Paraquat controversy comes to an end: Council of Agriculture announces ban starting February 2019 (ROC year 108)

Paraquat, a highly toxic pesticide that has sparked major controversy in both agricultural and medical circles, is often used as a means of suicide because of its strong toxicity. The public health community has largely called for banning it as early as possible, provided alternatives exist, to address the risk of suicide, but farmers mostly use paraquat as an herbicide, so there has been constant backlash. The dispute between the two sides came to a temporary halt after Council of Agriculture Minister Lin Tsung-hsien set July of this year as the phase-out date. However, given the current situation of "existing paraquat stocks are too large to be absorbed in a short time" and "farmers have already begun stockpiling," after yesterday's internal meeting, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) officially announced today that paraquat will be prohibited from processing and import starting February 1, 107 (2018). Full prohibition is scheduled to begin February 1, 108 (2019).

BAPHIQ: Ban in February 108, providing a buffer period

Council of Agriculture Minister Lin Tsung-hsien told the media that July of this year would be the sunset date for paraquat, but after yesterday's (the 23rd) internal meeting at BAPHIQ, Director-General Huang Tsang-chang disclosed on his personal Facebook this morning that the ban on "24% paraquat solution" and "33.6% paraquat aqueous suspension" would be postponed to February of the year after next (108), sparking much discussion and raising questions of a "major policy U-turn."

In response, Huang Tsang-chang stressed, "This is absolutely not a major U-turn!" and said he did not know how the minister had put it at the time, "but later, some said a ban by 'at the latest' July, some said by 'at the earliest' July; there was no unified statement." But the fact is that it has already caused farmers to rush to buy and stockpile. He also pointed out that the result of yesterday's meeting was the hope of setting a buffer period so that the pesticide industry and farmers would have enough time to respond and adjust, because banning paraquat is the established policy direction, and a timetable for prohibiting manufacture, import, processing, and sale has now been confirmed. BAPHIQ will further plan related supporting measures in the future.

Glufosinate can be considered as a defoliant for adzuki beans

Regarding how to substitute for paraquat used as a defoliant for adzuki beans? Huang Tsang-chang said adzuki bean farmers can use "sodium chlorate" as a defoliant for adzuki beans. As for the price difference issue, they will also "actively test other alternative herbicides and set residual tolerance standards." Glufosinate may also be used as a defoliant for adzuki beans. Although the current price of original-brand glufosinate is four to five times that of paraquat, and generic glufosinate with the same main ingredient and adjusted additives is also two to three times higher than paraquat, Huang Tsang-chang predicted there is still room for glufosinate to fall in price. "Currently, more than seventy pesticide companies and manufacturers across Taiwan have obtained pesticide permits for glufosinate, and prices are expected to gradually come down."

BAPHIQ: A million barrels of paraquat are hard to absorb; it must be gradually phased out

Regarding the sudden final decision on the paraquat ban period, BAPHIQ's Feng Hai-tung pointed out that outsiders have questioned why it did not need to go through review by the Pesticide Advisory Committee. This is because paraquat's highly toxic nature was already confirmed when it was registered, and highly toxic pesticides already have a phase-out mechanism, so the phase-out timetable was set in accordance with the result of yesterday's meeting, precisely to avoid the difficulty of absorbing the existing one million barrels of paraquat.