The Daily Tell

Rachel Zedeck is the Founder and Managing Director of the Medea Group, a group currently launching the Backpack Farm Agriculture Program, a commercial initiative targeting small landholders within East Africa to develop commercially viable, socially responsible value chains of high nutrition produce supporting local and regional marketplaces. Taking a special interest in combating the malnutrition of children, Rachel Zedeck is now launching the Backpack Farm Foundation. The Foundation’s purpose is to construct school gardens to enhance the food sustainability and nutrition levels of Africa’s most vulnerable citizens.

After working in Kosovo, Jordan and Iraq, I decided I wanted to work in Africa and build a small consulting firm called Medea Group Limited. During my first trip in late 2006, I first focused my attention on Sudan. I came to research new ideas on how best to impact the human security in such protracted conflict regions. With almost 1/3 of East Africa facing starvation and inadequate food aid, I committed myself to incubating schemes which enhanced the region’s food security through responsible commercial investment.

I started to play with grand ideas of launching communal farms to resettle refugees and IDPs. But even with my 10 years of field and management experience, these ideas were completely unrealistic. I found little if any support or track record for socially responsible commercial development, so I had to start over at the drawing board.

Instead of quitting, I went home to walk on the beach with my dog, drink wine with friends, and nurse my ego. Three weeks later, I returned to Nairobi. I finally realized that I was simply being too ambitious and needed to learn to be both practical and patient. With that understanding, the Backpack Farm Agriculture Program (BPF) was born.

The Backpack Farm is an all-in-one canvas backpack (weighing between 15 to 42 kg) filled with all the essential agriculture inputs needed for small landholder farmers to standardize both the quality and quantity of food production to mirror semi-commercial rates of production. The technical program includes a “fusion farming” system and a custom designed drip irrigation supplied by John Deere Water Technologies. The backpack is a modular system, customized depending on the final crops chosen for production.

But the backpack is more than mere technology; it also includes five stages of programming designed to enhance the capacity and financial viability of rural farm groups to build community or “cooperative” development production schemes. This program has been collated into a 328 page manual which we will share with any group working with Africa’s rural farmers. The BPF technology and programming offer both positive economic and environmental impact. By eliminating the need for traditional fertilizers, which damage soil and water tables, the BPF has the potential to shift how rural, agriculture economies are developed by supplying cost technologies including drip irrigation and increasing technical training.

The BPF team is committed to accomplishing sustainable food production by revolutionizing the way we work with and invest in rural farmers. Though the BPP can help enhance Africa’s food security by empowering rural farmers with access to new technology, investment and markets, there must be a willingness to explore new ideas. For example, we believe it is possible to eliminate the shortage of maize by mobilizing less than 300,000 of 100 million farmers in East Africa.

The BPF is still perceived as a high risk initiative, but we continue to move forward. In January, the BPF team will publish a study proving the impact of our technology and production model in eight crop varieties. I believe and fight for models which support sustainable food production and economic diversification in Africa’s rural agriculture communities. Now is the time for social entrepreneurs to take action and help change the world.

For more than ten years, Rachel Zedeck has facilitated international business and social development in post conflict countries including Kosovo, Jordan, Iraq, Kenya and Southern Sudan grounded in research, analysis and strategy. In addition to the Medea Group, Rachel Zedeck is also on the panel and fundraising Board of the Aid Workers Network (AWN) and collaborates with a variety of African based non-profit organizations including Heavenly Treasures, REFUGE, and Heshima Kenya.