The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has officially issued a document: Strengthen, in earnest, the current supervision and management of pesticides!

On September 21, the General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice on strengthening current pesticide supervision and management. The notice requires agricultural and rural departments at all levels to earnestly enhance pesticide oversight, balance development with safety, maintain orderly production and operation, effectively mitigate pesticide-related safety risks, and ensure that agricultural production needs are met. Details are as follows:

To the Departments (Bureaus, Commissions) of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (Agriculture and Animal Husbandry) of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, and to the Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

In order to implement the Regulations on the Administration of Pesticides and the spirit of the National Teleconference on Work Safety, agricultural and rural departments at all levels must strengthen the supervision and management of pesticides, balance development with safety, maintain the normal order of pesticide production and operation, effectively prevent pesticide‑related safety risks, and ensure that the needs of agricultural production for pesticide use are met. The relevant work requirements are hereby notified as follows.

I. Strengthening the Fulfillment of Administrative Approval Responsibilities for Pesticides

In accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the “three‑designations” responsibilities of agricultural and rural affairs authorities, all localities must conscientiously carry out administrative approval procedures, including provincial-level preliminary reviews of pesticide registrations, as well as production and business licensing. With respect to the preliminary review of pesticide registrations, priority should be given to verifying the authenticity, completeness, standardization, and validity of registration application materials, thereby preventing issues such as unsealed test samples, incomplete application dossiers, non‑compliant documentation, or unreliable test data. Regarding pesticide production licensing, it is essential to implement industrial policies and comply with safety and environmental protection requirements, in alignment with the National Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalogue and the National Pesticide Industry Development Plan for the 14th Five-Year Period. Efforts should be made to strictly control the number of pesticide manufacturers, regulate inter‑regional relocations and transfers, guide enterprises toward scaling up and strengthening, and promote high‑quality development of the pesticide industry. Approval thresholds must be rigorously enforced; overcapacity projects should be subject to stringent controls, outdated capacity gradually phased out, dormant enterprises properly addressed, and enterprises engaged in the manufacture or sale of counterfeit products investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the law. The industrial layout of the pesticide sector should be optimized, with new enterprises and additional production capacity required to enter designated chemical industrial parks in compliance with applicable laws. If a company’s production license cannot be renewed on schedule due to relocation, process upgrades, or other reasons, yet it still needs to apply for an extension of its pesticide registration, the provincial agricultural and rural affairs authority where the enterprise is located shall submit a formal written report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, detailing the company’s production licensing status, specifying the scope and timeline of ongoing construction, and proposing an appropriate suspension period. As for pesticide business licensing, strict adherence to licensing criteria is required, and, drawing on market supervision trends over the past five years, a number of operators that fail to meet licensing conditions or sell counterfeit or substandard pesticides should be legally disqualified.

II. Strengthening Supervision and Management of the Pesticide Market

In response to recent issues in some localities—such as the illegal production and unauthorized marketing of pesticides—agricultural and rural affairs authorities at all levels must strengthen oversight and inspection of pesticide manufacturers, distributors, and e‑commerce operators. Key areas of scrutiny include whether producers and sellers hold all required licenses, whether pesticide products meet quality standards, whether packaging and labeling comply with regulations, and whether purchase‑and‑sale records are complete. For e‑commerce operators, authorities should verify that they possess valid business permits and ensure they do not illegally sell restricted or prohibited pesticides or unregistered products. Special attention must be paid to cracking down, in accordance with the law, on illicit practices such as using licensed certificates to manufacture under contract, obtaining certificates through deception, engaging in private‑label production and sales, or bundling products in “package deals” for unlawful purposes. Routine supervision should be intensified, with efforts to identify and track leads on violations; coordination between administrative and criminal enforcement mechanisms must be reinforced, and joint investigations with public security authorities conducted to prosecute major cases. Local governments are urged to allocate dedicated funds to bolster the frequency and rigor of random quality inspections of pesticide products. In major cowpea‑producing regions, targeted quality‑control inspections should be prioritized, with full implementation of purchase‑and‑sale record‑keeping, including documentation of the crops treated with restricted pesticides, and guidance to farmers on the safe and rational use of these products. Any violations—including the illegal sale or use of restricted or prohibited pesticides, covert adulteration, and the manufacture and sale of counterfeit or substandard pesticides—must be firmly suppressed. Agricultural and rural affairs departments at all levels should maintain open hotlines for reporting pesticide‑related violations and promptly investigate and address reported cases.

  III. Strengthening Supervision and Inspection of Pesticide Registration Testing Institutions

The results of pesticide registration trials are critical to ensuring the fairness, quality, and safety of pesticide registration. Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has publicly notified four entities that violated regulations in pesticide registration trials, suspended the qualifications of the testing institutions, and issued requirements for corrective action. Local agricultural and rural affairs departments are mandated to strengthen oversight and inspection of locally based testing facilities, conducting unannounced “four‑no‑two‑direct” spot checks to address issues such as frequent turnover among key personnel, non‑standard quality management systems, and unreliable trial data. These inspections must cover at least 30% of testing units annually, with inspection findings promptly reported to the Ministry. The Ministry will, as appropriate, organize surprise inspections of pesticide registration testing entities; any testing facility found to have serious violations, or any local regulatory body that fails to act or engages in “local protectionism,” will be subject to legal sanctions and public disclosure.

IV. Strengthening Guidance and Services for the Pesticide Industry

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs is currently organizing the revision of five supporting regulations and a series of normative documents related to pesticide registration, production licensing, and other matters. Agricultural and rural departments at all levels are urged to actively provide feedback and suggestions and to carry out proactive publicity and explanatory work in advance. Efforts should be strengthened to ensure planning‑driven development: the National Pesticide Industry Development Plan for the 14th Five‑Year Period has undergone an interim evaluation, and local authorities are required to align with the plan’s objectives, tasks, and requirements, refine their provincial implementation plans, rationally design industrial layouts, guide enterprises to grow stronger and larger, and ensure the effective implementation of the plan within their jurisdictions. Furthermore, coordination of production and sales information must be enhanced. Localities should designate specific personnel to regularly collect and analyze data on pesticide production and sales, and, based on the needs of grain and key agricultural product pest and disease control, provide guidance on production and supply to prevent indiscriminate overproduction, stockouts, and sharp price fluctuations. At the same time, training and technical guidance for pesticide producers and operators, as well as grassroots pesticide regulatory staff, should be intensified; timely identification of challenges faced by enterprises is essential, along with robust policy interpretation, information services, and technical support.

V. Strengthening the Prevention and Control of Pesticide Safety Risks

As the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays approach, all localities must, in accordance with the principle that “regulation of an industry entails responsibility for safety, regulation of business operations entails responsibility for safety, and regulation of production and operation entails responsibility for safety,” strengthen measures to prevent pesticide‑related safety risks. In the production stage, integrated with licensing approvals and on-site inspections, authorities should verify the implementation of enterprises’ workplace safety measures and provide guidance and oversight to ensure that companies fulfill their primary responsibility for safety. In the distribution and sales stage, strict adherence to designated‑location sales and real‑name purchase requirements for restricted‑use pesticides is essential. Comprehensive record‑keeping and traceability systems for pesticide transactions must be fully implemented, and operators are urged to rigorously verify the legality of the sources of purchased pesticides. At the application stage, training and guidance on the safe and rational use of pesticides should be intensified, and users must be encouraged to apply pesticides in strict compliance with label instructions and to observe prescribed pre‑harvest intervals, thereby preventing misuse—such as exceeding authorized scopes, dosages, or application frequencies. Pesticide‑related safety risk monitoring must be strengthened to avert incidents of human and animal poisoning, crop damage, environmental contamination, and other adverse effects arising from improper pesticide use. Violations involving the unauthorized use of highly toxic pesticides on vegetables, fruits, tea, and other crops must be investigated and prosecuted with zero tolerance; the illegal sale and use within China of export‑only products such as paraquat must be firmly suppressed. These measures will help safeguard agricultural production and ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products.

Pesticide supervision and management is an important component of national quality‑related and food‑safety assessments. Agricultural and rural departments at all levels must attach great importance to this work and ensure that their pesticide supervision and management responsibilities are fully implemented. To facilitate work planning, deployment, and information exchange, please complete and affix the official seal to the Provincial Pesticide Supervision and Management Responsibility Allocation Form (see attachment) by October 8 and submit it to the Department of Crop Production Management (Pesticide Management Division) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. In addition, please submit the annual summary report on pesticide supervision and management by December 20.

Contact telephone: Pesticide Management Division, Department of Crop Production Management (Pesticide Management Division), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Tel: 010-59192810. Email: pmd@agri.gov.cn.

General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs

September 21, 2023

Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs