What are chemical pesticides and biological pesticides?
The role of pesticides in food production
The world’s population has continued to grow since the latter half of the 20th century, and this population growth is increasing the demand for greater food production. Increasing food production requires developing new farmland and improving the productivity of existing farmland. However, developing new farmland requires enormous investment and is also difficult from the standpoint of ecosystem conservation. Pesticides are used as one means of improving agricultural productivity on existing farmland by preventing yield losses caused by diseases, insect pests, and weeds.
Chemical pesticides
Chemical pesticides are crop protection products that use chemically synthesized organic or inorganic compounds as active ingredients. In recent years, chemical pesticides have continued to improve in performance, delivering strong efficacy even at low application rates.
This has helped reduce the environmental impact of pesticide use and improve efficiency and labor savings in agricultural operations.
Our group offers key products such as Daconil (fungicide), Benzobicyclon (rice herbicide), Kanemite and Nemakick (insecticides), and Basamid (soil disinfectant). These products support a wide range of agricultural applications, including rice, fruit trees, and vegetables. Daconil is a long-selling product that has been used for more than 50 years, with no reported cases of resistance development in target plant pathogens. Benzobicyclon has been recognized for its excellent efficacy against herbicide-resistant and hard-to-control weeds, and we are continuously expanding overseas in addition to our domestic business. Kanemite is an acaricide designed to be compatible with beneficial insects; Nemakick is a nematicide that provides long-lasting control across a broad range of nematode species; and Basamid is a soil disinfectant effective against a wide range of soil-borne diseases, nematodes, and weeds. We also conduct technical outreach activities to address challenges at production sites. In addition, we offer a broad lineup of products for golf-course turf and non-crop areas.
Biological pesticides
Biological pesticides (biopesticides) are biological crop protection products that use living organisms—such as microorganisms—or beneficial insects as active agents.
Microbial biopesticides can act selectively on target pests and pathogens, have minimal impact on non-target organisms, and are less likely to lead to resistance development.
Products that use beneficial insects are based on living natural enemies of target pests.
Leveraging the fermentation production technology (biomanufacturing) we have cultivated over many years, our group develops and supplies biopesticides, including microbial insecticides and microbial fungicides, by efficiently cultivating and producing microorganisms.