To strictly control pesticide production, endeavor to develop biopesticides:China’s Pesticide Industry Development Program under the National 14th Five-Year Plan published

On January 29, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Food and Strategic Reserve Administration, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration jointly issued the Pesticide Industry Development Program under the National 14th Five-Year Plan. 

It provides a projection of the production and distribution of pesticides, production process optimization, product upgrading and biopesticide research and development. 

Here are some excerpts of the program:  

Objective of Development: To promote the pesticide industry merger, restructuring, transformation and upgrading to foster larger, stronger and more competitive pesticide manufacturers. By 2025, an effort will be made to cultivate 10 enterprises with business volume of above Yuan5 billion, 50 enterprises with business volume of above Yuan1 billion and 100 enterprises with business volume of above Yuan500 million, whilst the business volume of pesticide manufacturers present in the industrial park will increase by 10%. The coverage rate of the three major food crops by unified prevention and control initiative will reach 45%. Meanwhile, actions on the reduced use of chemical pesticides will continue.

Optimization of production distribution: It guides the relocation of pesticide manufacturers in compliant industrial parks where the industry orientation and environmental impact assessment fulfill the requirement of law. It gives a play to industrial parks' location and industry chain advantages to optimize the industry structure while enforcing the shutdown of high-risk and high-polluting production capacity and restricting excessive production capacity. 

In the eastern coastal regions, policies will stabilize pesticide production in industrial parks and moderately expand the industry volume in the advantageous parks, focusing on the production of created chemical pesticides and phase out of outdated production capacity. In the central and western regions, evaluation of pesticide project entering industrial parks will be strictly conducted for issuance of the production license. Priority will be accorded to biopesticide development and chemical pesticide formulation, whilst pesticide technical shall be moderately developed. In the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Yellow River Basin, environmentally sensitive and vital rivers and lakes, newbuild of pesticide production projects will be strictly controlled.

The policies will support development of high-efficiency and low-risk chemical pesticides to meet the requirement of major pest control and pesticide-use reduction. It will promote full development of biopesticides; phase out outdated pesticide varieties and formulations that have resistance, poor efficacy and high-risk; control high-toxic, high-risk pesticides and additives with long-time environmental presence and bioaccumulation.

Promotion of green and clean production: In accordance with the principles of “ecology first and low-carbon development,” enterprises will be encouraged to enhance technological innovation and process upgrading’ eliminate outdated production technologies and equipment to promote clean, low-carbon and cyclic development. It will promote micro-channel reaction, high-efficient catalysis and reactive distillation to optimize design and production processes. In addition, it will renew equipment to promote production automation, continuous running, smart processing, reduction of pollutants, greenhouse gas and energy consumption.

According to the needs of prevention and control of major diseases, pest and weeds, the focus of development will be discovering molecular targets, molecular design and clean production. The focus will also be on strengthening innovation of low-risk chemical pesticides such as novel pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. There will be full utilization of synthetic biological technology to promote the creation of pesticides and upgrading traditional pesticides. In addition, there will be strengthening of research and development of microbial pesticides and botanical pesticides, with encouragement to innovative application of nanotechnology in pesticide formulation.