Growing trend of TCM remedies for farming

LANZHOU - Traditional Chinese medicine has long been favored by many to avoid the side effects of Western remedies - and it is now a new choice for sick crops.

A remedy using extracts from Chinese herbs was approved last month by Ecocert, a French organic certification organization, and can now be used in organic farming in the United States and Japan.

The biological remedy can treat and prevent diseases in vegetables, fruit trees, tea and tobacco, without causing harm to crops or the environment, according to researchers who developed the remedy at Lanzhou Jiaotong University in Gansu province.