Dilli Sharma - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Dilli Sharma

Journal of Agriculture and Environment, Feb 10, 2013

Majority of the farmers are unaware of pesticide types, level of poisoning, safety precautions an... more Majority of the farmers are unaware of pesticide types, level of poisoning, safety precautions and potential hazards on health and environment. According to the latest estimate, the annual import of pesticides in Nepal is about 211t a.i. with 29.19% insecticides, 61.38% fungicides, 7.43% herbicides and 2% others. The gross sale value accounts US $ 3.05 million per year. Average pesticides use in Nepal is 142 g a.i./ha, which is very low as compared to other Asian counties. The focus of this paper is to analyze the use and application status of pesticides in Nepal to aware the society about adverse effects of chemical pesticides in the environment. Pesticidal misuse is being a serious concern mainly in the commercial pocket areas of agricultural production, where farmers are suffering from environmental pollution. Incidence of poisoning is also increasing because of intentional, incidental and occupational exposure. Toxic and environmentally persistent chemicals are being used as pesticides. Many studies showed that the chemical pollution of the environment has long-term effects on human life. It is therefore essential that manufacture, use, storage, transport and disposal of chemical pesticides be strictly regulated.

Journal of Agriculture and Environment

Plant clinic is one of the extension approaches that deliver field level services to farmers. In ... more Plant clinic is one of the extension approaches that deliver field level services to farmers. In Nepal, this service started in 2008. An assessment of the coverage and access of Plantwise plant clinic in Nepal was conducted from 2013 to 2016 with the view to assess the performance of this approach. The number of plant clinic sessions and queries by farmers increased from 2013 to 2014 whereas in 2015 the numbers of both sessions and queries decreased due to the earthquake that struck the country in April 2015 and disturbances throughout the year. The average number of clinic session run per year was 10.5 and the average number of queries per session was 12. The farmers’ gender ratio for female to male who visited the clinic was 45:55. The coverage and access of plant clinics is increasing, but plant clinics are not yet widespread across Nepal.

January and July, Contributions to Nepalese Studies publishes articles on Nepalese Studies focuse... more January and July, Contributions to Nepalese Studies publishes articles on Nepalese Studies focused on: , art and archaeology, history, historical-cultural forms; religion; folk studies, social structure, national integration, ethnic studies, population dynamics, institutional processes, development processes, applied linguistics and sociolinguistic studies;. study of man, environment, development and geo-political setting of the Indus-Brahmaputra regions. Articles, review articles and short reviews of latest books on Nepal are welcome from both Nepali and foreign contributors. Articles should be original .and written in English or Nepali. The Editorial Board reserves the right to edit, moderate or reject the articles submitted. } , The published articles of Nepali contributors are remunerated, but Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies retains the copyright on the articles published. Contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the journal and fifteen copies of offprints. Opinions expressed in the articles or reviews are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Editorial Board or the publisher.

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2018

This study explores how communication and its technical content shape farmers' response to advice... more This study explores how communication and its technical content shape farmers' response to advice delivered at plant clinics. Thirty-six farmers who visited a plant clinic in one of three countries (Malawi, Costa Rica and Nepal) were given at least one diagnosis of a plant health problem and up to six options for managing the problem. Almost all of the farmers were able to use at least some of these management recommendations. Communication was verbal, but reinforced in writing; all of the farmers received a one-page prescription form that summarized the recommendation. Communication per se was rarely the reason farmers failed to adopt technologies. Farmers who opted not to use recommendations often had logical, material reasons for doing so, and they showed a preference for chemical control. Of the 31 farmers who were advised to apply pesticides (including organic ones), 23 people (74%) accepted this advice to spray, but only 14 of 22 farmers (54%) tried advice for cultural or biological control. Farmers' response to an innovation is too complex to always describe as accepted vs rejected, and this decision depends on the fit of the technology itself, and on the quality of how the innovation is communicated.

Annals of Plant Protection Sciences, 2014

The study revealed that 95.3% of farmers used chemical pesticides in their vegetable crops. Major... more The study revealed that 95.3% of farmers used chemical pesticides in their vegetable crops. Majority of farmers (55%) stored pesticides outside the house, while 44% stored inside their houses (living room, open space, under the staircase etc.) and 1.5% even stored in bed room. Fifty-six % of the farmers expressed their view that application of pesticides caused pollution of water and air, while large number of farmers (74.5%) believed that pesticide application was harmful to the health of farm workers. Fifty-four % farmers did not follow waiting period at all after application of pesticides, whereas, 25.5% of the farmers, harvested vegetables the next day after spraying. Majority of farmers (51%) mainly depended on pesticide dealers for advice, followed by public extension system (32%), fellow farmers/friends (31.5%) and News/FM (15.5%). The farmers were quite aware of the harmful effects of pesticides, but they were not translating this awareness into their own safety practices. T...

Pesticide is a poison, not a medicine. The haphazard use of pesticide in developing countries is ... more Pesticide is a poison, not a medicine. The haphazard use of pesticide in developing countries is on the rise. Farmers do not tend to expand their knowledge and skills on the right use of pesticide. This lack of knowledge has led to various irreparable damage on human health and environment. This book deals with the adverse effects of pesticides on human health and environment. It is designed to create an impact among the general population as well as the farmer groups about pesticides. It also contains information about residue of pesticides in vegetables which we consume on a day to day basis trying to bring awareness about the healthy consumption. It can also help to formulate further policies and plans for the proper management, distribution and use of the pesticides.

The bio-efficacy of thiamethoxam (25 9 a.i./ha) was assessed on brinjal, variety “Pusa Kranti” un... more The bio-efficacy of thiamethoxam (25 9 a.i./ha) was assessed on brinjal, variety “Pusa Kranti” under Delhi conditions in comparison with beta-cyfluthrin (18.75 9 a.i./ha), deltamethrin (20 9 a.i./ha), profenophos (500 9 a.i./ha) and endosulfan (700 9 a.i./ha) against the leafhopper, Amrasca bigutfufa biguttufa (IShida) and white fly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius). Thiamethoxam was superior to other treatments against both leaf hopper and white fly. After one day of first spray of thiamethoxam, endosulfan, beta-cyfluthrin, deltamethrin and profenophos, the white fly population reduced by 94.80, 93.74, 88.38, 86.25 and 80.70 per cent, respectively, while leafhopper population was reduced by 94.06, 92.61, 82.50, 82.65 and 77.39 per cent.

Clinical Toxicology

INTRODUCTION Intentional pesticide poisoning is a major clinical and public health problem in agr... more INTRODUCTION Intentional pesticide poisoning is a major clinical and public health problem in agricultural communities in low and middle income countries like Nepal. Bans of highly hazardous pesticides (HHP) reduce the number of suicides. We aimed to identify these pesticides by reviewing data from major hospitals across the country and from forensic toxicology laboratories. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 10 hospitals for pesticide poisoned patients and two forensic laboratories of Nepal from April 2017 to February 2020. The poison was identified from the history, referral note, and clinical toxidrome in the hospitals and from gas chromatography analysis in the laboratories. Data on demographics, poison, and patient outcome were recorded on a data collection sheet. Simple descriptive analysis was performed. RESULTS Among hospital cases (n = 4148), the commonest form of poisoning was self-poisoning (95.8%) while occupation poisoning was rare (0.03%). Case fatality was 5.3% (n = 62). Aluminum phosphide (n = 38/62, 61.3%) was the most commonly identified lethal pesticide for deaths. Forensic toxicology laboratories reported 2535 deaths positive for pesticides, with the compounds most commonly identified being organophosphorus (OP) insecticides (n = 1463/2535; 57.7%), phosphine gas (n = 653/2535; 25.7%; both aluminum [11.8%] and zinc [0.4%] phosphide) and organochlorine insecticides (n = 241/2535; 9.5%). The OP insecticide most commonly identified was dichlorvos (n = 273/450, 60.6%). CONCLUSION The data held in the routine hospital medical records were incomplete but suggested that case fatality in hospitals was relatively low. The pesticides identified as causing most deaths were dichlorvos and aluminum phosphide. Since this study was completed, dichlorvos has been banned and the most toxic formulation of aluminum phosphide removed from sale. Improving the medical record system and working with forensic toxicology laboratories will allow problematic HHPs to be identified and the effects of the bans in reducing deaths monitored.

Journal of Network and Computer Applications

We propose a suite of dynamic security metrics that timely, dynamically, and adaptively assess th... more We propose a suite of dynamic security metrics that timely, dynamically, and adaptively assess the effectiveness of the software-defined network (SDN)-based moving target defense (MTD) techniques. The security metrics are developed to measure the dynamics of a network and a host state's information (e.g., IP address, port, software stacks, vulnerabilities, or network topology) introduced by various types of MTD techniques shuffling them. The key aspect of our proposed metrics is to capture variability that keeps track of changing patterns of the network and the host states upon every MTD triggering event. In this work, we propose the following security metrics capturing the variability based on the changes made by the MTD: (1) Network and host address-based metrics measuring variability of the network and host addresses based on a degree of uncertainty and unpredictability on the assigned IP address to the hosts in a network; (2) Attack path-based metrics measuring variability of attack paths using graphical models estimated based on the network state transitions from one topology to another topology upon triggering a network topology and/or IP shuffling MTD; and (3) Attack stage-based success metrics measuring the chances of discovering a vulnerable target host's information, exploiting the target host's vulnerability, and compromising the target host. Via extensive simulation study, we investigated the key parameters that can significantly affect the MTD performance based on the proposed security metrics. Our simulation results show that the metrics are viable to measure the effectiveness of deploying the MTD techniques.

Journal of Agriculture and Environment, Jun 1, 2015

Farmer field survey and lab residue analysis studies were carried out to examine the use of pesti... more Farmer field survey and lab residue analysis studies were carried out to examine the use of pesticide in vegetable fields and its potential effects on human health and environment. Field information were collected using semi-structured questionnaires face to face interview with 200 farmers from three districts (Bara, Dhading and Kavre) of central region of Nepal. The recent study showed that the use of chemical pesticides in Nepal is 0.396Kg a.i./ha. The farmers' field survey showed that 72 percent of the farmers paid attention on acquiring information about the effectiveness of pesticide to control the target pests. While 65 percent of the farmers noticed the expiry date of pesticides, and only a few farmers considered the adverse effects of pesticide on human health and environment. The result showed that majority of them (51.5%) kept the remaining pesticides in their house freely, whereas 23.5 percent farmers destroyed the remaining pesticides; either buried or burnt. It was also found that 22.5 percent of farmers did not care and threw the remaining pesticides outside the house and in the fields. Residues analysis of 75 samples of 13 vegetables indicated that 58%t of the vegetable samples contained no detectable level (NDL) of the monitored pesticides, 38% samples resulted in trace level of the pesticides residue or below the minimum residue level (MRL), while 4% samples showed above MRL (EU Standard). Present study revealed ample scope for improvement on pesticide use and exposure, for which there is need of strong policy implementation, strengthening training, extension services and various awareness programs to farmers and agro-vets for judicious use of pesticides, health safety and environment protection.

BMC Public Health

Background Nepal recorded 5754 suicides in 2018–19 - a high number for a relatively small country... more Background Nepal recorded 5754 suicides in 2018–19 - a high number for a relatively small country. Over 24% of these suicides were by poisoning, most by ingestion of highly concentrated agricultural pesticides. Nepal has actively regulated pesticides to reduce their health impacts since 2001. We aimed to analyse Nepal’s history of pesticide regulation, pesticides responsible for poisonings, and relate them to national suicide rates. Methods Information on pesticide regulation was collected from the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. National data on suicides from 1980 to 2019 were obtained from the National Statistical Bureau and Nepal Police. Data on the pesticides responsible for self-poisoning and pesticide suicides over time were obtained from a systematic literature review. Results As of June 2020, 171 pesticides were registered for use in Nepal, of which one was extremely hazardous (WHO Class Ia), one othe...