ET Highland Farm, one of the companies engaged in Ethiopia's floriculture industry of the country, has announced that it was striving to replace the use of chemicals by using Integrated Pest Management programme (IPM) to eliminate harmful insects in its flower farm.
A company official said applying the program will help destroy the hazardous pests while minimizing side effects to the farm because it only uses beneficiary insects.
Farm Manager Emebet Tesfaye said during a farm visit by MPs that her company has been testing the technology for the last seven months in one of the green houses of the farm and saw satisfactory results. She said her company will be in a position to afford to import the beneficiary insects from Holland, which she said were 15-20% more expensive than the chemicals."
"This method is the best step not only for flowers but also for agricultural products," said Santosh Kulkarni, Product Manager at the farm.
ET Highland Farm started exporting flowers to the international market around December 2005. Starting from July 2007- July 2008, they sent 19 million stems.
The Africa Monitor
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August 25, 2008
Ethiopian flower firm to adopt Integrated Pest Management
Categories Ethiopia, flowers, pest control
