Manga Reportage "Visits to Sumitomo Group"
Agro & Life Solutions Research Laboratory
Sumitomo Chemical

Sumitomo Chemical tackles the challenges facing our society with its products and technologies.
For this article, we visited the Agro & Life Solutions Research Laboratory, where researchers are hard at work developing new agrochemicals, functional fertilizers, and household insecticides that are both safer and more effective.

Climate change is causing big challenges. What kinds of agrochemicals are being developed to help?

A greenhouse lined with a wide variety of test crops
grown in pots for evaluating candidate compounds.

The Chemistry Research Center (CRC), the facility for
synthesis research within the Agro & Life Solutions
Research Laboratory, was completed in 2018.

At Sumitomo Chemical’s Agro & Life Solutions Research Laboratory in Takarazuka City, Hyogo Prefecture, researchers work on everything from agrochemicals, fertilizers, and agricultural materials—essential for growing safe, reliable crops and ensuring a stable food supply—to household insecticides. Their overarching themes are boosting crop yields and farm efficiency, and helping people live healthier, more hygienic lives. I was amazed to learn that this is where most of the active ingredients in the mosquito coils, liquid mosquito repellents, and aerosol insecticides we all know so well were actually developed. And in 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed Olyset Net—a mosquito net with insecticidal ingredients incorporated in the fibers—as the world’s first long-lasting insecticidal net. The WHO now recommends its use in countries and regions struggling with malaria and other infectious diseases.

Agrochemicals and insecticides may be widely used already, but pests can develop resistance over time, making them less effective. And because people now expect products to be even safer and more environmentally friendly, the lab is continually taking on the challenge of creating new ones. What really surprised me was just how many years it takes for a single agrochemical to reach the world.

“First, we design and synthesize new compounds and ‘screen’ for promising candidates. We run initial tests in the lab and greenhouse to check the efficacy, safety, and environmental impact of the many compounds we produce, and if something looks good, we go as far as filing a patent. How long this stage takes really depends on the compound. From there, the development flow for an agrochemical goes through a ‘practicality assessment’ of the selected candidate, then—once we decide to move forward—into ‘development and registration filings,’ and finally ‘manufacturing and sales’ after the regulatory authorities complete their review,” explains Mr. Fujio Mukumoto, General Manager of the Research Planning & Coordination Office. “Even after a candidate is selected, it takes about 12 years on average, before it reaches the market.”

“Sumitomo Chemical, everywhere you look!” An illustration of strawberries being harvested. An illustration of mosquito coils being used while camping. An illustration of insect repellent being placed in a closet. — The products developed by the Agro & Life Solutions Sector are essential both for crop production and for our everyday comfort.

Mr. Mukumoto then took us through the labs and greenhouses where the preliminary evaluations and practicality assessments are carried out. “Here, we test the efficacy of candidate compounds for insecticides and fungicides by placing insects on pot-grown plants or inducing disease. To ensure accurate results, we grow the plants to uniform sizes and take care to keep out any insects other than the target pests,” he explains. Machines that automatically spray test compounds onto plants not only make the work more efficient but also help keep researchers safe.

Candidate compounds undergo preliminary evaluation
for efficacy, safety, and other factors.

Plants are grown under protective covers to shield them from other insects.

Once a compound shows a certain level of efficacy at the research lab, they move on to outdoor testing at a small trial field in Kasai City, about an hour’s drive away. And if it performs well there too, the final evaluations are carried out at test farms around the world.

“Doesn’t it scare you?” “I’ve gotten used to it! Grow big”

I asked Mr. Atsushi Iwata, the Laboratory Director, what he thinks makes this lab stand out. “More than our facilities or equipment, what I’m most proud of is our teamwork. We have eight research groups—Including synthesis, biology, and others— and all of them work together when developing a single product. Our specialties may differ, but we all share the same goal. We brought five new agrochemicals to market between 2020 and 2024, which is the best in the industry, and I’m confident that this achievement was only possible because of our teamwork,” says Mr. Iwata.

For example, INDIFLIN—the active ingredient in a fungicide for soybeans and the first of the five agrochemicals to be developed—succeeded because development started before soybean rust began spreading in Brazil. “Our research policy aligned well with a white space in the market, and the timing also matched our rapid globalization since the 1990s,” says Mr. Iwata.

Over 12 years for just one agrochemical to reach the world!

“Since developing an agrochemical takes about 12 years, each group sets detailed milestones to keep on track!” Screening (●×▲ years) “It’s working! The insects are gone!”

Practicality assessment (2-3 years) “It’s working in this field too!” “Great!” Development and registration filings (3-5 years) “It works in my country, too!” “Yes! We can file for registration!”

Manufacturing and sales (2-6 years) “All our hard work paid off!!”

“This is what teamwork at Sumitomo Chemical looks like!” “Wow…you’re the only one who’s aged from all this hard work!”

Looking ahead, Sumitomo Chemical wants to play a role in “regenerative agriculture,” which aims to restore natural capital without sacrificing—and ideally improving—agricultural productivity. A good example is the herbicide they developed specifically for no-till cultivation. “People may think of agrochemicals as a necessary evil, but there are farming practices that use them to help heal the environment,” Mr. Iwata explains. He went on to say that the company is also pushing forward with innovative, low-impact chemical pesticides and with biorational products made from natural ingredients. I left with a sense of how rapidly the world of agrochemicals is progressing.

Editor's note

The Agro & Life Solutions Sector conducts R&D globally in collaboration with R&D units of overseas Group companies. These efforts are spearheaded by the Agro & Life Solutions Research Laboratory in Takarazuka City. At first glance, the greenhouses full of plants look like a very analog world—but when it comes to selecting candidate compounds from more than 160,000 options, AI is hard at work behind the scenes.