Zimbabwe on Target on Methylbromide

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 09/30/2009

More than 80 per cent of Zimbabwe's tobacco growers have switched to the float bed system, putting the country on target to meet its obligations to eliminate the use of methylbromide in raising tobacco seedlings by the 2009/10 production season, according to a story in The Herald. The head of the Nematology Department of the Kutsaga Research Station in Harare, Mr Cleopas Chinheya, said that the use of methylbromide was being phased out because it was hazardous to the environment. But the float bed system has other advantages. Chinheya said the 'new' technology involved the use of fewer chemicals in smaller quantities, and required only 20 square meters of land to produce seedlings for a hectare, compared to 100 square meters for the conventional seedbed. Enditem