New Delhi A week ahead of the next meeting of the WHO framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC), the tobacco farmers world over have sought representation in the meeting scheduled for discussing the issue of shifting to alternative crop because of health hazards due to rising tobacco consumption.

Articles 17 and 18 of FCTC, which India is a signatory, deal with provisions related to taking up of alternative crop by tobacco growers and environmental impact of tobacco crop.

The impact of insecticide resistance on insect-borne disease programs is difficult to quantify. The possibility of eliminating malaria in high-transmission settings is heavily dependent on effective vector control reducing disease transmission rates. Pyrethroids are the dominant insecticides used for malaria control, with few options for their replacement. Their failure will adversely affect our ability to control malaria.

Integrating perennials with food crops could restore soil health and increase staple yields, say Jerry D. Glover, John P. Reganold and Cindy M. Cox.

This overview of recent research on health behaviour change in developing countries shows progress as well as pitfalls. In order to provide guidance to health and social scientists seeking to change common practices that contribute to illness and death, there needs to be a common approach to developing interventions and evaluating their outcomes. Strategies forming the basis of interventions and programs to change behaviour need to focus on three sources: theories of behaviour change, evidence for the success and failure of past attempts, and an in-depth understanding of one’s audience.

As of of 30 June 2012, WSSCC’s Global Sanitation Fund supports work actively in Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Madagascar, Malawi, Nepal, Senegal and Uganda. In those countries, 94 sub-grantees have raised awareness of sanitation and hygiene nationally and in a number of regions.

More than 10 percent of Malawi's inhabitants will need food aid over the next few months following massive crop failure in the south, a report said Monday.

The article reviews and summarizes the climate change mitigation and adaptation work undertaken by ICRISAT. The effects of climate change are already being experienced in several parts of the world. Even though the effects of climate change will be felt over all kinds of agricultural production systems, they will be more pronounced in dryland areas

For villagers in Mwandama, Malawi, visiting a health worker used to mean a daunting 40-kilometre round trip on foot. So the medical centre that was built in the area as part of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) last year has improved their quality of life — and their health. Research published this week suggests that the MVP has significantly reduced infant mortality at sites across Africa.

Ahead of the World Bank's Spring Meetings here this week, government ministers from almost 40 developing countries are meeting with UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, UK International Developm

Low-cost solar panels and solar batteries will be provided to poor communities in 14 countries in Africa and Asia in the next four years, the UN Development Programme said Thursday.

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