China’ NPC deputy: Chinese pesticide creation capability can surely catch up and surpass internationally advanced level

Chinese pesticide industry started quite late but has been developing rapidly. At present, China has become the world’s largest pesticide production country and largest pesticide consumption country. However, there is still a certain gap between Chinese pesticide creation and that of developed countries. “Although our current pesticide creation capability is not high, we can see the progress that has been made in pesticide creation over recent years. With the steady advancement of China’s high-quality agricultural development and green development, Chinese pesticide creation capability can surely catch up with the world’s advanced level,” said in an interview during the National People’s Congress (NPC), by a NPC deputy, Song Baoan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the President of Guizhou University.

During the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, Chinese pesticide creation capability was greatly improved, especially in respect of prevention and control of major crop diseases and insect pests in China. Song Bao’an says that the rice stem borer, rice leaf roller, rice planthopper, the wheat gibberellic disease and rust, resistant barnyard grass, amur foxtail, are all major diseases and insect pests popular in Chinese agricultural production. In recent years, to meet the demand for these products, China has created more than 50 excellent pesticide varieties, which have played a key role in agricultural production. He gave an example, within Shandong Qingdao Kingagroot, a resistant weed control company, led by Chairman Lian Lei, the young research team of 300 people created four up to five pesticide varieties such as Tripyrasulfone, Fenpyrazone and Cypyrafluone. The sales of these created varieties have reached RMB400 million, which have been applied to more than 20 million mu of crop land with proven effect against resistant weeds, having reached internationally advanced level, being granted 100-plus PCT patents. The products have been exported to European and Asian countries, which are Chinese technologies applied abroad.

“Of course, while achievements are made, we must note there is still a big gap in the originality of molecular target and key pesticides compared to the developed countries. The gaps make us difficult to participate in international market competition and to even meet the needs of domestic agricultural production,” said Song Baoan. Chinese pesticide development is limited to individual modules one on one, not being systematic. In developed countries, prime pesticide companies have built a technical system which encompasses new target discovery, natural substance optimization, high-throughput screening, biorational molecular design, combinatorial chemistry, biomimetic synthesis, clean preparation and risk assessment. In these aspects, China has made progress in the past years, but weakness still exists. 

With the advancement of the high-quality agricultural development as promoted under the “14th Five-Year Plan,” especially the requirement to hold the bottom lines proposed in the No. 1 Document of the Central Government issued this year - the food security bottom line and the repoverty containment bottom line, China will strive to develop green agriculture and lay stress on food security, agricultural product safety, food safety and ecological safety. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in collaboration with other departments, has issued a series of pesticide industry development plans under the framework of the “14th Five-Year Plan.” “With the policy support, the Chinese pesticide industry has developed robustly after years of scientific research and technical accumulation. On this basis, Chinese pesticide creation capability can surely catch up and surpass internationally advanced level,” said Song Baoan with a keen sense of confidence in the Chinese pesticide industry.