Agro-input dealers' perspectives on the design of a certification scheme for pesticide risk reduction.

Background: While pesticides are essential for crop protection and food security, they pose serious risks to human health and the environment. Agro-input dealers can play an important role in mitigating pesticide risks, given that they are a major source of pesticides and plant health information for many developing-country farmers. In this article, we assess the willingness of agro-input dealers to offer integrated pest management-based advisory services and promote pesticide risk reduction through a voluntary certification scheme.

Assessment of the socio-economic impacts associated with the arrival of apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) in Mwea irrigation scheme, Kenya.

Background: In Kenya, rice (Oryza sativa L.) is mainly produced under irrigation by small-scale farmers. Mwea irrigation scheme (MIS) in Kirinyaga County accounts for 80-88% of rice production.

COVID-19 implications on household income and food security in Kenya and Uganda: Findings from a rapid assessment.

This study assessed implications of the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic on household income and food security in two East African countries - Kenya and Uganda, using online survey data from 442 respondents. Results show that more than two-thirds of the respondents experienced income shocks due to the COVID-19 crisis. Food security and dietary quality worsened, as measured by the food insecurity experience scale and the frequency of consumption of nutritionally-rich foods.

Understanding smallholders' responses to fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) invasion: Evidence from five African countries.

Fall armyworm (FAW) is a new invasive pest that is causing devastating effects on maize production and threatening the livelihoods of millions of poor smallholders across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Using unique survey data from 2356 maize-growing households in Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, we examined how smallholder farmers are fighting this voracious pest. In particular, we assessed the FAW management strategies used by smallholders, socio-economic factors driving the choice of the management options, the complementarities or tradeoffs among the management options, and the (un)safe pesticide use practices of farmers.

Perceptions and exposure to climate events along agricultural value chains: Evidence from Nigeria.

Africa's food systems are among the most vulnerable sectors to climate risk. Unfortunately, numerous activities along food supply chains (production, processing, storage, marketing and consumption) are also important contributors to climate change. Despite the differential effect of climate events on activities along food supply chains and vice versa, most climate change perception studies in agriculture focus on producers, particularly crop farmers.

The impact of ICT-enabled extension campaign on farmers' knowledge and management of fall armyworm in Uganda.

This study evaluates the unique and combined effects of three complementary ICT-based extension methods - interactive radio, mobile SMS messages and village-based video screenings - on farmers' knowledge and management of fall armyworm (FAW), an invasive pest of maize that is threatening food security in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Building on a survey of maize farmers in western Uganda and using various selection-on-observables estimators, we find consistent evidence that participation in the ICT-based extension campaigns significantly increases farmers' knowledge about FAW and stimulates the adoption of agricultural technologies and practices for the management of the pest. We also show that exposure to multiple campaign channels yields significantly higher outcomes than exposure to a single channel, with some evidence of additive effects.

Impact Assessment of Biological Control-Based Integrated Pest Management in Rice and Maize in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

The impact and sustainability of two interventions that have been formulated to introduce integrated pest management (IPM) into rice and maize crops in Southwestern China, Laos, and Myanmar between 2011 and 2016, and were assessed at the end of 2017. From 22 rearing facilities established during the interventions, 11 were still producing substantial quantities of biocontrol agents 1.5 years after project support had ended, while seven had stopped operations completely, and four were doing stock rearing only.

Management of gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum with single-dose kanamycin and ocular irrigation with saline.

Two hundred nineteen neonates with gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum, including 40 infected with penicillinase-producing strains, were treated as outpatients with a single intramuscular injection of 100 mg of kanamycin and hourly ocular irrigation with saline. Neisseria gonorrhoeae was isolated from three (1.4%) of the 212 babies attending for follow-up, and post-gonococcal conjunctivitis developed in 22 (10.

Treatment of infection due to penicillinase-producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae with oral thiamphenicol and with oral lymecycline.

Seventy-five men with gonococcal urethritis were treated with a single oral dose of thiamphenicol, and 88 men with this infection were treated with two 1.5-g oral doses of lymecycline taken 12 hr apart. Of the 75 subjects treated with thiamphenicol, 72 (96%) were cured, as compared with 80 (91%) treated with lymecycline.