Review of 2014 Pesticides: Seizing the Trend, Bursting with Vitality
Editor's Note:
The year 2014, now drawing to a close, has been a year of surging change for the pesticide industry. The rise of e-commerce, the emergence of large-scale growers, the environmental compliance test, cross-industry integration…… these new situations and new changes have created a powerful driving force for the pesticide industry and injected new vitality. In response to opportunities and challenges, pesticide companies have actively explored and sought to win through change, with many noteworthy achievements. At the same time, scientific pesticide use and reduced pesticide use have become the weather vane for industry development. Tightening regulation and intensifying competition are pushing the pesticide industry to bid farewell to extensive development and stride forward along the path of high efficiency, green development and environmental protection.
NO.1
The Rise of E-commerce Triggers a Shockwave
Since the start of this year, “e-commerce” has undoubtedly been one of the hottest topics in the pesticide industry. Although most companies are still watching from the sidelines, quite a few have taken the lead and dipped their toes into e-commerce. For example, Jiangsu Longdeng Chemical built its own Longdeng e-commerce platform, while companies such as Zhongbao Lvnong and Kesheng opened flagship stores on Tmall and Alibaba. In addition, Nongyiwang, jointly established by the China Pesticide Development and Application Association together with 5 companies, has attracted particular attention. While creating the “First China Pesticide E-commerce Singles' Day” at the National Plant Protection Dual Exchange Conference, it was also busy recruiting county-level workstations, triggering a considerable shockwave in the industry. To do e-commerce or not? How should it be done? These have become questions that the helmsmen of pesticide companies have no choice but to ponder.
At present, views within the industry on the development of e-commerce differ. Supporters believe that with the spread of the mobile internet, there are more and more large-scale growers and professional cooperatives, creating conditions for the development of pesticide e-commerce. Farmers' demand for affordable, good pesticides, and companies' demand to reduce channel tiers and precisely connect with users, will both drive the rapid development of e-commerce. Opponents believe that pesticides, as special commodities for emergency disaster relief, face many difficulties in developing e-commerce, including logistics, technical services and the disruption of traditional channels, and that real implementation will still take time. But there is no doubt that pesticide e-commerce will be the general trend of future development.
NO.2
Demonstration Zones Achieve Notable Results in Reducing Volume and Controlling Harm
This year, the Ministry of Agriculture clearly proposed the goal of achieving zero growth in pesticides. How to bring pesticide use down? The integrated promotion of unified prevention and control together with green prevention and control has explored an effective path.
This year, the Ministry of Agriculture organized pilot projects in 31 provinces and regions across the country for the integrated promotion of unified prevention and control together with green prevention and control for the diseases and pests of 10 crops including rice, wheat, corn, vegetables and fruit, with notable results in reducing pesticide volume and controlling harm. Pilot projects in various places show that in the process of unified prevention and control, applying integrated green prevention and control technology models generally reduces pesticide applications by 1~2 times per season for field crops and by 3~4 times per season for horticultural crops, with chemical pesticide use reduced by 20%~30%. The farmland ecological environment has improved markedly, and the populations of natural enemies have risen noticeably. Demonstration zones increased yield by more than 8% per mu, saving costs and increasing efficiency by 150~200 yuan. This year, 538 demonstration zones for the integrated promotion of specialized unified prevention and control together with green prevention and control were actually established across the country, 320 more than the planned 218, with a demonstration area of 9.2 million mu and a radiation-driven area of 71.6 million mu. Various places, adapting to local conditions, integrated a set of comprehensive pest and disease management models suitable for different crops that are economical, practical, simple, easy to apply and highly operable, laying the foundation for large-scale promotion and application.
NO.3
Heavy Handed Measures in Pesticide Supervision and Management
In 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture carried out pesticide supervision and management year activities in depth nationwide, vigorously promoting designated operation of highly toxic pesticides, carrying out pilot projects in 5 provinces including Hebei, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, designating a number of demonstration counties and designated stores, implementing counter sales, real-name purchase and electronic records for highly toxic pesticides, establishing a traceability system for highly toxic pesticides, gradually realizing full-process supervision from production and circulation to use, and exploring the establishment of a long-term mechanism for highly toxic pesticide supervision.
At the same time, market supervision spot checks were strengthened, with key spot checks conducted deep into production enterprises, and illegal acts such as the illegal addition of hidden pesticide ingredients and the production and operation of fake and inferior pesticides investigated and dealt with according to law. In the second half of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture revoked the pesticide registration certificates of 11 pesticide products from 9 pesticide production enterprises according to law, including the 20% cypermethrin · dimethoate emulsifiable concentrate produced by Yangzhou Suling Pesticide Chemical Co., Ltd., the 10% imidacloprid wettable powder produced by Hunan Dafang Agrochemical Co., Ltd., and the 0.3% matrine aqueous solution produced by Shandong Baina Biotechnology Co., Ltd., unsheathing the sword against the production of fake and inferior pesticides.
NO.4
Major Efforts in Scientific Pesticide Use Training
The scientific and safe use of pesticides is the most important link in safeguarding “safety on the tip of the tongue&rdquo, so the publicity and training of scientific and safe pesticide use technology is particularly important. This year, the National Agricultural Technology Center, in cooperation with Syngenta and the Plant Protection (China) Association, held more than 600 training sessions on safe and scientific pesticide use in 15 provinces including Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong and Sichuan, training nearly 30,000 farmers, distributing more than 30,000 copies of the "Safe and Scientific Pesticide Use Wall Chart" and the "Safe and Scientific Pesticide Use Training Manual", and more than 20,000 pieces of protective clothing and protective masks for safe pesticide application. Through the training, farmers' technical level of safe pesticide use was effectively raised.
In addition, the China Pesticide Industry Association, together with 37 enterprises including Sinochem Agrochemical Co., Ltd. and Syngenta (China) Investment Co., Ltd., jointly initiated the establishment of the Safe and Scientific Pesticide Use Committee in April this year, actively shouldering social responsibility, carrying out multiple training sessions on scientific and safe pesticide use, and going deep into villages to guide farmers in the safe and scientific use of pesticides.