Manish Razaida, a
researcher at the University of Guelph, thinks disaster kits for farming
families would be a great idea for international relief organizations.
The kits, which
would cost about $40 each, would contain seeds, tools and other items which
would enable the families to rebuild their lives.
Razaida writes in
a research paper published in the journal Agriculture and Food Security that
urban areas are usually the focus of disaster relief efforts, but in many
developing nations a high percentage of the population is rural – in some cases
up to 95 per cent.
The kits would
include plastic sheeting that could start as shelter or ground cover for crops,
then to hold the harvest.
He and one of his
graduate students,Tejendra Chapagain, say the kits could be stockpiled by
agencies such as the United Nations or the Red Cross, ready for distribution in
the wake of a disaster.
He and his team
have first-hand experience after responding to the earthquake in Nepal in 2015.
Razaida is also
famous for lobbying fellow scientists and research institutions to forego
patents on their discoveries, instead making them freely available to others so
they can continue to make advances.
There is a global
network now of researchers who feel that agriculture and health are essentials
that ought not to be patented.
