Being prepared for natural disaster

Being prepared for natural disaster Suggested introduction: When a natural disaster occurs, such as a flood or a hurricane, the immediate need for government is to save lives and provide basic services, such as healthcare, clean water and shelter, as quickly as possible. Where food crops are also lost, requesting and distributing food from other countries is often seen as the best option to prevent people starving. In the short term this may true, but there is also a growing awareness among Caribbean disaster-response planners that more effective strategies for restoring agricultural production are needed. They argue that Caribbean countries need to develop their own resources, in order to make their agricultural systems more robust in the face of disaster, and so that the rebuilding of agricultural productivity can take place quickly and effectively when disaster strikes. Responding effectively to disasters, particularly in terms of maintaining food production, was one of the subjects discussed at a recent conference in Belize. Susanna Thorp spoke to two of the participants about the importance of agricultural rehabilitation as a part of disaster response planning in the Caribbean. Firstly, Jennifer Maynard, liaison officer for international and regional organisations in Antigua. IN: ?Up to now national disaster plans? OUT: ? move it back into the country.? DUR?N 5?48? Back announcement: Neville McAndrew and Jennifer Maynard were talking to Susanna Thorp about the need for agricultural rehabilitation to be part of natural disaster response plans in the Caribbean. Transcript Maynard Up to now national disaster plans and regional disaster plans tend to be human life and human settlement. And anything to do with food has to do with bringing food in for the immediate hunger. So they bring in bags of rice, they bring in bags of corn, some organisations bring in seeds and fertiliser and weed control. What do you do? With the weed control you are going and doing a massive kill, and you are killing indigenous species, ...