The world’s food supply is under constant threat from pests that deprive crops of precious resources, deplete plant health and threaten the livelihood of growers. Because these pests are highly adaptive to changing actions to control them, it is important that growers have as many tools as possible available to them to effectively counter the threat from pests. Pesticides like metam soil fumigants have been effectively used for more than 40 years as part of pest management strategies by growers around the world. By controlling pests through soil fumigation, crop yields and farm profits increase while food prices go down. Moreover, effective pesticide management reduces the need for additional pesticides and resources to ensure crop health.
In 2008, the U.S. EPA concluded in 2009 the following about the benefits of using metam fumigants:
“Due to the broad range of pests controlled, soil fumigants are used in the production of a wide variety of crops and provide high benefits for many growers.”