Seed treatment agent industry urgently needs innovation
In recent years, under large-scale agricultural operations and the demand for labor-saving agricultural chemicals, the seed treatment agent product market has developed rapidly. At the recently held Fourth High-Level Symposium on Seed Treatment and Pest Control in Wuhan, experts unanimously agreed that China's seed treatment agent product market has huge development potential, but currently the market is dominated by old seed treatment agent products, with relatively single formulations, a narrow scope of use, and the seed treatment market urgently needs to be advanced and product innovation accelerated.
What is the current situation of the seed treatment agent market? Data from the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture shows several major characteristics - there are currently 370 registered seed treatment agent products, with 43 types of active ingredients, accounting for only 1% of the total number of registered pesticide products, and only 3% of the number of varieties; while there are about 101 types of registered formulations, and the types of active ingredients are few, with a large number of old products. Carbofuran-carboxin, tebuconazole, carbendazim-thiram-carbofuran, imidacloprid, carbendazim-thiram, and carbosulfan have relatively many registered types, and the number of registered products for these 6 formulations accounts for 46%, with a high duplication rate; suspension seed coating agents account for 75%, with relatively single formulations. The registered scope of use is relatively narrow, with products registered for 4 crops - corn, wheat, cotton, and rice - accounting for 86%, and adding soybean and peanut, 2 more crops, the product number accounts for 98% of the total. The active ingredients are single, with carbofuran alone having 183 registered products.
Dr. Zhu Chunyu from the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture introduced that in recent years, the number of product registrations for seed treatment agents has been growing steadily, and the number of registrations for new formulation products such as seed treatment water-dispersible powders and microcapsule suspensions has increased significantly, but compared with European and American countries, the gap is still large, and the seed treatment market urgently needs to be advanced.
"The processing technology level of related formulation products still needs to be improved. Film-forming technology, sustained-release technology, and dosage precision all need improvement to reduce the shedding rate and improve safety; moreover, the current scope of use of seed treatment agent products is relatively narrow, and many crops lack dedicated seed treatment agents, such as vegetables, tobacco, rapeseed, and other high-value economic crops," said Zhu Chunyu.
"The seed treatment agent product system urgently needs innovation." Yang Qiong, Seed Treatment Business Manager at Bayer CropScience, stated that in China's current seed treatment agent market, the market share of insecticidal and fungicidal compound formulations in 2013 was close to 50%, and neonicotinoid products such as thiamethoxam and imidacloprid will be the main products, while carbofuran will still occupy a certain market share for some time. Currently, the seed coating rate in the United States, Japan, Israel, and other countries is greater than 95%. As farmers' desire for labor savings and increased yields becomes stronger, the demand for high-quality seed treatment agents will increase, and the mixing of multiple technical materials with high efficiency, low toxicity, and safety will be the future development trend.
"Carrying out research and application of biological seed coating agents is of great significance for improving the disease and pest resistance of plants at the seedling stage." Qiu Dewen, Deputy Director of the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, pointed out that plant immune inducers provide a new approach and new strategy for seed coating agents. Currently, plant immune inducer application technology can be achieved through seed treatment, using seed soaking, seed dressing, and coating to increase the seed germination rate and ensure strong seedlings.
In response to the main problems existing in current seed coating agents, Yuan Huizhu, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, suggested that the risks of seed treatment agents can be effectively avoided through the use of high-quality pesticide technical materials, reducing the use of organic solvents, avoiding the sensitive period of seed germination, adopting microcapsule formulations to avoid the sensitive period of seed germination through sustained release, and adding plant growth regulators.