1. Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China;
2. Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, USA

According to the revised Regulation of Pesticide Administration approved in February 2017 by  the State Council, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) is in charge of the pesticide management in China. The MARA has established a more stringent threshold for pesticide registration, in which risk assessment is a necessary process of evaluation, and the temporary registration has been abolished since June 2017.

By the end of 2021, the MARA has regulated 40 pesticides as Restricted Use with identified risk to the environment, human health, food safety, and crop heath. Until now, there are over 740 active ingredients of pesticides, over 41 433 products, and 2.498 million ton in technical grade pesticides, which were registered and produced by 1 705 manufacturers (Table 1). The percentage of highly toxic pesticides in active  ingredient calculation has decreased from 35% to 1.3%, and the existing ten highly acute toxic pesticides will be phased out completely in five years.

Table 1  Pesticides registered in China in 2021

Economic and ecological monitoring and registration systems have covered the entire pesticide registration process including application, evaluation, approval, and certificate issue. As one of the routine activities of regulation enforcement, risk monitoring on residue, environment, occupational health, and crop damage has been conducted by MARA, Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry  of  Agriculture and Rural Affairs (ICAMA), Departments of Agriculture of local governments, and local Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals (ICA). MARA and ICAMA conduct food safety monitoring as part of their missions to enhance food quality, reduce pesticide residues on high value crops, and support farmers increasing income.

The revised Regulation of Pesticide Administra‐ tion adopts heavier punishment on illegal pesticide production, trade and business. National Pesticide Quality Tracing system (www. icama. cn) applies Quick Response Code tracking on labels to monitor pesticide manufacture, use and purchase. The Chinese National Customs and MARA supervise pesticide export and import through a Pesticide Import and Export Registration Verification System. With the newly noti‐ fication of MARA, No. 269 in 2020, the pesticide export values have increased sharply from 11.7 billion dollars in 2020 to 23.4 billion dollars in 2021. In China, pesticide application in the fields has been reduced since 2015 with technological integration and extension of lower risk alternatives, precision spray technology, efficient formulation, integrated pest management (IPM), biological control,  professional service on pest control and free farmer training.