China plans to reform its system of pesticide registration and increase international dialogue in the field, according to Gu Baogen, deputy director of the Institute for Control of Agrochemicals at the Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA). Gu outlined the current status and direction of pesticide registration in China at the 2011 AgrochemEx conference in Shanghai last month.

By the end of June 2011, China had 22,545 pesticide products with full registrations, making up 86% of total pesticide registrations in the country. Five years ago, full pesticide registrations only made up 20% of the total. There were also 3,115 temporary approvals, although the ICAMA will be taking steps to phase out temporary registrations in the coming years. The total number of registrations was 1,363 less than last year. "Low-toxicity" pesticides account for 71.6% of all registrations.