Agricultural Transformation / Transformation agricole

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10625/35552

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 20 of 152
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Compendium on ICTs use
    (2018-10) Tawk, Salwa Tohmé; Karam, Sarah
    The main challenges facing extension services and the use of ICT is the limited budget and the diversity of farmers with respect to farming systems, literacy and age. Moreover, some areas lack the tools to use ICT (such as connectivity, computers and smart phones), hence the role of extension agents remains important.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Programa infantes y salud ambiental con un enfoque ecosistémico (ISA) : informe técnico final (abril 2009 - abril 2013); resumen ejecutivo
    (Universidad Nacional, IRET-UNA, Heredia, CR, 2013-05) Wendel de Joode, Berna van; Quesada, Rosario
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Infant environmental health program using an ecosystem approach (ISA) : final technical report (April 2009 - April 2013); executive summary
    (Central American Institute for Studies on Toxic Substances (IRET), Universidad Nacional (UNA), Heredia, CR, 2013-05) Wendel de Joode, Berna van; Quesada, Rosario
    The program was created to assess and improve the sustainability of production systems of banana and plantain, using agroecological approaches to human health, particularly with regard to pesticide exposure and neurodevelopment of 0-2 years-old babies. In indigenous communities where plantains are being produced by smallholders, highly toxic pesticides are increasingly used. By analyzing impact of pesticides on children and with implementation of alternatives to pesticides, the project aims to improve pesticide awareness and health of people living in the ‘Huetar Atlántica’ region.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Programa infantes y salud ambiental con un enfoque ecosistémico (ISA) : informe técnico final (abril 2009 - abril 2013)
    (Universidad Nacional, IRET-UNA, Heredia, CR, 2013-05) Wendel de Joode, Berna van; Quesada, Rosario
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Social communication network analysis of the role of participatory research in the adoption of new fish consumption behaviors
    (Elsevier, 2012) Frédéric Mertens; Johanne Saint-Charles; Donna Mergler
    The formulation and communication of fish advisories are highly complex because of the potential conflict between the nutritional and toxicological issues associated with fish consumption. Government and organization-sponsored fish advisories have had limited success in changing behaviors. Participatory approaches may enhance the understanding of complex issues and the adoption of new behaviors. Here we used social network analysis to investigate the adoption of dietary changes within the context of a community participatory research project. In the Brazilian Amazon, many communities are highly exposed to methylmercury from fish consumption. A participatory intervention based on dietary changes aimed at reducing methylmercury exposure while maintaining fish consumptionwas initiated in 1995. In 2001, we collected data on individual participation in the research, on the discussion network regarding mercury issues and on changes in fish consumption from 96 of the 110 village households. More than half of men and women had adopted new fish consumption behavior to reduce mercury exposure. Adoption was associated with participation in the research project for both women and men, and with a higher number of discussion partners about mercury issues for women. Adoption was likewise associated with the presence of a female communication partner in the personal networks of both men and women. At the household level, men and womenwho considered their spouse as a discussion partner were more likely to adopt than those who did not. Opinion le]adership was associated with change in fish consumption only for women. We discuss the contribution of community participation and communication networks to overcome the difficulties in generating complex messages that take into account both health benefits and risks of fish consumption.We also discuss the relevance of building preventive health programs based on participatory research approaches and the roles and relations specific to men and women.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Os desafios da geração do conhecimento em saúde ambiental : uma perspectiva ecossistêmica
    (Associação Brasileira de Saúde Coletiva (ABRASCO), 2013-05) Weihs, Marla; Mertens, Frédéric
    O artigo explora as oportunidades e as limitações da geração de conhecimento no campo da saúde ambiental. Argumenta que a compreensão da complexidade dos fatores que condicionam a saúde humana e dos ecossistemas demanda redefinições na tradicional distribuição de papéis e responsabilidades na pesquisa científica. Estas práticas de pesquisa encerram enfoques inter e transdisciplinares e a aplicação de uma abordagem ecossistêmica (ecosaúde). Desafios e oportunidades da aplicação da inter e transdisciplinaridade a problemáticas de saúde ambiental são discutidos e ilustrados por meio de dois estudos de caso que utilizam uma abordagem ecosaúde: uma experiência brasileira que trata da contaminação e exposição ao mercúrio na Amazônia, e outra nepalense, sobre a transmissão urbana de equinococose. Concluímos apresentando o potencial de uma abordagem ecosaúde na superação dos limites das práticas unidisciplinares e na valorização dos saberes e da participação local.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Malaria transmission in relation to rice cultivation in the irrigated Sahel of Mali
    (Elsevier, 2003) Dolo, Guimogo; Briët, Olivier J.T.; Dao, Adama; Traoré, Sékou F.; Bouaré, Madama
    Seven cross-sectional entomological surveys were carried out from September 1995 to February 1998 in three irrigated rice growing villages and three villages without irrigated agriculture in the area surrounding Niono, located 350 km north-east of Bamako, Mali. The transmission pattern differed markedly between the two zones. In the irrigated zone, the transmission of malaria was fairly constant over the seasons at a low level. In the non-irrigated zone, transmission was mostly below detection level during the dry season, whereas it was high toward the end of the rainy season. In the irrigated zone, high densities of mosquitoes were correlated with low anthropophily, low sporozoite indices and probably low survival rates. In the non-irrigated zone, mosquito densities were lower and these relationships were less pronounced. Differential use of mosquito nets in the two zones may have been an important factor in the observed differences in transmission. The presence of cattle may also have played an important role. Two mosquito-catching methods (human landing catch and spray catch) were compared.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Knowledge and practices of pig farmers regarding Japanese encephalitis in Kathmandu, Nepal
    (Blackwell Verlag, 2012) Dhakal, S.; Stephen, C.; Ale, Anita; Joshi, D.D.
    Japanese encephalitis (JE) is the single largest cause of viral encephalitis in the world and has been endemic in Nepal since the early 1980s. Since then, it has spread from its origins in lowland plains to the Kathmandu Valley as well as in hill and mountain districts. Pigs are amplifying hosts for the virus. The Nepal government has been encouraging the development of pig farming as a means of poverty alleviation. Whereas other countries have reduced JE through vaccination programmes and improvements in pig husbandry, these options are not economically possible in Nepal. The objective of this study was to examine the occupational risk of pig farmers in Nepal and to determine their level of knowledge and practice of JE prevention techniques. We surveyed 100 randomly selected pig farmers in the Kathmandu District and found that pig farmers were exposed to many JE risk factors including poverty and close proximity to pigs, rice paddy fields and water birds, which are the definitive hosts for the virus. Forty-two percent of the farmers had heard of JE, 20% associated it with mosquito bites and 7% named pigs as risk factors. Few protective measures were taken. None of the farmers were vaccinated against JE nor were any pigs, despite an ongoing human vaccination campaign. This farming community had little ownership of land and limited education. JE education programmes must consider gender differences in access to public health information as there were an equal number of male and female farmers. We provide findings that can inform future JE education programmes for this vulnerable population.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Vietnam one health – ecohealth alliance newsletter, issue no. 1, January 2013
    (Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER), Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi, VN, 2013-01) Hanoi School of Public Health. Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER)
    The newsletter provides links to activities and events, conferences and collaborative partnerships, that work towards better research and understanding in zoonotic disease prevention. Ecosystem approaches to health, or Ecohealth, acknowledge the complex, systemic nature of public health and environmental issues and the inadequacy of conventional methodologies for dealing with them.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Healthy food for the picking kitchens and wild plants could be key to Lebanon's food security
    (Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, Ottawa, ON, CA, 2010-03) Boothroyd, James
    “Healthy Kitchens” were established in different Lebanese villages by researchers based at the American University of Beirut. They are part of a food-security project funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre. The team assessed the nutritional value of more than 40 wild edible plants, documented traditional dishes using them as ingredients, and proposed a list of healthy local foods that could improve diets at minimal cost. The study also found that villagers who pick wild edible plants and have gardens enjoy greater food security and better health. When cheap food began flooding into Lebanon, farming became unprofitable.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Chronic Pesticide Poisoning from Persistent Low-dose Exposures in Ecuadorean Floriculture Workers: Toward Validating a Low-cost Test Battery
    (Maney Publishing, 2012) Breilh, Jaime; Pagliccia, Nino; Yassi, Annalee
    Chronic pesticide poisoning is difficult to detect. We sought to develop a low-cost test battery for settings such as Ecuador’s floriculture industry. First we had to develop a case definition; as with all occupational diseases a case had to have both sufficient effective dose and associated health effects. For the former, using canonical discriminant analysis we found that adding measures of protection and overall environmental stressors to occupational category and duration of exposure was useful. For the latter, factor analysis suggested three distinct manifestations of pesticide poisoning. We then determined sensitivity and specificity of various combinations of symptoms and simple neurotoxicity tests from the Pentox questionnaire, and found that doing so increased sensitivity and specificity compared to use of acethylcholinesterase alone—the current screening standard. While sensitivity and specificity varied with different case definitions, our results support the development of a low-cost test battery for screening in such settings.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    One Health for One World: A Compendium of Case Studies
    (Veterinarians without Borders/ Vétérinaires sans Frontières (VWB/VSF), CA, 2010)
    Thirty common animal diseases with their geographic regions are examined in this report. Ecohealth (Ecosystem Approaches to Health) has been developed over decades by networks of researchers and Communities of Practice. The tendency remains for health-related organizations to revert to a relatively simple animal-human dyad, rather than considering the roots of human well-being and the dynamics of complex ecological systems. Even so, the case studies represented here are steps in the right direction. The document was prepared by Veterinarians without Borders, a Canadian charitable, secular veterinary-based organization which works to foster the health of animals, people and their environments.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Années lumières - 6 janvier 2013
    (Radio-Canada, Montréal, QC, CA, 2013) Laamrani, Hammou; De Plaen, Renaud; Butaré, Innocent
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Special Report | Rapport spécial: Whither ecosystem health and ecological medicine in veterinary medicine and education
    (Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, 2012) Nielsen, N Ole; Waltner-Toews, David; Nishi, John S; Hunter, D Bruce
    In Canada, the ecosystem approach/ecohealth evolved through the leadership of the International Joint Commission (IJC) and the institutional programs it supported which were given the task of protecting water quality of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem. While ecosystem management goals should reflect some measure of consensus, decisions may be conditional and subject to review due to uncertainty. The Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC, 1992) has nodes at each Canadian veterinary faculty and the Centre for Coastal Health. The governance mechanism for an ecosystem must be tailored to be adaptive to deal with new realities as they occur.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Diffusion d'informations en santé environnementale : le rôle des chemins différenciés selon le sexe et le genre
    (2012) Saint-Charles, Johanne; Rioux-Pelletier, Marie Eve; Mongeau, Pierre; Mertens, Frédéric
    Ce chapitre présente des aspects de la prise en compte du sexe et du genre qui nous apparaissent déterminants pour la recherche et l’intervention en santé environnementale. Nos réflexions sont issues de nos recherches sur la diffusion de nouvelles connaissances et pratiques en Amérique latine dans le cadre de problématiques de santé relatives à des contaminants environnementaux. Ces recherches s’inscrivent dans une approche écosystémique de la santé. Considérée comme un jalon de la santé publique au Canada (Webb et al., 2010), cette approche a émergé dans les dernières années en réponse à la complexité de nombreux problèmes alliant santé et environnement. L’équité de genre en est l’un des piliers; ce qui appelle à la prise en compte du sexe et du genre dans la recherche et dans l’intervention. Nous employons l’expression sexe/genre pour faire référence aux différences hommes-femmes tant au niveau biologique que social, considérant la difficulté de distinguer l’un et l’autre (Messing, 2007). Dans nos recherches, nous avons tenté de mieux comprendre le rôle du sexe/genre dans la diffusion d’informations et l’adoption de pratiques favorables à la santé. Deux études sont particulièrement intéressantes à cet égard : l’une portait sur l’adoption de nouvelles pratiques d’alimentation diminuant l’exposition au mercure en Amazonie brésilienne (Mertens, Saint-Charles, Mergler, Passos & Lucotte, 2005) et l’autre sur l’adoption de comportements contribuant à diminuer l’exposition aux pesticides des agriculteurs et de leur famille au Costa Rica (Rioux-Pelletier, Saint-Charles, Barraza & van Wendel de Joode, 2009). Dans les deux cas, nous avons eu recours à des méthodes mixtes incluant l’analyse des réseaux sociaux et l’analyse de contenu d’entrevues ou de groupes de discussion.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Vitamin A status of the minority ethnic group of Karen hill tribe children aged 1-6 years in Northern Thailand
    (2007) Tienboon, Prasong; Wangpakapattanawong, Prasit
    Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is the most common cause of childhood blindness in the developing world. It is estimated that by giving adequate vitamin A, in vitamin A deficient populations, child mortality from measles can be reduced by 50%, and mortality from diarrheal disease by 40%. Overall mortality in children 6-59 months of age can be reduced by 23%. This paper reported results from a study of vitamin A status and malnutrition of the minority ethnic group of Karen hill tribe children aged 1-6 years in the north of Thailand. All children aged 1-6 years (N = 158; 83 boys, 75 girls) from the three Karen villages (Mae Hae Tai, Mae Yot, Mae Raek) of Mae Chaem district in the north of Thailand were studied. The Karen is the largest mountain ethnic minority (“hill tribe”) group in Thailand. All children were examined by a qualified medical doctor and were assessed for their vitamin A intakes using 24 hours dietary recall. Thai food composition table from Ministry of Health, Thailand were used as references. The results were compared with the Thai Recommended Dietary Allowances. Children aged 1-3 years and 4-6 years were separately analysed due to the differences in Thai Recommended Dietary Allowances between the two age groups. A whole blood of 300 μL was obtained by “fingerstick” for determination of serum vitamin A. Community or village’s vitamin A status was assessed by using Simplified Dietary Assessment (SDA) method and Helen Keller International (HKI) food frequency method. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. All families of the study boys and girls had income lower than the Thailand poverty line (US $ 1,000/year). On average, 63% of children from Mae Hae Tai village, 1.5% of children from Mae Yot village and none of children from Mae Raek village had serum vitamin A <0.7 μmol/L which indicated VAD. All boys and only girls from Mae Raek village consumed vitamin A more than the Thai RDA but girls from Mae Hae Tai village and Mae Yot village consumed vitamin A less than the Thai RDA. Both boys and girls from Mae Raek village and also girls from Mae Yot village consumed vitamin A more than the Thai RDA. Using SDA and HKI methods to assess vitamin A status of the villages to see whether VAD is a village's nutritional problem, it was found that all children from the three villages were at risk of VAD. In order to improve vitamin A status of the Karen children in Mae Chaem district, recommendations were made as follow: (1) increased use of fat and oil, particularly in areas with high risk of VAD; (2) more general work with Karen communities on how children’s diets might be improved in a culturally acceptable manner, so as to bring vitamin A consumption closer to recommended allowance level.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Nutritional status, body composition and health conditions of the Karen hill tribe children aged 1-6 years in Northern Thailand
    (2007) Tienboon, Prasong; Wangpakapattanawong, Prasit
    Introduction: In Thailand, according to the national nutrition survey of the Thai population who live in the cities by the Ministry of Public Health, about 12% of preschool children aged 1-6 years were malnourished. The rate of malnutrition is much higher among mountain minority (‘hill tribe’) children than city children. This paper reports a study of malnutrition, body composition and health conditions of Karen hill tribe children aged 1-6 years in Thailand. Methods: All children aged 1-6 years (N = 158; 83 boys, 75 girls) from the three Karen villages (Mae Hae Tai, Mae Yot, Mae Raek) of Mae Chaem district in the north of Thailand were studied. Anthropometric measurements of all children were obtained and body composition data were derived. All children were examined by a qualified medical doctor. A stool sample and blood smear for malaria from all children were examined by a well qualified medical technologist. Results: All families of the study boys and girls had incomes lower than the Thailand poverty line (US $ 1,000/year). There were no significant differences in weight, height or body mass index of boys and girls from each of the three villages. Malnutrition in children were found 85.5% by using weight-for-age, 73% by heightfor- age (stunting) and 48.4% by weight-for-height (wasting). Boys had more total body fat mass than girls. However, all of them had low lean body mass and fat mass. Nearly all children (98%) suffered from either upper respiratory tract infection, skin infection, scabies and/or diarrhoea. Also, nearly all of them (97%) had scaly and dry skin over their chest walls and legs. About 10% of children had either angular stomatitis (5%) or bleeding per gums (3%) or bow legs (1%) or frontal bossing (1%) with their implications for micronutrient deficiency. None of the children from the three villages were infested with the malarial parasite. On average, 54% of children from Mae Hae Tai village and 85% of children from Mae Yot village but only 4% of the children from Mae Raek village were infested with parasites. Ascaris lumbricoides was the most common infestation in all children from three villages. Conclusion: The prevalence of malnutrition was high among the Karen hill tribe children aged 1-6 years, Thailand. Most of the children suffered from upper respiratory tract infection, skin infection, scabiasis and/or diarrhrea. Nearly all of them had scaly and dry skin over their chest walls and legs which indicated essential fatty acid deficiencies. However, only 10% of them had vitamin deficiencies such as B2, C, and D.