A brilliant new online farming system in Egypt allows city dwellers to become reacquainted with their agrarian roots without leaving their urban comfort zone. 

Egyptian urbanites who have a desire to grow their own food but lack the farming skills now have access to a brilliant new remote farming system that has both an online and real world component. Inspired by FarmVille on Facebook, online gaming, and other remote farming projects around the world, eZra3 (which means grow) allows users to select their own crops and monitor their actual growth via a web interface. And they get to eat the healthy yields! Ashraf Al Shafaki designed this modern, low risk virtual farming program in order to address a variety of environmental and social ills in Egypt, including food insecurity, soil contamination, and global warming.

Crowdfarming

According to the eZra3 website, there are just over 9 million acres of arable land in Egypt, 20 million internet users, 7 million Facebook users, and 1 million FarmVille users. If just a small percentage of this population contributes to the eZra3 crowdfarming project, food insecurity could easily be a thing of the past.

eZra3 is committed to organic farming principles, which means that there will be no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, no GMOs, and no tillage. On the other hand, eZra3 farms will use companion planting, biological pest control, succession planting, and ensure a healthy diversity of plants and animals.

Gaming and beyond

Depending on each participant’s farming experience, there are four different solutions. Participants can get their green thumbs wet by playing the training game  that “simulates the growing of crops in a real farm using real crop prices, fertilizer prices, from-seed-to-harvest durations and crop yields.”

Once they have a good sense of what farming entails (without losing money from failed crops), users can progress to the next stage by remotely managing their own small plot with dedicated online guidance every step of the way.

“eZra3 provides you with full information on what types of crops you can grow, when to grow them, prices of fertilizers and various agricultural inputs including labor and all you have to do is make decisions based on the info provided to you and on your personal preferences,” the website notes.

After enjoying the fruit of this labor, farmers might feel confident to tackle the next phase of actually owning their own farm. Again, eZra3 will facilitate the process and minimize risk by helping with the plot’s design and providing computerized estimates of how each farm will perform depending on its particular conditions.

The urban comfort zone

This system empowers city dwellers and online gamers who have lost touch with their agrarian roots to embrace a healthier lifestyle without leaving their urban comfort zone.

And they will be able to grow more than just cucumbers and tomatoes. eZra3’s farming expertise extends to 52 crops, 28 perennial trees, and 11 animals.

In addition to creating healthier food, crowd farming has the potential to reduce unemployment, create greater national self-sufficiency, and restore the Egyptian people’s sovereignty. It has been exactly one year since Egypt ousted Hosni Mubarak. And despite continued abuse from on high, clever innovations such as these demonstrate that the people are still strong.

Update May 3, 2023: the site is offline

More on Sustainable Agriculture in Egypt:

Egyptian Organic Farm Declared Sustainability World Leader

What Urban Rooftop Gardening Could do for the Middle East

Egypt’s Urban Agriculture Movement is Growing

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There’s something uncanny about seeing yourself on video: somehow your manifested self looks and sounds nothing like the inner self. Your voice doesn’t sound like your own, your nose looks bigger than you think, and you see all kinds of physical gestures you never knew you made. Cringe.

At least, that was my experience. Our editor in chief basically agreed that I look like a complete dork in this You Tube clip compiled for a Mashallah news conference earlier this year, though at least I got geeked out  for a good cause. But how does it feel when a stranger takes a photo or video clip of you acting like a complete jerk on the road? Embarrassed? Violated? Enough to change your behavior?

Cheyef 7alak is Arabic for “Do You See Yourself” and it’s the name given to crowd sourcing campaign to cut down on dangerous driving behavior. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran are all known for playing host to terrible drivers (read a harrowing account from a UAE man whose young, talented sister was killed by one such reckless driver), but knowing how to get them to improve is not so easy.

This is why the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation has endorsed a Corporate Social Responsibility campaign that is being run by the marketing and communications agency Impact BBDO with a view towards raising awareness of dangerous driving.

To be effective, Lebanese residents are urged to snap photographs and video footage of dangerous drivers, which will then be uploaded to the Cheyef 7alak website or Facebook page. In some cases, this footage could be posted by the LBC. And when this campaign is over, corruption is the next target.

So what do you think? Is shaming an effective way to stop shameful behavior? Can we use a similar tool for litterbugs and Hummer drivers? Feel free to post your comments below.

:: Springwise

More about dangerous driving in the Middle East:

UAE Man Campaigns Against the Reckless Driving that Killed his Sister

Reckless Driving Kills 3 People in the UAE Every Day

Saudi Arabia Has the Highest Accident Death Toll in the World

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