Structural replacement with persistent concentration in insecticide registrations for soil-dwelling pest control in China, 2005-2025

Changes in insecticide registrations document chemical replacement, but do not necessarily indicate a less concentrated registration structure. We analyzed insecticides first approved in China during 2005-2025 for soil-dwelling pest control, linking products, crop-pest uses and active ingredients (AIs).

The dataset comprised 1513 products, 1902 crop-pest use entries and 1879 product-AI entries. White grubs and Chinese chive gnats accounted for 43.6% and 17.5% of use entries, respectively. Registration composition shifted from acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors towards nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR)-acting insecticides, alongside changes in label toxicity classes. Based on the original IRAC designations, mode-of-action (MoA) diversity and evenness were generally higher after the early study period, but concentration periodically rebounded, whereas annual Top-3 and Top-5 AI shares ranged from 50% to 87%, and from 62.5% to 100%, respectively. Registration breadth and concentration differed among crop-pest systems. Mixture products collectively exceeded single-insecticide products in every annual cohort from 2020 onwards, whereas I + I products alone did so from 2021 onwards and increasingly involved combinations containing nAChR-acting insecticides.

Chemical replacement was accompanied by partial MoA diversification, persistent concentration and a marked shift towards mixture products in recent cohorts. Growth in product numbers was accompanied by chemical replacement and increasing prevalence of mixture products, but did not eliminate concentration at the AI or MoA level. Linking products, authorized uses and AIs can identify registration patterns that should be compared with current registration, pesticide-use and resistance data; it does not measure actual use, mixture performance or resistance status. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.