Satellites Warn African Farmers of Pest Infestations

[Jaidan_a]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46370601

This article highlights the benefits of the Pest Risk Information Service (Prise). This system is ran in the UK, and it utilizes satellites that detect early warnings of extreme pest problems that will effect countries with a lot of agriculture. Right now this system is working with 34 countries across Africa and Asia. Prise has reached and helped about 18.3 million farmers so far, and helped boost their crop yield by 13%. It is hoped that it will reach its target of helping boost yield by 20%+. This program is ran by the Center for Agriculture and Bio science International development Agency (CABI). Prise works by sending farmers mobile alerts when they read a warning or possible threat. This way, farmers have time to spray the appropriate pesticide and take other measures. Additionally, CABI "plant doctors" are able to help farmers get back on track if their crops are devastated by pests or otherwise compromised before Prise is implemented in that farmers region. 

This system is helping (generally) poor farmers and their families, who live in poverty, gain more wealth through higher crop yields. This helps the family save up more money, and eventually reach the programs goal, moving them out of poverty and helping them live more comfortable and sustainable lives. 

 I strongly agree and support this program, and i love what CABI is doing. I've heard of many issues with Africa's economy caused by these huge organizations coming into Africa and spoon feeding the people everything they need. An economy cannot run on having everything given to them. Think of this example, a small business in Africa, run by a family. They are selling clothing in their town, to try and make a living and better their life. They have reasonable prices and have a fair share of customers. Now an organization like the blue cross comes in and gives everyone in the town free clothing to "help" them. This is good for some people in the short term, but now everyone is getting free clothes so that family who has a clothing store is out of business, and cannot gain wealth. Therefore they cannot make money and put that money back into the economy by spending it, this worsens the economy. This is obviously true also for other business types as well (farmers, doctors etc). The Prise system is great because it supports the African economy, and helps people gain money on their own.

My biggest take away from this article is that Prise is showing non-science experts exactly why our governments spend our tax dollars on funding space exploration, this to me is just one of many examples of science having a drastic effect on the everyday lives of normal people, and this is why to me, nobody should really have room to complain about tax money going into creating a more knowledgeable earth.