China's grape production ranks first in the world, what is the grape pesticide registration status in China?

In recent years, China's grape planting area and production output have continued to grow. Up to end of 2016, China's total grape planting area reached 809,600 hectares which is only next to Spain, ranking second in the world while production output reached 13.745 million tons, ranking first in the world ever since 2010. 

1.Registration of Pesticides for Grape Production in China

As per China Pesticide Registration Watch, to July 1, 2019, there have been 662 pesticide registrations for application to grape production in China, including five herbicides, four insecticides, 565 fungicides and 88 plant growth regulators. So far, pesticides registered for use in grapes are mostly fungicides and plant growth regulators.

1)Registration of Insecticides for Grape Production

According to statistics, there are more than 130 kinds of grape pests in China, including 10 which are very harmful pest and are widely distributed. However, there are only four registered insecticides – sulfoxaflor for control of mirids, matrine for control of aphids, celastrus angulatus for control of green plant bug and thiamethoxam for control of scale insect.

2)Registration of Fungicides for Grape Production

There are about 10 kinds of grape diseases occurring seriously or very serious in specific regions, including grape anthrax, grape white rot, grape downy mildew, grape black pox, grape white powder, grape gray mold, grape brown blotch, grape black rot and grape leaf diseases. According to statistics, 339 single-agent fungicides and 226 mixtures have been registered for use in grapes, of which control of grape downy mildew has the largest number of registrations, numbering 332, followed by registrations for control of white rot, gray mold and white powder.

Statically speaking, registrations for use in grapes are more concentrated on fungicides, which are very homogenized. Among the 565 fungicide products, only 137 active ingredients are involved.

Registered single-agent fungicides involve less than 10 kinds of active ingredients, which account for 80 percent of the registered single-agent fungicides, being quite decentralized. Dimethomorph and azoxystrobin are of the largest number of single-agent fungicide registrations, each with 47 registrations. The rest are: 36 registrations of mancozeb, 21 of thiram, 18 of boscalid, one of cyazofamid, 11 of chlorothalonil and hexaconazole each, nine of difenoconazole, procymidone and pyrimidine nucleosides each (Refer to Table 1).

Table 1   Registration of Single Agent Fungicides for Grape Production

Among the registered mixtures, carbendazim.thiram mixture has the largest number of registrations, at 46, accounting for 20.35% of all mixture registrations. The number of registrations for metalaxyl.mancozeb, difenoconazole.pyraclostrobin, pyraclostrobin.metiram, dimethomorph.cyazofamid and boscalid.pyraclostrobin have all exceeded 10 (Refer to Table 2). Nearly 60% of the mixture products are mixtures between 10 kinds of active ingredients including pyraclostrobin, carbendazim, thiram, difenoconazole, dimethomorph, metalaxyl, metiram, cyazofamid, boscalid and chlorothalonil. Among them, 69 mixtures contain pyraclostrobin, followed by 58 containing thiram and 47 containing carbendazim.

Table 2   Registration of Fungicide Mixtures for Grape Production

3)Registration of Plant Growth Regulators for Grape Production

At present, gibberellic acid has the largest number of registrations with 27, followed by forchlorfenuron and thidiazuron, which encompass respectively 13 and 11 products. There are 59 registrations of the three single agents and the mixtures of the two of the three, accounting for 67.05% of the total registrations of plant growth regulators for use in grapes (Refer to Table 3).

Table 3   Registration of Plant Growth Regulators for Grape Production

2. Analysis of Pesticide Registration for Green-Food Grade Grape Production 

Among the registrations, there are 17 active ingredients being qualified for use in grade AA green-food production as per the requirement of NY/T393-2013. There are 68 product registrations in this regard, including 2 insecticides, 29 fungicides and 37 plant growth regulators. The registered plant growth regulators are mostly based on biochemical originations except the abscisic acid of microbial origin. Among them, there are 27 gibberellic acid registrations. (Refer to Table 4). 

Table 4   Pesticide Registrations Qualified for Use in Grade AA Green-Food Production

Statistics show that the pesticide categories which are qualified for use in grade A green-food production as per NY/T393-2013 include: 28 insecticides, 8 miticides, 1 molluscicide, 40 fungicides, 2 fumigants, 44 herbicides and 7 plant growth regulators. Thiamethoxam is the only insecticide registered as applicable to grape production. Moreover, sulfoxaflor was launched to market at a date later than the release of the industry standard and is therefore not included in the list. Twenty-four single-agent fungicides are being registered for use in grapes. Glufosinate is the only applicable one among herbicides. For plant growth regulators, there are only three products – forchlorfenuron, thidiazuron and naphthylacetic acid.

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