Fungicide application in early rice planting in three regions of Hunan in 2012

In terms of the results of a pesticide survey lately conducted by CCM, Jingangmycin, isoprothiolane and propiconazole•difenoconazole 30% EC (Brand name: Armure) were the mainstream rice fungicides in the early rice planting of Hengyang, Yueyang and Changde of Hunan Province in 2012.

CCM has recently completed a survey of pesticide application for 2012 early rice planting in Hengyang City (Hengyang), Yueyang City (Yueyang) and Changde City (Changde) of Hunan Province. In the survey, a total of 900 farmers in these three regions were interviewed. The survey covered 69 pesticides, including 34 insecticides, 19 herbicides, 14 fungicides, 1 rodenticide and 1 molluscicide. In this issue, Fungicides China News 1305, CCM focuses on the application of fungicides in these three key rice planting regions of Hunan.

According to the survey, the market value of fungicide products was the highest in the early rice planting of Hengyang in 2012 among the three regions, amounting to about USD22.74 million (RMB140 million), accounting for 18.7% of the total (pesticides' market value in the region). Though the market value of fungicide products was the lowest in the early rice planting of Yueyang, around USD11.37 million (RMB70 million), the region's application proportion of fungicides in the total pesticides ranked No. 2, reaching 15.9%. As for Changde, the application proportion of its fungicides in early rice planting was only 15.4%, lower than those of the other two regions.

In general, the use volume of jingangmycin, one of the conventional rice fungicides, was the largest in the early rice planting of Hengyang, Yueyang and Changde of Hunan in 2012, thanks to its sound performance-to-price ratio and widespread application. It is followed by isoprothiolane, a product mainly used to control rice blast, one of the most serious rice diseases, and propiconazole•difenoconazole 30% EC (Brand name: Armure) produced by Syngenta, a world-leading crop protection company. In addition, tricyclazole, mancozeb, iprobenfos, carbendazim, kasugamycin, etc., have a certain market share in the early rice planting of the three major rice production regions of Hunan last year.

Specifically, the application of isoprothiolane was the highest in the early rice planting of Yueyang in 2012, accounting for 30.0% of the total (rice fungicides). It is particularly worth noting that in the early rice planting of Changde, jingangmycin's application proportion reached as high as 53.2% last year, far above the levels in Hengyang and Yueyang. And Armure, the most popular brand of rice fungicides, received much favorable comments from the local rice growers in Hunan, owing to its excellent prevention and control efficacy on rice diseases, especially rice sheath blight; the application proportions of this fungicide in the early rice planting of Hengyang, Yueyang and Changde in 2012 were 16.5%, 20.6% and 9.2% respectively.

As a matter of fact, most rice growers in Hengyang, Yueyang and Changde have almost no brand awareness in choosing a pesticide. Thus, only a few rice fungicide brands were mentioned in this survey, and the top three ones in terms of mentioned times in the survey were Armure, Nativo (trifloxystrobin•tebuconazole 75% WDG) and Horizon (tebuconazole 430g/L SC). The latter two belong to Bayer, one of the well-known multinational companies. Worse still, many farmers in Hengyang, Yueyang and Changde know little about preventing and controlling rice diseases by good rice fungicide brands from domestic agrochemical companies.

Hunan is one of the major rice producing provinces in China, with a large market for rice fungicides. To capture more market shares, not only multinational companies but also domestic agrochemical ones need to continuously strengthen the training of fungicide-using level for the local farmers and help them build a good brand awareness.