I attended my first ever BarCamp event yesterday....

.... And I learnt sooooo much, I'm still bursting!!!

What is BarCamp? Wikipedia: ...an international network of user generated conferences (or unconferences) - open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.

The one I attended yesterday, in London was BarCamp Africa UK, and so much was offered - in the way of presentations, talks and hospitality.... my mind was blown away!

Now, apart from technological talks, focusing on how technology can be utilised to offer solutions to many of Africa's shortcomings - which I very, very much enjoyed, especially as I've recently had a weird attraction to technology and how it can be used to better our lives in general (evolving from technophobe to technophile), the group discussions/presentations at the event.... so many good ones running concurrently that I was spoilt for choice, but thankfully, most, if not all, that can be found via twitcam and here; the one that resonated most with me was on 'Subsistence Crop Production Improvement: Eco Options' - by B S Kyambadde. This talk bawled me over.... the many ways in which soil can be naturally enriched; keeping it all ecologically sound; the fact that Africa and most other developing countries, inspite of the fact there are vast amounts of land to cultivate, cannot produce enough to feed themselves and as a result, are forced to import food from abroad; the fact that education in subsistency could change things around so dramatically, yet resources are lacking, and a host of others..... I was kept awake very early this morning just mulling over this discussion, and cannot wait to get the powerpoint presentation to read through once it's available.

Whenever Africa and growing is mentioned, my brain immediately transports me back to my family's bits of land. My 'little' 10 pole plot* of allotment land in London is like a child's playground compared to the amount of land an average Kenyan has in the front and back yards in the country (forget cities - too crowded!). I consider myself blessed, in that I'm pretty much self sufficient on crops such as onions, garlic, beans, leeks and potatoes (for the better part of the year anyway!). The land my grandma and my immediate family (uncles, aunties, cousins) lives on is easily 10-15 acres. Add to that the fact that there are more plots in other sites at walking distance, they could so easily clock another 5 acres, perhaps even more. I'd guess in total there's at least 20 acres in total... why then, does my grandma still have to buy MOST of her food all year round? She keeps livestock too - cattle, goats, sheep and chicken - yet 80% of animal consumable products have to be bought - milk, meat, eggs.... I know it's easy to assume that with all of that, one would be able to make the most of that land and produce MOST of their own food, but is it a wrong assumption? I strongly believe that with the right resources - education, a bit of cash investment and labour, things can be turned around for the better. Enough can be produced for consumption and for sale. Yes, mother nature has a role to play, and with the recent drought, it may well have been a bad year anyway, but wouldn't it be better to not solely depend on rainfall for a good crop? How about using a method of farming/gardening that utilises every bit of plant nature throws at us for enriching the land? How about getting all that animal waste onto the land for better fertilised and productive land? All that lovely animal manure, all those leaves that get swept and burnt, all the fruit and veg scraps that get thrown in rubbish heaps and latrines... My most recent visit to Kenya had me chuckling as there was a lone tomato plant, and a lone okra plant, both thriving on the rubbish heap - no suprises then, as the cultivated crops were struggling at the height of summer... And you know what? Grandma laughed at me when I picked and at a tomato from that plant! Lord help me so I can get a programme going for the education of my people. Anyone have ideas on how more can be done to help the developing countries look after their land? How to go about establishing a hands on learning programme? I have a feeling pondering this will give me many early wake up calls (and possibly sleepless nights). What's clear in my mind though... something has got to be done!


10 poles* - An old measurement of length from the back of a plough to the nose of an ox; or 25 metres by 10 metres - that's 250 square metres peeps! (Excerpted from an article on The Independent)

Editing to update/add useful links:

http://barcampafrica-uk.wikispaces.com/Publishing+technology
http://www.arti-india.org/content/view/12/28/
http://files.howtolivewiki.com/Ending_poverty_with_open_hardware_3_bar_camp_africa_london.MP4
http://africamp.com/