On August 12, 2026, China Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released the format and generation requirements for QR codes on pesticide labels (Announcement No. 1049 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs).

On July 31, 2026, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) released the draft revised version of the Data Requirements for Pesticide Registration for public comment, with a deadline of August 21. This revision represents a major update that will exert a profound impact on pesticide registration and management in China over the next 5 to 10 years. In this article, the Agrochemical Business Division of CIRS Group provides a comprehensive overview of the main regulatory changes and analyzes their implications, offering decision-making references for pesticide registration and R&D personnel.

10 April 2026, the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (ICAMA) in China officially released a new batch of new pesticide registrations to be approved for public consultations. Among them, the first RNA interference (RNAi)-based biopesticides developed by Silicon Gene were on the list. This breakthrough signifies that RNAi technology has successfully transitioned from laboratory research to commercial application in China.

To further improve the pesticide management system, the Department of Crop Production and the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, considering the development of China's pesticide industry and environmental protection requirements, formulated and issued a series of relevant policies in 2025, especially the revisions of four regulations, including the Measures on the Management of Pesticide Registration.

On November 4, 2025, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released a draft on the Regulations for the Registration Management of Pesticides for Overseas Use Only for public consultation. The proposed rules aim to streamline the process for registering pesticides that are produced in China solely for export.

October 17, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China updated its "Guidelines for Fertilizer Registration in China" on its government service platform. In particular, the guidelines introduced higher and clearer requirements for fertilizer efficiency experiments, stipulating that the experiment leader must be a currently employed person with a senior professional title, and that experiment video data and records must be attached to the experiment report. This article compares this with the fertilizer registration service guidelines published in Announcement No. 222 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on October 14, 2019, for reference by industry colleagues.

The final versions of five regulations on pesticide registration have recently been released. The regulatory update has undergone a multi-year review process. Beginning in April 2022, China's Pesticide Management Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MOA) solicited feedback on these pesticide regulations for the first time. This was followed by a second draft released for comment in early 2023 and a third notification in November 2024. The process has now concluded with the official issuance of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Order No. 3 and Announcement No. 925. These five regulations will come into effect from January 1, 2026.

CIRS has summarized and analyzed the situation of approved TGAIs in China up to December 24, 2024. In 2024, a total of 167 TGAIs were registered, nearly matching the cumulative number of registrations over the past five years. The chlorantraniliprole got 23 registrations. Herbicides remain the top category without question. Among new active ingredients, microbial pesticides have the highest proportion. Shandong Weifang Rainbow has obtained the largest number of registrations.

In 2024, a total of 182 export only pesticides were approved in China, including 43 technical grade active ingredients (TGAIs) and 139 formulations. The approved new export only registration active ingredient including aclonifen, quinoxyfen, flufenoximacil, flusulfinam, fluchloraminopyr, Fluindapyr, cyproflanilide, Dichlorprop-P, and fluazaindolizine. Cambodia, Australia and Brazil remain the top destination countries for export-only applications.

To further enhance the pesticide management system, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' Pesticide Management Office, in collaboration with the Institute Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, P.R. China (ICAMA), developed and released a series of policies in 2024. These policies align with pesticide development and environmental protection requirements, particularly through the implementation of five draft regulations, including the "Pesticide Registration Management Measures."