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IN THE ELEVENTH-FIVE YEARPLAN, China includes develop-ment of natural solutions. It men-tions that Agricultural bio prod-ucts such as bio pesticides, bio fer-tilizers, bio PGRs, feed additivesshould be developed and promot-ed. Biological products and formu-lations for animal use should bedeveloped and applied. Also, theplan should increase the usageratio of bio pesticide, bio fertilizerand microorganism fully degrad-able. The Plan also promotesenterprise groups manufacturinggreen agriculture biological prod-ucts, improving the self-renovationcapability and international com-petition, and relieving agriculturepollution effectively.

ABUNDANT RAW MATERIAL,SOPHISTICATED PRODUCTIONUNITSBiopesticides overview describedby Sharron Shen includes severalproducts, coming either frombioactive maters or living organ-isms and also pesticides syntheti-cally made that are perfect copy ofthe native natural compounds. Inregulations for pesticide registra-tion approved by chinese Ministryof agriculture, classification indi-cates 5 big well known categories:microbials, botanicals, macrobials,semiochemicals and transgenics.As there is abundant raw materialfor biopesticides in China, manyapplications are ready to develop.Sharron Shen quotes a few botan-icals: Stemona, Tripterygium,Euphorbia, Croton, Melia, Sophoraflavescens... The point is to get themost active ingredients from theplants. Beijing MultigrassFormulation works on novel for-mulations and ultrasonic extractionequipments. New technologies useadvanced pulverization: ultrafine

dusting, airflow pulverization, low-temperature pulverization to get10 um particle diameter powder.Extraction is developed by differentpaths: supercritical fluid extraction,macroporous resin adsorption,ultrafine crushing, enzyme extrac-tion, molecular imprinting separa-tion, high speed countercurrentchromatography. Separation tech-nologies are also tested: coagula-tion sedimentation, macroporousrosin adsorption, ultrafiltration,ultracentrifugation.

2500 PRODUCTS OF WHICH MANY ARE BOTANICALSCurrently, there are over 80 activeingredients of biological pesticidesand 2500 products in the Chinesemarket, including agriculturalantibiotics. The output exceeds100,000 tons. The majority is insec-ticides and fungicides, and the con-sumption covers an area of over400 million acres (more than 160million ha). However, when not tak-ing into account abmectin prod-ucts, there are only about 1100products. Among them, there are24 microbial pesticides, including 8bacterial, 6 fungi, 10 virus, about300 products in total; 21 botanicalpesticides, about 130 products intotal. 7 protein and oligosaccahrinbased products, 30 products intotal. 10 biochemicals (semiochem-icals), over 200 products in total. 1natural enemy (macrobial), 3 prod-ucts. 17 agricultural antibiotics,1800 products in total (Abamectinalone is over 1400 products andValidamycin is 220 products).

ESTABLISHED REGISTRATION PROCEDURES The Institute for the Control ofAgrochemicals at the Ministry ofAgriculture refers to some estab-lished methods for the registration

management of pesticides.Currently in China, the biologicalpesticides, to be registered as spe-cial pesticides, are biochemicals,botanical pesticides and microbialpesticides. Biologicals are entitledto special registration policy, whichis mainly reflected on the remissionof parts of registration documents. In most cases, the registration ofmicrobial pesticides does not needecotoxicology report, and residuereport can be omitted as well.However, the integrated functionmechanism must be specified.For biochemicals the syntheticingredients should be in comformi-ty to the ones that exist in nature.Moreover, it should be non-toxic totargets. For botanicals, the environmentalimpact doesnt need to beassessed. Although the residuereport is in principle subject to thechemical pesticides legislation, itcan be omitted as well in case theproducts meet the requirements.Biomimetic pesticides and agricul-tural antibiotics are treated equallyas chemical pesticides.Beijing Multigrass has alreadydeveloped several biofungicides :Anvir (protein amylose); Baiclean(based on Oligosaccharin) usedagainst beetroot knots and cucum-ber downy mildew; Bipor based onbioflavonoid.After developing on domestic mar-ket, the next step for the companyis to enter international markets. InAsia, the biopesticides market rep-resents 15% of the total pesticidesmarket. Demands and marketvalue increases obviously saysSharron Shen. In the past 5 years,the value output for biocontrol wasbetween 0.67 and 1 billion dollars,with an annual growth of 10% to20% per year. Certainly a promis-ing future for botanicals! n

Biological pesticide has along history in China. 2500years ago, it was mentionedin the Chinese ancient book The Classic of Mountainsand Seas that plants can be used as raticide, saidSharron Shen, DirectorGlobal Market- BeijingMultigrass Formulation inher Bangkok lecture.During the past 70 years,biological pesticide developed through threestages in China. In 1940sand 1950s, organic synthesispesticides took the lead; inthe 1990s, biological pesticide reappeared due tosome environmental reasons;in the past ten years, themarket value has increasedat a growth rate of 10% to20%. Now biological pesticides are entering into a fast growth period.Biological extracts have beenused for 2000 years in China,with a wide experience onmedicinal plants. China hasindeed a unique traditionalherb theory. The biggestmarket in China is still madewith specialty botanicals.

SHARRON SHEN

The Development of the Biopesticidesmarket in China

NEW AG INTERNATIONAL 27

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THE QUESTION WAS to knowwhether the performance of insecti-cides changes when appliedtogether with humic matter (HM),which is normally used on crops toimprove yield and quality. The trialsstudied effect of foliar applied insec-ticide + humic acid or fulvic acid.

FULVIC ACIDS ENHANCE SOMEPESTICIDES EFFECTSAs anticipated, results showedthat effect of foliar application ofstraight humic acid (HA) or fulvicacid (FA) has no killing effectagainst white fly. Relating toinsecticides imidacloprid andpymetrozine, their effect againstwhite fly decreases when appliedwith HA. On the contrary, theeffect of imidacloprid andpymetrozine against whiteflyincreases when applied with FA.After 7 days, imidacloprid + FAtogether had 70% efficacy, butimidacloprid alone only 50%.When HA and FA combination arecompared, residue amount of

insecticides with FA was lowerthan HA. The result shows thathumic matter increases degrada-tion of insecticide (imidacloprid)and also may affect pesticide wait-ing time. This study should berepeated in details with consumedpart of plant, measuring MRLvalue.When products were soil applied,the result was the same as in thefoliar trials: soil application ofhumic acid alone or fulvic acidalone had no killing effect againstwhitefly. Imidacloprid performanceagainst pest increased whenmixed with FA for soil application,however it was not statisticallysignificant.

NO SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ONRESIDUESResidue analysis was another partof the study, after both foliar andsoil applications. Selected HMproducts do not statistically causeany change on degradation time

of insecticides active ingredients(acetamiprid, imidacloprid andpymetrozine) after 2 hours in tank-mix.Changes may happen on degrada-tion time in the soil, for insecti-cides applied with HM as a mix-ture. Leaf residue of imidaclopridalone was higher than if it wasmixed with HA and lower with FA.It appears that FA increaseduptake of imidacloprid. Also FAprolonged degradation time ofimidacloprid by slowing down theprocess. On the other end, move-ment of imidacloprid in leaf wasdelayed and degradation timeincreased when applied with HA.These results show that Humicsubstances applied together withinsecticides may cause changes onboth effect against target pest anddegradation time in plants.Differences may also appeardepending on the composition ofHM and on chemical characteristicof each insecticide. n

Although humic acids aremostly known for their ability to improve soil properties and for their biostimulating effects, especially when foliar-applied, interactionbetween insecticides and humic acids aredemonstrated by severalstudies. Some research alsostates the effect of humicmatter on some plant diseases. The aim of theresearch conducted byHumintech & Izotar inTurkey was to studychanges on biologicaleffect and degradationduration of some insecticides mixed withhumic matter. Treatmentsagainst greenhouse white fly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) on tomatoplants was used to bringthe evidence of such effect.The white fly is a majorpest in Turkey, where 11million tons of tomato areproduced every year, asreported by Dr. Canan YILMAZAgricultural Engineer andAsst. General Manager ofIzotar A.S./TURKEY

DR. CANAN YILMAZ

Do humic acids have an effect on the efficacy and degradation of some pesticides?