China to strengthen management for long residual herbicides

Recently the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA) send a notification to relevant enterprises requesting for assistance in an investigation into the use of 3 herbicides -- metsulfuron-methyl, chlorsulfuron and ethametsulfuron. Based on the investigation, ICAMA will hold an expert workshop to propose modifications for the registration of the 3 herbicides.

At the 10th plenary of the 8th National Pesticide Registration Evaluation Conference in 2012, experts suggested that China should stop the use of herbicides such as metsulfuron-methyl, chlorsulfuron, ethametsulfuron and chlorimuron-ethyl. These herbicides have long residues and may cause phytotoxicity to afterreap crops. Dependent on the farming method, some countries have a longer fallow period, which causes less phytotoxicity, and therefore there is a market demand.

The conference suggested that registration of such herbicides needs to be regulated in following manners:
- To stop the use of metsulfuron-methyl, chlorsulfuron and ethametsulfuron formulation products in China.
- To approve the 3 products to be registered for application in overseas market.
- To change the products that have been registered and still stay within the valid period into a status of “export for overseas application” within a stated deadline.
- To approve chlorimuron-ethyl to be registered as “a formulation product exported for overseas application”.