Hello to all my wild and crazy supporters!!!!!
I wanted to share some pictures of our new Backpack. Yes, the Backpack Farm is actually a backpack. Until now we have been working with a basic canvas backpack but I knew I wanted something more strategic.
The most amazing company, Sandstorm Kenya (www.sandstormkenya.com) has been working with me since last year. Mark Stephenson and Jim Wagner from the Sandstorm team have been very committed to working with me to translate my vision into detailed sketches, diagrams, working demos until we have the best possible design; an ergonomic backpack that will be the most sustainable as well as practical for use by the farmer.
It has been designed with a blend of PE, canvas and meshing which won’t rot away even when exposed to water. The farmer can use this to transport filler packs of new agriculture products. Heck, he could carry a small child in it, if he needed to! Each pocket correlates to the 4 layers of agro inputs we provide the farmer and eventually we will color code the tabs of each pocket to correlate to color tabs (red, yellow, blue & green) so farmers who are illiterate don’t use the wrong products at the wrong time. There is an inner pocket which holds all the training material and farm journal. There are lots of other cool but practical features.
Now I am not saying that during this process we haven’t had our tense moments but it is a pleasure to get to work with another Kenyan enterprise (like Lachlan and Irrico; my 2 technical suppliers) who are fully committed to the success of this project. Another big step forward! I know this isn’t so sexy to look at but I actually had tears in my eyes this morning when I unveiled it to the team. Everyone was impressed, which says a lot. I work with a tough and professional team. For me, it is the physical embodiment of more than 2 1/2 years of blood, sweat, tears and dreams. It is also a bit of fear that YES, this is really happening!
I know this may not be my most exciting blog to date. No, I am not sleeping a lot but too many amazing things are going on to sleep! I am not going to go into all of it now but will keep all of you updated.
HINT: Next week we install 5 new demo farms on schools in Naivasha, Gilgil and Naroc. But so much more!!!!!!!!
Rachel
Good Evening from Kenya .
Just a quickie…. lately I have been asked a lot about if I support GM crops or not for rural farmers. To be honest, I am not a fanatic on the topic but rather focus on a much simpler answer for why I can’t jump on the GM bandwagon. I will be happy when we get rural farmers in Africa consistently producing 40-50% of commercial rates rather than just 10-15% without defaulting to use of GM seed varieties.
But I did just read a very interesting story about Monsanto’s GM crops and a new study which says 3 varieties have been linked to organ damage in rats. http://ow.ly/VyTX. This research has been produced by the Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) and Universities of Caen and Rouen in France. I can’t help but find their conclusions persuading. Beyond this story, a lot of the maize in South Africa for a specific variety just didn’t’ germinate and no one can tell me why.
Of course these are 3 core (maize) varieties and would be very popular here in Kenya and broader Sub Saharan region facing so much drought and food shortages. GM is a part of a big discussion here and I actually know the representative for Monsanto. He is a lovely guy. When I talk to him, it all seems to make a lot of sense but not 100%. I am just not ready to support the use of so much technology when we can’t even get farmers perfecting the basics first! (* I will refrain from discussing the issues of corruption in local government who support GM for more mercenary reasons).
So look forward to hearing what you think. Feel free to be right or left wing on the issue. Just remember I am in the middle trying to stay committed to the Africa’s farmers first.
Rachel
So… I wanted to share a great resource which was just published online for FREE by Water Aid which is a technical manual supporting rainwater (green water) harvesting and distribution. I and my team at the Backpack Farm are HUGE advocates for rainwater collection and this was a great find today posted through the Zunia network.
http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/rainwater_harvesting.pdf
For those of you who didn’t realize, water is a huge issue in Africa whether for drinking or use in agriculture. Collecting rain water doesn’t solve all the problems and doesn’t always work in really arid areas where there is limited rainfall but it can still have a huge impact on communities who have no access or money to sink their own bore holes.
Just to backtrack.. I was having a conversation about how we needed more material to support the Backpack Farm rural farming bible (*FREE) which launches in less than 4 weeks & VOILA… I received the document in my inbox. This document contains both practical data, designs and implementation schemes to help those of you working with rural communities.
I hope those of you interested in this area will find the paper interesting and look forward to your comments.
Rachel
Hi again…
Here is an article I published in September in Nutrition Wonderland which which tells the personal story behind the incubation of the Backpack Farm Program targeting both rural development and food security.
It published in Nutrition Wonderland the day before our big launch party here in Nairobi Kenya but we will get to that later on.
http://www.nutritionwonderland.com/2009/09/maasai-warrior-kenya-food-nutritional-crisis-agriculture-backpack-program/
I hope you enjoy the article. It has a much more human perspective on whey we need to take the food crisis in Africa more seriously. All we normally hear about is random numbers but these random numbers are real people.
-RZ-
Hello all…
My name is Rachel Zedeck, MD of Medea Group, the firm who has incubated the Backpack Farm Program (BPF). I am really pleased that we are finally up and blogging and want to thank Mandi Jones from Autonomy Web Design for all her efforts to help me.
I look forward to sharing the Backpack Farm story with you as well as our joys and frustrations launching our pilot program and then expanding throughout East Africa. This blogging venue will give me an opportunity to share some more of my crazy views of the world and how I think we should change it, together! I also plan to share links to sets of data that any of you working in or investing in Africa should find interesting.
But most important, I would like to share the stories of the Backpack Farm Team. I work with some pretty amazing people, even if they do drive me a bit mad.
Enough for now. I am still slaving away on a microfinance assessment and need to focus but wanted to introduce myself.
If you have any questions about the work we are doing or something to share, feel free to write me directly – rachelz@medeagrp.com
Rachel
