By Duncan Poupard

The Chinese government’s first official policy document of the Chinese New Year, ‘Document No.1’, should benefit the country’s pesticide manufacturers, reports the Ministry of Agriculture’s Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals (ICAMA). The document concerns the promotion of stable agricultural development and the increasing of farmers’ income. One of the requirements is to increase crop yield per unit area, which will stimulate greater use of pesticides, the ICAMA predicts. This year, emphasis will be placed on “supporting and protecting” the country’s agricultural industry, in order to boost its production. This is the sixth time since 2004 that the first document of the New Year has focused on agricultural issues.