ABSTRACT
This chapter explains about the strength of the institutional infrastructure to address research related to crop production in the tropics. The social patterns in agricultural production the way in which people are organized, often have very complex effects on health. The difficult part about most health aspects of agricultural development is that it requires action by other sectors, in particular by engineers and agronomists. There are four broad categories of interventions which can affect tropical diseases. These include pesticides to kill the vectors of tropical diseases, chemotherapy to kill the infectious agents, vaccines, and environmental management. Pesticides were the main approach to control in the past. Their effect on transmission was immediate. Vaccines are still the great hope. For the bacterial and virus diseases, they are indeed extremely effective. In the case of the human parasitic diseases, they remain a hope for the future.
