ketone, fluopimomide and sitosterenol which are developed into WDG, FS, SC and EW; the insecticide varieties mainly include flosulfoxamate, chlorine chlorfenapyr, chromafenozide, cycloxaprid and flupyradifurone which are developed into SC, WP, ME, SL and SC.

As regards to microbial pesticides, its water content and organic solvent may have an impact on the microbial activity and the shelf life of products, therefore the products are usually processed into solid formulations such as WP, WDG, MG and EP.

3. Novel Formulation Development

At present, the research and development of Chinese pesticide formulations are turning to high efficient, high safety, pollution-free and easy-to-use objectives towards development of water-based and granulated formulations with low-toxic, multi-functional and diversified properties. The purpose is to clear away the defects existing on conventional formulations, further increase pesticide effect, reduce toxicity, decrease repetitive harm, mitigate pollution, avoid hurt to natural enemy, prolong occurrence of resistance and extend the life time of pesticides. Up to present, environment-friendly formulations such as SCs, WDGs and EWs make up the main pesticide formulation registrations.