The development and accomplishments of encapsulation strategies in the agrochemical field are reviewed. To this end, reasons for the encapsulation of agrochemicals are given and put into context with the opportunities and risks for this kind of formulation. Practical examples of encapsulation are discussed with a focus on crop protection formulation, including a short overview of available technologies. In summary it can be concluded that the development of controlled release formulations of agrochemicals still lags somewhat behind earlier expectations, this being mainly due to the strongly varying and uncontrollable environmental conditions the capsules are applied in. Only very few products claiming a controlled release of the active have made it onto the market. However, new or greatly improved products can still be achieved by means of encapsulation in areas like overcoming acute toxicity, instability, and incompatibility of actives.