Although fertilizers and pesticides are widely used in agriculture, they sometimes cause hazards to both humans and the environment. Recently, controlled-release granules have been studied to save on labor and to reduce the environmental load. 1) Granular fertilizers coated with polymers have been developed as controlled-release fertilizers. 2,3) Two release types of coated granular fertilizers have been developed: sustained-release type and timed-release type. 4) Timed-release technology was first developed by Fujita et al. 5) The timed-release granule (TRG) was designed to release the active ingredient at a predetermined time (lag time) after application. There have been a number of reports on water-soluble core granules used as fertilizers. [6][7][8] The second innovative development is single basal nursery fertilization for transplanted crops. This technology was developed by Sato et al., making the best use of TRG. 9) All the fertilizer nitrogen needed for crop growth in the field is applied by sheet placement using timed-release fertilizer, and crop seeds are sown directly on or under the timed-release fertilizer layer. This fertilizer is quite accurately release controlled so that fertilizer salt injury to crop seedlings does not occur.In the field of pesticides, Sato et al. attempted to develop coated granular pesticides made up of water-soluble or volatile active ingredients coated with thermoplastic polymer composition, 10) while Nagai et al. attempted to develop timedrelease pesticides with a double layer membrane structure [11][12][13][14] ; however, it was difficult to apply those technologies to slightly water-soluble active ingredients.In a previous paper, 15) we showed a novel timed-release system with a certain lag time of pesticide release, which has been developed using polymer-coated water-swelling granules including a slightly water-soluble herbicide. In the report, the polymer membrane composition included water-permeable materials together with LDPE, and inorganic materials were used to control the lag time and the period of pesticide release.Pest control in Japan, as in most rice-producing countries, has largely relied on insecticides. Granular insecticides are applied in the nursery box before transplanting. Insecticides are embedded into the paddy soil near the root zone and are easily absorbed by the rice plant. In this treatment, systemic insecticides are imbibed orally by sucking insects through plant tissues. Chloronicotinyl/neonicotinoid insecticides are a rapidly growing chemical class of insecticides.We have succeeded in developing a TRG of systemic insecticides using a single layer membrane. The objective of this study was to develop timed-release technology by coating commonly used systemic insecticides with the polymer composition.In this paper, the effect of the membrane composition of A novel timed-release system with a certain lag time (or release-suppression time) of pesticides has been developed using coated water-swelling granules including a systemic insecticide. The l...