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Herbal products (HPs) are widely used as pharmaceutical and neutraceutical agents in India. The existing Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) encourages reporting of adverse events related to HPs to monitor their safety. To analyze the reported adverse reactions suspected with the use of HPs all reports submitted to the National Coordination Centre (NCC) for PvPI during the period July 2011–December 2013 were assessed on the probability of a causal link between the use of the medication and the reported adverse reaction. An overview was compiled of all reports relating to severe adverse reactions. The NCC-PvPI database contained 39 reports of suspected adverse reactions to HPs in which 16 of them were classified as serious, 12 were non serious and 11 were unassessable. The cases were further categorized by system organ classification (SOC) and it was found that 52.5% were related to skin and appendages disorders. The suspected HPs were Gudmar Ameda, Shankhpushpi, Mahavat Vidhwansan, Dashmool Kwath, Shemar Yesaka, Melas cream, Senna Extract, Aloe Vera, Mustard oil, Digitalis, Garlic, Menthol and Turmeric. Causality assessment as per the WHO scale revealed that five cases were probable/likely, 17 were possible, one was unlikely and the rest of them were unassessable or blank. Healthcare providers and consumers must be educated to ensure the safe use of herbal products. Also rigorous monitoring to ensure the safe use of HPs through PvPI is essential to safeguard public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification participatory research. • Reduced both labor use and production costs by 40%. • Increased gross margins by up to 25%. • Reduced drudgery for women and youth who do the majority of menial, laborious tasks. • Results applicable for a wide range of smallholder farming communities. The Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia is a region of high rural poverty and low agronomic productivity, with crops grown using traditional management practices which are labor-intensive and uneconomical. Poor agronomic productivity is largely caused by unintentional, inefficient management practices which are exacerbated by labor shortages caused by increased migration away from rural areas as households require additional income from remittances. These labor shortages increase the cost of hiring labor, further contributing to low gross margins from cropping systems. The climates, soils and available water across the region indicate that, with improved management practices, this region has the potential to produce high yields for low production costs and labor requirements, ensuring high gross margins for smallholder farmers. We conducted on-farm participatory trials to compare the performance of traditional and improved conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification management practices to understand which used less labor, had lower production costs and returned higher gross margins to smallholder farmers. Our study showed that compared to traditional management practices, conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification practices reduced both labor use and total cropping system production costs by around 40% and increased gross margins by up to 25%. Trials were conducted on over 400 farms and thus our results are both statistically rigorous and representative of a range of common crop production management across the Eastern Gangetic Plains. These results show there is potential to increase livelihoods and reduce the impact of labor shortages for smallholder farmers living in diverse climatic, edaphic and social circumstances across the region. They have broader applications in labor-constrained smallholder cropping systems throughout South Asia and worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia current agronomic practices are energy-intensive, and this contributes to higher cropping system production costs and CO 2 -equivalent greenhouse gas emissions. Increasingly uncertain and scarce resources, together with an increasingly variable and changing climate, make conventional crop production vulnerable and unsustainable. We hypothesized that replacing traditional crop management with conservation agriculture based-sustainable intensification practices would reduce energy requirements and CO 2 -equivalent emissions while increasing energy use efficiency. Across three major cropping systems (rice-wheat, rice-maize and rice-lentil) we tested improved management practices against a conventional baseline on over 400 on-farm trials. Improved management practices significantly reduced the total energy used in rice-wheat cropping systems, from 30,045 MJ ha−1 under traditional baseline practice to around 26,500 MJ ha−1. Similar savings in total energy used were observed in rice-maize and rice-lentil cropping systems; additionally, energy use was significantly more efficient under improved management in all three cropping systems. CO 2 -equivalent emissions were reduced by around 10% under cropping systems with improved management compared to emissions from baseline systems. For all cropping systems the rice-equivalent yield and net income were inversely proportional to the specific energy of the system under improved management but not under traditional practice. This study demonstrated that high cropping system yields under improved management practices increased energy use efficiency while reducing CO 2 -equivalent emissions. Our research enables farmers in the Eastern Gangetic Plains to produce more food, more sustainably, under increasing climate variability and change. These results are applicable across the Eastern Gangetic Plains region of over 450 million people and also have broader application for smallholder cropping systems in developing and emerging-economy countries globally. • Energy usage and CO 2 -equivalent emissions were evaluated for different crop management practices in the EGP region of SA. • 436 On-farm trials in major cropping systems; rice-wheat, rice-maize, rice-lentil; results are statistically powerful. • Improved management practices reduced the total energy usage between 5% and 11% compared to traditional practices. • Improved management reduced CO 2 -equivalent emissions between 11% and 16% relative to traditional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]