Green-Friendly Agrochemicals: What’s Hot in 2023

With Japan’s efforts to phase out conventional agrochemicals in motion, look toward novel solutions to take their place

Japan’s Strategy for Sustainable Food System, launched last year, started a full-scale operation in late 2022. As we blogged about last year, the plan for conventional small molecule agrochemicals usage to be gradually reduced by 2050 is included, but the Japanese government does not show the detailed plan on how to meet that goal on use of agrochemicals. They merely suggest a comprehensive approach should be utilized.

Historically, the Japanese agrochemical companies have strength/advantage on chemical substance development for crop protection product, so a gamechanger would be needed to address the sustainable food production as spelled out in the new act. Expect a developmental plan for advanced technologies such as an RNAi-based pesticide, and other green-friendly crop protection solutions to be considered by both government and the agrochemical industry in 2023.

-- Hiro Minami, PhD, Director of the Discovery & Safety Assessment Group in Japan