China forecasting 2024 pesticide market, predicting major food crop pests

A few days ago, China Agrotechnology Extension & Service Center predicted the occurrence of pests, diseases and weeds on wheat, rice and corn, as well as other food crops in China, together with a pesticide market forecast for 2024. The total demand for pesticides in 2024 is expected to remain stable with ongoing structural changes, while the demand for pesticides from the cropping industry in 2024 will be mostly the same as 2023. 

Stability of demand is reflected in three aspects:

1)Pesticide application is still China’s main means of ″taking food from pests,″ as required by the national food security strategy and the supply requirements for prime farm products.

2)In China, major pests, diseases and weeds have been frequently recurring, for which the Chinese central government encourages and supports preventive and emergency pesticide applications, such as ″one spray with three preventions″ and ″one spray with multiple promotions.″

3)Pesticide resistance in crops has been increasing, for which the dosage of pesticide applications has reached the upper limits of product registrations. 

Structural changes are reflected in three aspects:

1)The volume of biopesticide use will continue to rise. With the stricter requirements on quality and safety of agricultural products, the in-depth promotion of green control and the rise in green control-covered area, there will be strong demand for biopesticides and an increase in volume of use of biopesticides. 

2)The volume of insecticide applications in the country will decrease, which is a result of the ″early control″ initiative; the volume of fungicide applications will increase due to the country’s ″one spray with three preventions″ and ″one spray with multiple promotions″ measures; the volume of herbicide applications will continue to rise due to the accelerated implementation of the country’s land use policy and the promotion of simplification of the cropping system; and the demand for plant growth regulators will significantly increase in the coming years with the ongoing efforts to increase per-unit yield.

3)The economic crop-oriented pesticide applications will decrease with the implementation of quality and safety standards for agricultural products and requirements for the reduced use of chemical pesticides, as well as the people’s keenness to have better living standards, while pesticide use in vegetables and fruit trees will move towards efficiency, low residue and low dosage. Therefore, these types of pesticide varieties will be in great demand in the future.

Food crop pest predictions for 2024

In 2024, it is predicted that major pests and diseases may occur seriously on wheat, rice, corn and potato, which could affect land of 2.04 billion mu/times (1 mu = 1/15 ha).

Recommendations for 2024 for prevention and control of resistant pests and diseases