Encourage and intercept counterfeit pesticides

——Yang Lijian, Director of Shandong Provincial Institute of Pesticides, Discusses the Revision of the Regulations on Pesticide Management

Residents of Tayang Township, Qionghai City, Hainan, are spraying insecticides on rice fields. (Photograph by Meng Zhongde)

In another week, the consultation on the “Pesticide Management Regulations” revised by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Directorate for Pesticides will end. The new "Regulations" entered the countdown. Why then, after a lapse of more than 20 years, the state has to revise this "Regulation"? Where is its significance? The reporter interviewed Yang Lijian, director of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Pesticide Testing.

Shandong is a major province for pesticide production, use and sales in China. At present, the province has 55,000 pesticide business units, 256 designated pesticide production enterprises, and more than 4,000 pesticide registration products. The province's annual pesticide use amount is 80,000 tons (refined), making it the largest pesticide use nationwide. . Therefore, the recognition of Shandong pesticides for strengthening industrial supervision has certain significance in the country.

Resume the operating permit system Reporter: What is the biggest change in this revision?

Yang Lijian: The biggest change in the revision of the "Pesticide Management Regulations" is the restoration of the pesticide licensing system. The fourth chapter of the new "Regulations" stipulates that the state implements a pesticide licensing system. From now on, all enterprises and individuals who wish to engage in pesticides must, in addition to their industrial and commercial licenses, apply for a pesticide application license to the agricultural administrative department of a local government at or above the county level in accordance with the regulations of the administrative department of agriculture of the State Council.

Before the "Administrative Licensing Law" was promulgated in 2004, the licensing system was adopted for the management of pesticides in China. In 2004, after the implementation of China's Administrative Licensing Law, the pesticide operating permit was cleared, the pesticide operating permit system was abolished throughout the country, and the operating pesticides did not need to be examined by the agricultural department. The revision of the "Regulations" actually restores the permit system.

Reporter: Why should we restore the permit system? Will it lead to monopoly?

Yang Lijian: Pesticides are special drugs for the production and use of toxic drugs and should be managed more strictly than human drugs. Therefore, more business licenses should be implemented. Practice has proved that the implementation of a business permit system is an essential and key measure for strengthening the supervision of the source. At present, there are a large number of pesticide business outlets, and it is not enough for the agricultural sector to rely solely on post-inspection supervision and law enforcement.

In recent years, there have been many problems in the pesticide industry, and almost all of them are related to the cancellation of the pesticide licensing system. For example, in Shandong Province, there were 20,000 pesticide management units before 2004, and now it has increased to 55,000 at one time. In some villages, there are more than 10 pesticide operators. Because there is no licensing system, many operators lack the minimum amount of pesticides, plant protection knowledge, what pesticides make money to sell, and some even sell products with zero or low-toxicity pesticides with highly toxic pesticides to farmers. The counterfeit and inferior pesticides and the national ban on pesticide use have provided a market, which has brought serious hidden dangers to the quality and safety of agricultural products. Another problem is that dark dens are badly produced. Pesticide production must have “three certificates”, but because the country has raised the threshold for issuing licenses, some lawbreakers and distributors have directly posing as regular and regular enterprises to produce inferior pesticides. In 2009, we conducted a survey when we held a “double trade fair” for pesticides in Jinan. We found that 145 pesticide companies in Shandong Province were counterfeited by others and accounted for 40% of regular enterprises. As the agricultural sector has lost its control over pesticide management units, these counterfeit pesticides produced in the name of counterfeiting can enter the market, leading to chaos in the pesticide market.

Resumption of business licenses will not result in monopoly. Because the new "Regulations" stipulates that the agricultural authorities and the pesticide supervisory department only conduct business qualification audits, they are not allowed to participate in pesticide production or business activities, or recommend, supervise, and sell pesticide products in their name. It can thus be seen that under the new system, the competent department of agriculture has withdrawn from the field of pesticide management and will play a major role in the supervision of pesticides and the supervision of the quality of agricultural products.

In order to revise the Regulations on Pesticide Management, the Ministry of Agriculture held several symposia. The picture shows the symposium held by the Department of Policy and Regulation of the Ministry of Agriculture in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. (photo by Xu Wei Song)

Canceling the Temporary Registration System Reporter: We have noticed that this amendment has cancelled the temporary registration system for pesticides. Why should it be cancelled? In the past so many years, this system has played a role in the development of the pesticide industry? What is the problem?
Yang Lijian: Temporary registration is a peculiar pesticide registration system in China. There is only China in the world. According to the provisions of the old “Regulations,” domestic pesticides produced for the first time need to be tested in the field, demonstration-tested pesticides, and pesticides that need to be used under special circumstances. The producers should apply for temporary registration and the agricultural administrative department of the State Council should issue pesticides. Only after the provisional registration certificate can field tests, demonstrations and trials be conducted within the prescribed scope. Pesticides registered temporarily can be successfully registered as long as there are few trials. Although the registration fee is low, the temporarily registered pesticide products have not been subjected to rigorous testing. The risk of pesticides has not been recognized. It is difficult to judge the risk assessment of pesticides. It is difficult to grasp the residual, drug efficacy and phytotoxicity problems after they are put into production.

The provisional registration system is the initial stage of the establishment of a pesticide registration system in China. The state has established a mechanism to encourage the rapid development of the domestic pesticide industry and meet the needs of agricultural production. After more than 30 years of reform and opening up, China's pesticide industry has developed rapidly. It can not only fully meet domestic agricultural production needs, but also exports 60% of its output. It now appears that the original provisional registration system lacks guarantees and strict requirements in terms of pesticide testing and safety evaluation. According to statistics, the pesticide products temporarily registered each year were much larger than the officially registered products. For example, in 2009, the Ministry of Agriculture approved 8,543 temporary registrations of pesticides, and only 1,460 officially registered. This has led to too many pesticide companies and too many registered pesticide products, which is detrimental to the improvement of the quality and safety of agricultural products and the large-scale development of pesticide companies. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, as of March last year, there were more than 28,000 pesticide products registered in the country, of which a considerable part was registered temporarily. Prior to this, the Ministry of Agriculture had issued a series of policies to raise the threshold for temporary registration, and at the same time repeatedly cancelled temporary registration certificates for some pesticide products in order to crack down on the illegal acts of producing counterfeit and inferior pesticides.

Illegal companies are not allowed to reproduce for 10 years. Reporter: What aspects of the amendment have strengthened the supervision of the safe use of pesticides?

Yang Lijian: The "Regulations" not only established pesticide business licenses, but also strengthened regulations through some regulations. For example, to limit the use of highly toxic pesticides, the implementation of planning and fixed-point operations; the implementation of pesticide reduction plan, the establishment of pesticide use records, and vigorously promote the application of low-toxic biological pesticides, prohibiting highly toxic, highly toxic pesticides for the prevention and control of health pests or vegetables , vegetables, tea, and Chinese herbal medicines production; free training for farmers to use restricted pesticides, encourage specialized pest and disease prevention service organizations to use pesticides in a unified way, prevent pesticides from polluting the environment and pesticide poisoning, increase farmers’ scientific and rational drug use, and other measures will protect pesticides Safe use, ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products.

The new "Regulations" also stipulated legal liability for pesticide users. Although the majority of pesticide users are farmers and farmers are weak in our country, there are few economic penalties for them, but the use of pesticides directly affects the quality and safety of agricultural products. Therefore, the new “Regulations” use pesticides for use areas, methods, technical requirements, and precautions that are not marked in accordance with the label, and farmers who do not follow the practice of labeling safety intervals on pesticide labels are required to correct them or to punish them.

At the same time, the penalties for the sale of highly toxic pesticides have also increased, thus ensuring that highly toxic pesticides do not enter the market and are not used illegally in the sales process. For example, the fine for selling high-toxic pesticides in the old “Regulations” was only 5 to 10 times the value of the goods. Selling a bottle of highly toxic pesticides would result in a fine of 10 times and a fine of 50 yuan. The penalty for the new “Regulations” has been greatly increased. If the production and operation are violated, the company’s operating and production licenses may be revoked. The owner of the company is not allowed to engage in the production and operation of pesticides within 10 years; it cannot be re-entered within 5 years. The agricultural sector registers pesticides.

The Gansu County Plant Protection Station of Gansu Province recently launched a special inspection of pesticide product quality and pesticide labelling. The picture shows law enforcement officers are sampling pesticide labels in the pesticide distribution department. (photo by Qin Wei)