The crop protection industry has joined hands with Crop Life India, an association of technology-driven agriculture companies, to form an Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force in a bid to check the rampan
Key weapons in the fight against malaria, pyrethroid insecticides, are losing their edge. Over the past decade, billions of dollars have been spent on distributing long-lasting pyrethroid-treated bed nets and on indoor spraying. Focused in Africa, where most malaria deaths occur, these efforts have greatly reduced the disease's toll. But they have also created intense selection pressure for mosquitoes to develop resistance.
Ban on popular but much-maligned insecticide endosulfan in Kerala and Karnataka due to its alleged health hazards is being seen by some experts as not just unreasonable and unscientific but also as one that could lead farmers to use potentially more dangerous and costlier insecticides, particularly in the cotton belt.
Bosco Acope and his family tend their farm in Atek, Uganda, where the government's use of DDT has threatened their livelihood.
Growing up as a child here along the muggy, isolated plains of northern Uganda, life was not easy. His parents were poor. He did not attend secondary school. Many of his friends died from bouts of malaria, a scourge that has plagued this agrarian society.
Insecticide treated nets (ITN) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) are the two pillars of malaria vector control in Africa, but both interventions are beset by quality and coverage concerns. Data from three control programs were used to investigate the impact of: 1) the physical deterioration of ITNs, and 2) inadequate IRS spray coverage, on their respective protective effectiveness.
The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday observed that it was not right to make public comments on the endosulfan ban.
Four companies which have challenged the ban had contended that public comments were having an adverse effect. The court held that the matter was sub judice and nothing could be disclosed till the final verdict.
