First-line research on the main problems existing in my country's pesticide industry and relevant policy recommendations

As an important means of agricultural production, pesticides play an important role in the production of agricultural products, as well as the prevention and control of forestry, grassland and sanitary pests
.
After nearly 70 years of development, China's pesticide industry has continuously improved its industrial system and optimized product structure.
It has played an irreplaceable role in stabilizing agricultural production and development and ensuring food security
.
But at the same time, China's pesticide industry is still facing many problems, such as the society's biased perception of industry development and the difficulty of banning highly toxic pesticides
.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to objectively, accurately and rationally understand the role of the pesticide industry in economic and social development, deeply analyze the development difficulties faced by the pesticide industry and enterprises, carry out a forward-looking industry layout, and scientifically outline the development path of the industry
.
The basic situation of the development of China's pesticide industry (1) The industrial system is basically formed.
China's pesticide industry started in the early days of the founding of New China.
After nearly 70 years of development, it has experienced a development process from nothing to something, from weak to strong
.
At present, our country has gradually formed a complete pesticide industry system including scientific research and development, original drug production, preparation processing, raw materials and intermediates
.
According to data from the China Pesticide Industry Association, as of the end of 2019, there were about 1,800 pesticide manufacturers in China, with a pesticide output of 1.
516 million tons, accounting for half of the world's total pesticide output
.
Among them, there are 719 enterprises above designated size (annual operating income of more than 20 million yuan), with main business income of 214.
64 billion yuan; while the main pesticide products such as pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides meet domestic demand, they have also exported 188 Countries and regions account for 60% of China’s total pesticide production.
Among them, 10 pesticide companies have entered the world’s top 20, and their overall strength and international competitiveness have increased
.
At present, China has become the world's largest country in the production and export of pesticides
.
(2) The product structure is gradually optimized during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, with the continuous advancement of the "zero growth" strategy, China's pesticide product structure has continued to be optimized
.
According to data from China Pesticide Industry Association, up to now, the total number of pesticide registered products in effective status is 41,585
.
From the perspective of pesticide categories, pesticides accounted for 42.
2%, herbicides accounted for 26.
4%, fungicides accounted for 26.
4%, and plant growth regulators accounted for 2.
7%
.
In terms of pesticide toxicity, highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides accounted for 1% of pesticide registration products, toxic pesticides accounted for 14.
4%, and low-toxic and slightly toxic pesticides accounted for 84.
6%
.
From the perspective of pesticide formulations, the proportion of products with environmentally friendly formulations such as suspension concentrates, dispersible oil suspensions, and water-dispersible granules increased from 14.
9% in 2015 to 23.
8% in 2019; products with traditional formulations such as emulsifiable concentrates and wettable powders accounted for The ratio dropped from 53.
0% in 2015 to 39.
4% in 2019
.
(3) The efficacy of pesticides is still important.
At present, pesticides play an important role in effectively preventing and controlling pests and diseases and ensuring food security
.
On the one hand, China has a large population and lack of water, a high index of multiple crops, a high intensity of arable land utilization, and frequent occurrences of diseases, pests and weeds
.
There are more than 1,600 kinds of harmful organisms that occur throughout the year, and nearly 100 species are seriously harmed.
The area that needs to be controlled is more than 7 billion mu, especially for the prevention and control of locusts, armyworms, rice planthoppers, wheat head blight, potato late blight and other major migrations.
The means of flying and epidemic diseases and insect pests mainly rely on pesticides
.
Although modern biological breeding, including genetically modified technologies, can be synergistic with each other and have complementary advantages, they still cannot completely replace the role of pesticides.
On the other hand, the development of pesticides in China has made important contributions to ensuring food security
.
According to the estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the use of pesticides can cause an average of 30%-40% of food loss every year
.
At present, China's grain production has stabilized at more than 1.
3 trillion catties for six consecutive years
.
Pesticides are indispensable
.
At the same time, pesticides have also played a huge role in ensuring the production of other agricultural products, as well as the prevention and control of forestry, grassland and sanitary pests
.
Analysis of the problems facing the development of the pesticide industry in my country (1) The society's perception of the pesticide industry is biased.
The society's perception of the pesticide industry is deviated from the actual situation. .
A common misunderstanding is that pesticides are classified as toxic chemicals.
Highly toxic, pesticide residues, and pollution have become keywords that are frequently mentioned by the public when they mention pesticides.
Even pesticide companies often encounter nearby residents when they choose plant sites.
Boycott
.
However, from the perspective of the actual development of the pesticide industry, some key backbone pesticide companies, whether in terms of technical strength or plant construction, have completely adopted the modern enterprise model, which is completely different from the chemical plants in the public's inherent impression
.
One of the important reasons for this cognitive bias is that the pesticide industry has a long-standing imbalance in image communication, which has caused and strengthened the public's negative evaluation of the pesticide industry and enterprises
.
Under the background that green development has become a social consensus, the important role of pesticides in safeguarding people’s lives and the social image, role, and technological progress of pesticide companies have not been able to update, publicize, and promote the pesticide industry in a timely manner.
Cognition still remains at the level of extensive production and harsh environment
.
Once a pesticide problem or accident occurs, it will be quickly amplified, causing an impact on the entire industry in a short period of time, and seriously affecting the social image and reputation of the pesticide industry
.
In addition, due to the lack of knowledge of scientific use of some farmers, problems such as improper use of pesticides in the actual process have led to incidents of excessive pesticide residues, but sometimes it is attributed to the problems of pesticides themselves
.
(2) The prohibition of highly toxic pesticides is more difficult.
On May 20, 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening Reform and Strengthening Food Safety Work", which clearly requires the banning of highly toxic pesticides to be gradually expanded to all edible agricultural products
.
However, this policy still faces many difficulties in the concrete practice process
.
The substitution and conversion of highly toxic pesticides poses a great challenge to pesticide companies.
Stopping the production of highly toxic pesticides will have a greater impact on the business benefits of companies
.
According to statistics, the 10 banned highly toxic pesticides involved 334 pesticide manufacturers, with annual sales of over 3 billion yuan in original drugs and preparations, and more than 500 million yuan in profits and taxes
.
At present, there are 28 companies that account for more than 50% of the sales of highly toxic pesticides, and 10 companies all produce highly toxic pesticides.
The banning of highly toxic pesticides has a particularly prominent impact on the operating efficiency of these companies
.
At the same time, technological transformation and conversion require a lot of capital
.
According to the calculations of relevant departments, medium-scale high-toxic pesticide production enterprises need more than 100 million yuan to improve production equipment and technology, and switch to high-efficiency and low-toxic pesticides
.
This is even more difficult for pesticide companies whose profits have fallen sharply due to production shutdowns
.
In addition, the current domestic production of highly toxic pesticides involves more than 10,000 employees
.
Once banned, alternative conversions will be affected by a variety of factors such as capital, technology, and the market.
Highly toxic pesticide companies face the risk of bankruptcy and unemployment
.
(3) Pesticide companies are supported.
The raw and auxiliary materials used in the production of pesticide companies are all fine chemicals, and the input tax rate is 13%.
Pesticides, as the main products in the production of agricultural materials, are supported by the country’s “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” With preferential policies and enjoy a 9% output tax rate, there is a 4% output tax difference
.
Compared with the output tax rate of chemical raw materials such as 17% for pharmaceuticals and 13% for veterinary drugs, the tax payable by pesticide companies for local contributions is significantly lower.
As a result, the support for pesticide companies in project approval and corporate development planning is lower than that of pharmaceuticals and veterinary drugs.
Type of enterprise
.
Although the national level has introduced a general policy for the return of value-added tax to enterprises, since pesticide companies pay less tax and make little contribution to the local economy, there are large differences in the implementation process of various regions, and the development of enterprises hopes to receive more support
.
(4) Pesticide registration management is more stringent.
The new version of "Requirements for Pesticide Registration Information" puts forward stricter and more detailed requirements for pesticide registration and management
.
According to the new pesticide registration requirements, business registration fees will increase significantly
.
The registration of an old technical product requires 7-8 million yuan, and the preparation product can also cost more than one million yuan
.
The registration of products created by enterprises requires more than 30 million yuan, and the registration period is long, at least 3-5 years
.
Huge expenses and long periods have made enterprises overburden and slowed down the process of enterprise transformation and upgrading
.
(5) The implementation effect of local policies deviates from expectations.
For a long time, the distribution of pesticide companies in my country lacks a systematic plan for the distribution of plants. .
After the adjustment of the new pesticide management functions, the approval of pesticide production licenses is handled by the provinces, and the problem of the lack of a unified national planning layout has become more serious
.
For example, pesticide companies entering the park, due to the inconsistency of lenient and strict policies in various regions, nearly half of the companies have failed to enter the chemical park, and some companies are even in environmentally sensitive areas
.
The problems of "Chemical Besieged City" and "City Besieged Chemical Industry" are increasingly emerging
.
In addition, after the introduction of the new environmental protection policy, some companies that did not meet the requirements of local industrial development were forced to move to the central and western regions
.
In order to speed up the introduction of these enterprises, the central and western regions have introduced many favorable industrial preferential policies, which has accelerated the relocation of enterprises.
However, for enterprises holding a wait-and-see attitude, since the relocation policy has not yet been determined, their relocation has become a place to rebuild a new factory.
It is not conducive to eliminating outdated production capacity, controlling the number of new enterprises, regulating overcapacity and maintaining market order
.
Countermeasures and suggestions for the development of the pesticide industry in China (1) Strengthen the planning layout and coordinate policy consistency.
The first is to strengthen the overall planning at the national and provincial levels, coordinate the layout of pesticide enterprises in various regions, optimize the spatial layout of pesticide production, and increase industrial concentration; Guide the establishment of specialized pesticide parks, and promote the entry of pesticide production companies into the parks in an orderly manner, while avoiding the transfer of pesticide production to environmentally fragile areas; the third is to strengthen the policy coordination of related industries, strengthen policy interpretation and implementation, and give full play to the role of policy guidance; The fourth is to coordinate the relevant departments to systematically sort out the relocation of pesticide and chemical enterprises to the central and western regions and the central and western regions' preferential policies for relocated enterprises, and optimize support policies
.
(2) Optimize the structure of pesticide products and improve the compensation measures for damaged companies.
First, we must firmly eliminate 10 highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides other than rodenticides, strengthen pesticide risk detection and assessment, and accelerate the elimination of high risk to human and animal health and the ecological environment.
Pesticides; the second is to strengthen innovation, and increase the research and development of new products for high-efficiency, low-risk, and low-residue pesticides; the third is to focus on the elimination of high-toxic pesticide installations, technical transformations, and personnel placement for enterprises that have a greater impact on the elimination of highly toxic pesticides Etc.
, to provide special funding and subsidies to help companies smoothly tide over the difficult period of transformation
.
(3) Appropriately adjust the output tax rate and strengthen production and operation subsidies.
One is to increase the output tax rate of domestic pesticide products to 13% with reference to other chemical raw materials, and to improve the overall contribution of pesticide companies to local economic development; second, to the production of pesticides Enterprises shall provide subsidies or rewards in terms of technological innovation, clean production, equipment upgrades, etc.
, to promote supply-side reforms and promote the development of the industry
.
(4) Optimize the pesticide registration process, shorten the registration period, relax the registration restriction measures for highly toxic pesticide substitution transformation products, reduce the registration test items of the same pesticide product, reduce repeated trials, reduce the burden on enterprises, accelerate the registration progress of the transformation products of enterprises, and promote New products quickly entered the market
.
(5) Attach great importance to reputation management of industries and enterprises.
First, strengthen the image construction and publicity work of the entire industry from the level of industry supervisors
.
On the one hand, it draws up an annual publicity and promotion plan, and conducts external communication in an orderly manner
.
On the other hand, according to the development needs and characteristics of the industry, regular special promotion activities are carried out
.
The second is to encourage key enterprises and leading enterprises in the pesticide industry to establish full-time corporate reputation management and corporate image publicity teams to respond to emergencies in a timely manner, and at the same time carry out industry science popularization and corporate publicity systematically and targeted to create a good corporate image
.
(This article is the research result of the project "Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Supervision Special Project-Agricultural Industry Development Monitoring-Pesticide Industry Layout and Industrial Policy" commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs) Panel members: Jiang Yihang, Xu Bing, Ma Xinxin, Zhang Jinan, and Liu Shuaijie.
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