December 18, 2007

China opts more ecological ways to manage grain reserve

China is exploring more ecological and effective ways to manage its grain storage to save resources.

As part of a project with the United National Industrial Development Organization, China has stopped using bromomethane as a pesticide in grain storage.

The pesticide was found to have adversarial effects to the ozone layer and leaves a residue in foodstuffs, He Yi, director of the department of distribution and science and technology development under the State Grain Administration (SGA), discussed.

Tan Bengang, an SGA official who oversaw the project to replace the chemical, said that phosphine fumigation was used in place of bromomethane to control pests at storage depots, especially those in southern China which are most prone to damage by pests.

Phosphine is safer to the environment and less likely to leave residues in foodstuffs, experts have said.

Meanwhile, authorities are probing on other physical methods of controlling pests in grain depots, like the use of special inert dust and simulating low-voltage oxygen environments in which the pests cannot survive.