The controversy over paraquat as a defoliant for adzuki beans should not stigmatize the pesticide review system

Hello everyone who cares about agriculture and food safety. I am a plant protection professional and a pesticide distributor. The paraquat incident has been burning for more than half a year. The public has gone from questioning "whether paraquat should be used on adzuki beans" to further questioning "the pesticide safety assessment system," and even extending to "the necessity of pesticide use." This is worrying.

Regarding whether to allow the use of the herbicide paraquat as a defoliant on adzuki beans, I believe that consumers and the public, because of asymmetric information, are overly panicked about pesticides, which has already caused misunderstanding and extreme emotions. At this time, if the government approves paraquat for use as a defoliant on adzuki beans, it may affect consumer confidence in the adzuki bean industry. From the standpoint of protecting farmers' livelihoods, although I believe that a 2 ppm residue level is extremely safe, I still support "suspending approval" of paraquat on adzuki beans, so as not to affect consumers' willingness to buy.

However, I hope to use this article to discuss pesticide safety assessment, actual safety, and the need for pesticide use, and I hope the public can view pesticide use from different angles and avoid taking a stigmatizing attitude toward pesticides or the pesticide review system.

Background information: A series of news reports on the controversy over the use of the defoliant paraquat on adzuki beans

Whether paraquat is approved for use on adzuki beans does not matter at all to pesticide companies

From a company's commercial considerations, our country's adzuki bean planting area is small, only 6,000 hectares, and paraquat is a generic drug that is already off patent, with many secondary brands engaging in price-cutting competition, so profits are quite limited.

Therefore, if paraquat is approved for adzuki bean drying, it will not bring much revenue: excluding the 10% of farmers who do not use desiccants, about 5,400 hectares remain. At 3 liters per hectare, and then divided by the currently approved 91 paraquat permits, that equals only about 178 liters of paraquat that a pesticide company holding one permit can sell, and the total profit is very likely less than 10,000 yuan. Therefore, no company would cause social division and panic just to earn an extra 10,000 yuan.

Registering paraquat as an adzuki bean desiccant is completely unimportant to pesticide companies, because it will not bring much benefit. Although assessment based on scientific evidence has proven it to be safe, and our country's total quantity control for paraquat is even stricter than in many countries, if it causes social division and panic, I would personally rather call on the government to suspend implementation. But I firmly defend the pesticide registration and review system.