Prime Sarmiento
MANILA, Dec 22 2008 (IPS) – Cecilia Moran never thought that she would one day have to give up farming owing to poor health. She grew up helping her father tend a family-owned plot in Davao province. The sale of such produce as rice, corn, coconut and durian in the local market took care of family needs.
A few months ago, after being weakened by tuberculosis, Moran retired from farming. Her illness, Moran said, was brought on by constant exposure to aerial spraying with toxic pesticides.
Big agribusiness corporations in Davao employ aerial spraying to kill Sigatoka , a fungus that attacks the leaves of banana plants and causes premature aging of fruits. Bananas, primarily grown in Davao, are a valued export crop and earns for the Philippines over 400 m…
School children in Nepal’s Matatirtha village practice an earthquake drill in the event of a natural disaster. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal on Apr. 25, 2015, has endangered the lives of close to a million children. Credit: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/CC-BY-2.0
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 27 2015 (IPS) – The death toll has now passed 3,300, and there is no telling how much farther it will climb. Search and rescue operations in Nepal entered their third day Monday, as the government and international aid agencies scramble to cope with the aftermath of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck this South Asian nation on Apr. 25.
Severe aftershock…
Though not a human health risk, Tilapia Lake Virus has large potential impact on global food security and nutrition. Credit: FAO
ROME, May 29 2017 (IPS) – A highly contagious disease is spreading among farmed and wild tilapia, one of the world s most important fish for human consumption, the United Nations warns, adding that though not a human health risk, Tilapia Lake Virus has large potential impact on global food security and nutrition.
The outbreak should be treated with concern and countries importing tilapias should take appropriate risk-management measures intensifying diagnostics testing, enforcing health certificates, deploying quarantine measures and developi…