Definition of Biopesticides in China

There is no special definition of biopesticides under Pesticide Management Act in China. Broad definition of biopesticides refers to the direct use of bioactive substances produced in living organisms or in the process of biological metabolism or substances extracted from organisms (and synthetic compounds with the same structure as natural compounds) as pesticides for the prevention and control of diseases, pests, grass and mice, that is, commonly referred to as biogenic pesticides.

In China, pesticides are usually divided into chemical pesticides, biochemical pesticides, microbial pesticides and botanical pesticides according to their sources and the latter three are often regarded as biopesticides. 2017 Announcement No. 2569 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China "Data Requirements for Pesticide Registration" has formulated separate registration data requirements for biochemical pesticides, microbial pesticides and botanical pesticides.

Even though there is no single definition of biopesticide in China, there are definitions for biochemical pesticides, microbial pesticides and botanical pesticides. These definitions will help you determine whether your products can be classified as biopesticides in China.

Definition of Biochemical Pesticides

It refers to pesticides that meet the following two conditions at the same time:

• firstly, they have no direct toxicity to the target, but only have special effects such as regulating growth, interfering with mating or luring;
• secondly, they are natural compounds. If they are synthetic, their structure should be the same as that of natural compounds (differences in the proportion of isomers are allowed).

Definition of Microbial Pesticides

It refers to pesticides with bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa or genetically modified microorganisms as active ingredients.

Definition of Botanical Pesticides

It refers to pesticides whose active ingredients are directly derived from plants.

Up to Nov 2021, the total number of active ingredients of microbial pesticides, biochemical pesticides and botanical pesticides registered in China has reached 120, accounting for about 15% of the total number of active ingredient of pesticides, including about 38 biochemical pesticides, about 52 microbial pesticides, about 27 botanical pesticides and about 2500 registered formulation products, accounting for 3.6% of the total number of registered products.

Since the data requirements for biopesticides are much lower than chemical pesticides, it is not as expensive as you think to register a new biopesticide in China. If you have any questions, we can provide free consultation on registration cost analysis.

On 17 December 2021, CIRS hosted a free webinar on data requirements and challenges of biopesticides registration in China, if you are interested, please click to watch replay.