3·15 Pesticide Anti-Counterfeiting: Eight Tricks to Teach You How to Tell Real Pesticides from Fake Ones
Every year on 3.15, a large number of counterfeit and substandard pesticides are uncovered. Fake pesticides cause enormous economic losses to farmers. I hope the agricultural input regulatory authorities will step up supervision and do real things for farmers. Most importantly, farmers themselves need to develop a sharp eye and buy genuine pesticides that live up to their name. You can identify real pesticides from fake ones through the following aspects, and I hope this helps you!
1. Identifying Real from Fake by Product Packaging
On the inner packaging of a pesticide formulation, a label must be firmly affixed, or the information must be printed or marked directly on the packaging. The label content includes the product's generic name, company name, active ingredient, formulation type, specifications, pesticide registration certificate number, product standard code, production approval number, net weight or net volume, scope of application, method of use, application contraindications, poisoning symptoms and first aid, phytotoxicity, pre-harvest interval, storage requirements, etc. At the very bottom there should also be a line indicating the pesticide category: herbicide - green; insecticide - red; fungicide - black; rodenticide - blue; plant growth regulator - dark yellow.
2. The Three Certificatesfor Identifying Real from Fake
Domestic pesticides must have the pesticide registration certificate number, product standard certificate number, and production license number (or approval certificate number) marked on the packaging. None of these "three certificates" can be missing. For pesticides imported in original packaging, only the pesticide registration certificate number is marked, along with the country of origin indicated in Chinese. When purchasing, you must check carefully. If a domestic pesticide's "three certificates" are incomplete or unclear, it is a fake, and you should not buy it.
1. Pesticide registration certificate: Temporary registration certificates begin with LS or WL. Formal (variety) registration certificate numbers begin with PD, PDN or WP, WPN. Sub-packaging registration certificate numbers generally add "-kou XXXX" to the pesticide registration certificate number provided by the original manufacturer, where "kou" represents the abbreviation of the province (autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government), and XXXX represents the serial number.
2. Production license number: HNPaaXXXX-b-yyyy, where aa is the province/city code, XXXX is the enterprise code, b is the product type, and yyyy is the product name.
3. Quality standard certificate: China's pesticide quality standards are divided into three types: national standards, industry standards, and enterprise standards, whose certificate numbers begin with GB or Q, etc.
Any three-certificate number that does not begin with the above English letters such as LS, PD, XK, or Q is often made up by the producer or dealer themselves, is not protected by law, and its quality is questionable. When buying, you can report this to the relevant authorities, and if you do not understand something you can also ask others, so as to avoid being cheated!
3. Registered Trademarkfor Identifying Real from Fake
A registered trademark consists of two parts: first, the four characters "Registered Trademark"; second, the trademark design. Neither can be missing. On the labels of imported pesticides, "Registered Trademark" is replaced by the symbol "R". Counterfeit pesticides generally have no "Registered Trademark" wording or design, and even if they do, it will be slightly different. Some counterfeiters copy another factory's trademark entirely, but most do not write their own factory name or the real factory name on the label, or write only a factory name with an unclear address. In addition, under normal circumstances, unless the original version of another factory's label is used, imitation printing can never be completely identical; just compare it with the original label and the flaws will show.
4. Product Formulation Typefor Identifying Real from Fake
Because of their own characteristics, many pesticides can only be made into a few fixed formulation types. For example, Bacillus thuringiensis products come only in a few formulation types such as wettable powder, suspension concentrate, and water-dispersible granules; protein-based and oligosaccharide-based products are mainly aqueous solutions. Before buying, first look at the formulation type marked on the label.
1. Powders and wettable powders should be loose powder with no lumps. If the product color is uneven, has caking, or contains many large particles, do not buy it.
2. Emulsifiable concentrate pesticides are generally light yellow or brown transparent liquids with no sediment or suspended matter. If layering, turbidity, or sediment appears, the product quality may have problems.
3. Suspension concentrates and suspoemulsions should be flowable suspensions with no caking. After long-term storage, a small amount of layering may occur, and it should return to its original state after shaking. Otherwise, it indicates a quality problem.
4. Fumigation tablets, if they have turned to powder, indicate they have already lost effectiveness.
5. Aqueous solutions should be uniform liquids with no sediment or suspended matter.
6. Granules should be uniform in size and should not contain much powder.
5. Product Specificationsfor Identifying Real from Fake
Biological pesticides such as plant-derived, mineral-derived, microbial, protein-based, and oligosaccharide-based ones are generally used in large amounts and come in large packaging specifications. If the packaging specification is within 50 milliliters (grams), it is very likely a fake. The Bacillus thuringiensis currently on the market whose package is marked with a usage amount of 10 grams per bag is mostly fake. Plant growth regulators (such as brassinolide, indoleacetic acid, etc.) and sex pheromone attractants are used in small amounts, generally in small packaging. If the packaging specification is above 100 milliliters (grams), it is very likely a fake. Biological pesticides such as plant-derived, mineral-derived, microbial, protein-based, and oligosaccharide-based ones are used in relatively large amounts, generally with a dilution ratio below 500 times. If a product states a dosage of several dozen milliliters (grams) per mu, or a dilution ratio above 1000 times, the product may be fake.
6. Product Instructions for Usefor Identifying Real from Fake
Instructions for use are content that should appear on every pesticide label, and the product description should match the properties of that pesticide, without exaggeration, with clear text, smooth language, and no wrong or misused characters. The description should include the pesticide's characteristics, scope of application, suitable dosage, method of use, timing of use, and precautions, etc. Counterfeit pesticide descriptions often have blurry printing, arbitrarily exaggerate the pesticide's effects, and even contain wrong or misused characters, with incomplete content and ungrammatical sentences. Generally, just from phenomena such as blurry printing and wrong characters, misused characters, or faulty sentences, one can conclude that the pesticide is counterfeit or substandard.
The most common cases: a single product can be used on any crop, one formula works for every crop, a high-chloride product is used on chloride-sensitive crops, a product arbitrarily claims a certain percentage yield increase without extensive demonstration trials, a sulfur ammonium nitrogen fertilizer is compared with urea, and a bag marked as 21% nitrogen fertilizer plus other medium and trace elements with a total content of 46% is called urea containing medium and trace elements, and so on.
7. Product Scope of Usefor Identifying Real from Fake
There are many types of pesticides, and each pesticide has a certain target of control and scope of use. Even within the same category of pesticide, different varieties have different scopes of use and targets of control.For a nuclear polyhedrosis virus pesticide that can only control cabbage moth, some manufacturers label this pesticide as able to control cabbage moth, rice stem borer, striped stem borer, and other pests, which does not match the pesticide name and scope of use. Biological pesticides such as viruses and sex pheromone attractants generally act on only one pest. If such a pesticide is marked as having multiple uses, the product may be fake.
8. Product Pricefor Identifying Real from Fake
The price of a pesticide is closely related to the active ingredient, content, and product quality. If the price is obviously higher than similar pesticides, it very likely has other chemical pesticides illegally added; if the price is obviously lower than similar pesticides, it very likely cuts corners, with insufficient active ingredients, and is a counterfeit or substandard product. Do not buy such pesticides. Do not buy pesticides from unlicensed itinerant vendors just to save money, lest your own rights cannot be effectively protected if problems arise. Buy from formal pesticide stores with complete licenses and certificates, and ask for a formal invoice, so that if problems arise later, you can recover your losses with the invoice.
A warm reminder: Do not buy bulk-packaged pesticide products. Because bulk pesticides are easy to adulterate and their quality cannot be guaranteed, and once problems arise, it is difficult to judge and handle them because consumers do not have the original packaging of the product in hand.
Pesticides can neither be eaten nor tasted, and their authenticity involves the vital interests of millions upon millions of farmers. Therefore, when buying pesticides, do not be greedy for cheap prices, and carefully distinguish real pesticides from fake ones.