Without pesticides, food security is out of the question.

Without pesticides as a weapon, humanity would suffer a crushing defeat in the battle to secure food from pests. If pesticides were not used, food supplies would become even more strained.

We must recognize that, without pesticides, “global chaos” would ensue. Ensuring human health depends not only on medicine; eliminating pathogens at their source or through their vectors is one of the most effective ways to protect people from disease, and pesticides have long played this crucial role.

— Song Bao’an

When pesticides are mentioned, many people immediately associate them with “toxicity,” viewing them as the chief culprit behind risks to the safety and quality of agricultural products—so much so that they seek to avoid them at all costs, ideally doing without them altogether. But are pesticides really that frightening? What kinds of pesticides are currently used in China, and what key trends will shape the future development of the country’s pesticide industry? To explore these questions, we interviewed Song Bao’an, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Guizhou University. With more than three decades of experience in pesticide research and plant protection—and a wealth of groundbreaking scientific achievements—his insights into the benefits and drawbacks of pesticides, his innovative perspectives, and his vision for future directions are both objective and scientifically grounded, offering valuable guidance and practical lessons.

The public holds too many misconceptions about pesticides.

In recent years, due to several food‑safety incidents involving agricultural products, pesticides have often been portrayed in a negative light. In response, Academician Song Bao’an has stated that pesticides are not as harmful as commonly believed, and the perception that “pesticides are toxic” may not necessarily be accurate.

“In fact, the toxicity of pesticides is far lower than that of many chemicals we routinely encounter in our daily lives,” Song Bao’an told reporters. “We often harbor numerous misconceptions about pesticides. In reality, many cancers are caused by naturally occurring toxins in food: for example, aflatoxins found in corn, wheat, legumes, and peanuts can lead to liver tumors and cirrhosis; hydrazine‑type toxins in mushrooms may trigger liver, lung, and stomach cancers. By contrast, pesticides are not the primary cause of cancer.”

“Without pesticides, food security is out of the question,” said Song Bao’an. He noted that more than 2,300 species of pathogens, pests, weeds, and rodents are known to harm crops, and these crops… Pests, diseases, and weeds It severely harms agricultural production, causing substantial yield losses every year. The Irish Potato Famine of the 19th century reduced Ireland’s population by nearly one-quarter, largely due to crop failures and total harvest losses caused by potato late blight. “Without pesticides as a weapon, humanity would suffer a crushing defeat in its battle to secure food from pests. If we stopped using pesticides, food supplies would become even more precarious,” he said.

In addition to crop pests and diseases, public‑health pests—such as cockroaches and mosquitoes—also pose a serious threat to human health. They carry a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms, can cause food poisoning, and transmit diseases including hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria, and dengue fever. “We must recognize that without pesticides, the world would descend into chaos,” noted Song Bao’an. “Protecting human health depends not only on medicine; eliminating pathogens at their source or through their vectors is one of the most effective ways to prevent illness, and pesticides have long played this crucial role.”

In recent years, as highly toxic and high-risk pesticides have been successively banned or restricted, the proportion of highly toxic pesticides used in China’s agricultural production has now fallen to just 2%. According to Song Bao’an, not only has the product mix become more rational, but China has also developed a series of new pesticide varieties and formulations that are highly efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly, effectively addressing agricultural pests and diseases. Weed damage Play a positive role in prevention and control.

Meanwhile, since 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has launched a nationwide initiative to achieve zero growth in pesticide use, vigorously promoting reduced‑dose pest control and green pest management, with remarkable results. The promulgation and implementation of the newly revised Regulations on the Administration of Pesticides have placed greater emphasis on the risks posed by pesticide use to the environment, ecosystems, and human exposure, while tightening oversight across all stages—production, management, and application—thereby further safeguarding the quality and safety of agricultural products.

Scientific application can help us maximize benefits and avoid harm.

Pesticides are both an essential tool for safeguarding crop growth and food security and a major risk factor affecting the quality and safety of agricultural products. To maximize benefits while minimizing risks, the scientific and rational use of pesticides is paramount. This year’s No. 1 Central Document specifically emphasizes stabilizing grain production and ensuring an adequate supply of key agricultural commodities, underscoring the indispensable role that pesticides will play in achieving these goals.

Regarding pesticides, Song Bao’an has distilled a sixteen-character guideline: “Correct understanding, strict management, standardized application, and scientific development.” First, the newly revised and implemented Regulations on the Administration of Pesticides have overhauled the pesticide regulatory system, making registration more stringent, use safer, and strengthening both the agricultural authorities’ oversight mechanisms and penalties for violations. This has laid a solid legal foundation for the rational use of pesticides.

Secondly, Song Bao’an recommends vigorously promoting green pest‑control technologies. At the strategic level, it is essential to adopt an approach that places “ecology at its core and agronomic practices as its foundation,” Biopesticide Adopting a new plant protection paradigm that prioritizes integrated management while supplementing it with chemical pesticides, we have established a novel strategy: centering on crop health as the primary preventive and control measure, thereby shifting from traditional passive pest management to proactive crop defense. At the policy level, we are formulating incentive measures to promote the widespread application of green pest‑control technologies and boldly exploring policies for disease‑and‑pest management that are grounded in whole‑crop health and region‑specific specialization, moving beyond the conventional approach of addressing individual diseases or pests in isolation.

At the research and development level, multi‑sectoral collaboration among academia, industry, and extension services should be fostered to establish a large-scale collaborative innovation alliance encompassing pesticide companies, universities and research institutes, and plant protection extension agencies. This alliance will drive the development of greener, more environmentally friendly, and safer pesticides and ecological crop protection products, while leveraging resources from all sectors of society to accelerate the adoption and deployment of green pest‑management inputs. On the technical front, a green pest‑management system should be established, with non‑chemical approaches—such as agronomic practices, biological control, and physical methods—at its core, thereby sustaining a resilient agroecosystem that supports long‑term agricultural productivity.

“In short, we must intensify the research and development of green ecological pesticides, plant‑derived and microbial‑based pesticides, bio‑pheromone products, immune activators, as well as highly efficient new green pesticides and novel formulation types, while pursuing clean, green, and eco‑friendly production processes. We should also strengthen research on the large‑scale artificial rearing and release of natural enemies, along with related biological control technologies. Furthermore, we need to develop precision application techniques for green pesticides, high‑efficiency spraying methods, and aerial application systems.” Plant protection technology “We must establish a comprehensive, full‑cycle plant protection and disease‑control system based on crop health, refine the unified prevention and control mechanism, and strengthen the widespread adoption of green pesticides and their supporting technologies—ensuring that these measures not only meet China’s pressing needs for disaster prevention and mitigation in agriculture but also align with the country’s goals of green agricultural development, quality‑driven farming, and environmentally sustainable agriculture,” said Song Bao’an.

Academician Song also underscored the importance of strengthening science communication and public outreach. He emphasized that science education is key to helping the public understand and appreciate pesticides. On the one hand, those who use pesticides often lack a thorough understanding of them, leading to inaccuracies in application methods, timing, dosage, and pre-harvest intervals—factors that are major contributors to excessive pesticide residues, crop damage, and poisoning incidents. On the other hand, the general public’s limited knowledge of pesticides can trigger unwarranted fear and aversion. He recommended organizing pesticide‑related educational lectures in primary, secondary, and higher education institutions; publishing accessible科普 manuals and informational posters; and leveraging media to promote positive messaging and evidence‑based guidance. At the same time, it is essential to enhance training at the grassroots level to ensure that pesticide users apply these products responsibly. In short, he called for concerted efforts across society to vigorously advance the goals of reducing pesticide use while controlling pest damage, and to proactively explore a modern agricultural development path that is efficient, safe, resource‑conserving, and environmentally friendly.

Closely monitor cutting-edge technologies to strengthen green innovation.

Although pesticides may be small in scale, they play a crucial role. At present, China’s agricultural sector is pursuing green and quality‑driven development. Under the “dual reduction” policy for chemical fertilizers and pesticides, in what directions will China’s pesticide industry evolve going forward?

Song Bao’an believes that the industry’s key trends are primarily focused on the following areas: environmental compliance inspections, which strengthen oversight of pesticide manufacturers and pesticide application practices, thereby fostering healthy industry development through “new thresholds”; centralized pesticide distribution, which standardizes the market at its source; piloting e‑commerce to advance enterprise digitalization and informationization; new pesticide‑management policies that unify production regulation, rigorously monitor the market, and tightly control usage; crop‑specific solutions, characterized by deep integration between companies and university research institutions, shifting toward comprehensive technical services and emphasizing end-to-end solutions aimed at crop health; vigorous promotion of eco‑friendly pesticides, with bio‑based or natural compounds serving as leading structural frameworks—molecular design and R&D in this area represent one effective approach to reducing pesticide use while enhancing efficacy; mergers and reorganizations to optimize industrial and sectoral structures; and pesticide‑management reforms that guide enterprises toward integrity, innovation, and collaboration.

In the area of pesticide innovation, Academician Song pointed out that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, national priorities for green pesticide development include: strengthening research on green process innovations for new active ingredients to reduce costs, enhance environmental sustainability, and boost competitiveness; advancing the development of green formulations for key crop‑protectant compounds to mitigate ecological risks; accelerating the domestic production of patent‑expired products to provide reliable alternatives; speeding up the industrialization and application‑oriented R&D of immune‑inducing agents, sex pheromones, and plant growth regulators to promote ecological pest management; developing high‑efficiency pesticides and novel aerial‑application formulations, while promoting the integration of pesticides, seeds, and fertilizers to improve pesticide utilization, precision, and labor efficiency; and advancing the establishment of end‑to‑end green plant protection technologies and systems to deliver comprehensive, immunity‑based solutions for the prevention and control of major pests and diseases, with a focus on regional and crop health.

Regarding pesticide innovation during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Academician Song believes that, in response to major national needs and with an eye on the international frontier, we should address the key challenges hindering the development and industrialization of green pesticides in China. This will be achieved through integrated, collaborative innovation across four critical areas: fundamental research on agricultural inputs such as pesticides, development of key generic technologies, product R&D, and industrialization. Furthermore, breakthroughs are needed in cutting-edge core technologies—such as novel targets and molecular design for green drugs, synthetic biology for biopesticides, and the creation of new RNAi‑based pesticides—and their subsequent industrial application. The goal is to develop a portfolio of high‑impact, next‑generation products with independent intellectual property rights and global competitiveness, establish the essential technologies for their large‑scale production and agricultural deployment, and cultivate a cadre of leading experts in pesticide innovation along with a group of internationally competitive industry leaders, thereby providing robust scientific and technological support for green agricultural development and the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

During the interview, Song Bao’an expressed strong optimism about RNAi‑based pesticides, hailing them as “another groundbreaking technological revolution in agriculture.” He explained that RNAi pesticides have emerged over the past two years and offer a completely new approach to achieving sustainable agricultural development. By leveraging RNAi interference technology, these pesticides can block the translation and synthesis of target proteins in pests and pathogens, disrupt their signaling pathways, and eliminate them at the genetic level—thereby helping humanity control crop‑damaging insects, plant diseases, and weeds.

“We should also align our efforts with the current trends and characteristics of international research on the development of new agrochemicals. For instance, cutting-edge life-science technologies—such as functional genomics, proteomics, structural biology, chemical biology, and bioinformatics—are increasingly being integrated into this field, particularly disruptive innovations like gene editing. At present, emerging technologies—including high-performance computing, big data, and artificial intelligence—are beginning to be applied to the discovery and design of novel pesticides, significantly boosting R&D efficiency. Finally, the advancement of multidisciplinary approaches is an irreversible trend. The global landscape of agrochemical science has entered a new era, in which cross‑disciplinary collaboration and mutual infiltration, the intersection and integration of new technologies, and cross‑sectoral convergence and consolidation have become defining hallmarks of the latest wave of innovation in pesticide research,” Academician Song said, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.