Innovation `imperative’ for securing rice production

0 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 19.02.2024 (SciDev.Net): Innovations in rice production and eco-friendly practises must be made viable for small-scale farmers in the global South in the face of climate threats, says Yvonne Pinto, incoming head of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Relied upon by more than half of the world’s population for nearly 80 per cent of their dietary needs, rice is pivotal to ensuring global food security, with consumption increasing even as the climate crisis jeopardises production and the livelihoods of millions of people.

About 520.4 million metric tonnes were consumed worldwide in the 2022-23 crop year, up by almost a quarter from 437.2 million metric tonnes in the crop year 2008-2009, according to the data platform Statista. The Food and Agriculture Organization says developing countries produce and consume about 95 per cent of the global rice output.

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Dr Gorur Harinath – a good innings in medicine, multiculturalism & cricket

0 Comments read Diaspora, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Growing up on the Osmania University campus in Hyderabad (India), Gorur Harinath would meet medical students, who would sometimes join him and his mates for a game of cricket on the campus grounds. One day, curious about what was taught in the medical college, he asked one of the boys to show him his classroom.

He was taken to the anatomy laboratory, where students were performing dissection on dead bodies. “It was my introduction to medical science, but in that epiphanous moment, I decided that one day I would become a doctor”, says Dr Harinath, who graduated in medicine in 1970.

After graduation, most of his batchmates began applying to universities in the United States or the United Kingdom to pursue post-graduation and eventually migrate. “To get admission in the US, students had to sit an exam which was conducted in Singapore and other countries, but not in India. My father, who was a horticulturalist, couldn’t afford to send me overseas to sit the exam as we were six siblings and he was the only breadwinner”, he adds.

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How GPs can help cut HIV transmission

0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 18.10.2023 (Healthed): In the inner-city area of Sydney where HIV was once most prevalent, new HIV acquisition has dropped by 88% since 2010, through community outreach and prevention efforts, including widespread availability and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

It’s an example that highlights both progress and potential — while HIV remains a global health challenge, it is more treatable and more preventable than ever before, and GPs play a pivotal role in further reducing transmission and improving quality of life.

Associate Professor and sexual health physician, Jason Ong, from Monash University and the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, says diagnosing people living with HIV earlier and immediately linking them to ongoing care and treatment is crucial to this.

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