China NHC recently revealed that the amendment to the national standard, “GB 26369-2010 hygienic standard for quaternary ammonium disinfectants”, has been finalized and the revised edition has been submitted to the SAC (Standardization Administration) for final approval.

Last month, China NATESC (National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center) reported the pest resistance monitoring results of 2017. 60 sites in 19 provincial areas were investigated, covering 21 patent or off-patent pesticides including chlorantraniliprole, penoxsulam, quinclorac, dinotefuran, bensulfuron, bispyribac and clodinafop-propargyl etc. The center pointed out that the main pests and diseases in food crops have developed significant resistance to the most commonly used pesticides and there is an urgent need of integrated and rotational measures and development of better system to monitor risk and assessment of pest resistance.

On 24 and 25 Apr 2018, an official training course on developing national pesticide MRL standard was held in Jiangsu. The event was organized by MoARR and was attended by ICAMA’s head agronomist Ms. Ji Ying. Ms. Ji revealed that the new version of GB2763 will be published this year and that a technical guidance on MRL establishment targeting imported agricultural products would also be drafted.

On 16 Apr 2018，Shandong ICA (Institute for the Control of Agrochemical, the provincial unit of ICAMA) opened a 45-day investigation on butachlor production and usage nationwide. In 2016, MoA initiated the revaluation on butachlor and 7 other active ingredients and an internal probe was opened to assess the provincial department. The national survey was organized by Shandong ICA under the delegation from the MoA/MoARR. Domestic butachlor producers are required to fill and submit 3 questionnaires by 31 May 2018.

On 1 Jul 2018, China will implement 12 new national standards for market surveillance of fertilizer products, including 6 product standards, 4 quality inspection methods and 2 classification criteria for humic fertilizers, compounded fertilizers, urea, calcium superphosphate, ammonium nitrate, liquid ammonia, fulvic acids for agricultural use and stabilized fertilizers (synergized fertilizers).

On the last days of February ICAMA released its latest pesticide risk assessment model COPrisk. Six models have been released to date, including the Repellents Risk Assessment Model, Repellents, Aerosols, CML model, TOP-Rice, China-PEARL. The models mentioned above, along with COPrisk offer guidance and assistance to companies preparing their risk assessment report for the purpose of complying with China pesticide registration data requirements.

By the end of 2017, 37888 pesticides registered by 2213 companies were within their validity, of which 3913 pesticides of 1216 companies were newly approved in the past several years. China promulgated a new pesticide regulation and revoked temporary registration. Applications which were being processed at the time of promulgation of the new regulation are still being reviewed and approved based on requirements of the previous regulation: 3365 were full registration for field use, 385 were temporary registration for field use, 153 were full registration for hygienic pesticide and 10 were temporary registration for hygienic pesticide.

On 28 Nov 2017, China MoA’s Website released Order 8 of 2017 regarding the amendment and annulment of several ministerial regulations and other regulatory documents, of which 2 are amendments to fertilizer registration. The most notable changes are that temporary registrations are removed from the registration scheme and also there is a broadened acceptance scope of efficacy trail report.

On 10 Jan 2018, China MoA’s website released announcement 2622 to promulgate 87 agricultural standards which became effective on 1st of Jan 2018. Among them, 21 standards are for the regulatory studies required during registration of pesticides and fertilizers.