INDIA’S Green Revolution may have a deadly sting in its tail. The extensive
use of inorganic fertilisers in paddy fields is fuelling mosquito-borne
epidemics of Japanese encephalitis, according to Indian researchers. Using
environmentally friendly organic fertilisers like blue-green algae could control
such epidemics, they say.
“If the association is strong enough it would contribute to a change away
from inorganic fertilisers,” says Martin Birley of the Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine.
Japanese encephalitis is a viral disease transmitted by mosquito bites. It
infects nearly 50,000 people in Asia alone every year, killing about 15,000
people worldwide while leaving…
