Posts tagged Farmers

No ‘human-to-human infection’ of bird flu in Cambodia

0 Comments read Health & Science
A man with his rooster in Battambang, Cambodia. Photo Credit ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 02.03.2023 (SciDev.Net): Cambodian health authorities have confirmed that the two avian flu cases last week in Prey Veng province were “infected from birds in their village” and that “no transmission between father and daughter has been found”.

“As of today [1 March], there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission in Cambodia and the response is still ongoing,” Ailan Li, WHO Representative to Cambodia, told SciDev.Net following the death of an 11-year-old girl from the virus. “While there have been a few infections in humans globally, so far, the virus is not known to spread from person to person easily.”

The infection, which largely affects birds and animals, has a 50 per cent mortality rate in humans. Globally, 873 human cases of H5N1 and 458 deaths have been reported in 21 countries since 2003, according to the UN health agency.

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Ozone threatens food security

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science
Photo Credit: ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.06.2021 (SciDev.Net): Tropospheric and surface ozone pollution pose significant threats to global crop production and food security, but farmers are largely unaware of its impact on agriculture and damage to ecosystems, say scientists.

According to scientists, ozone, as an air pollutant, is highly oxidising and damages plant tissues. But because it is an invisible, odourless gas that often co-occurs with other stresses, such as heat stress, farmers do not directly experience it.

Baerbel Sinha, head of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, in Mohali, India, says: “If one wants to look at where ozone is possibly disturbing the economics on a large scale, and where one may also be able to educate farmers better, it would be the legumes — soybean, chickpeas and beans in general are very ozone sensitive, their prices are not regulated and they display visible ozone damage on the leaf.”

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