In some sort of twisted coincident, I came across this competition run by Daawat rice aimed at making people to think differently about rice. I say twisted because I was eating a meal comprising of rice and at the same time browsing internet through Nokia Lumia 520. The good old Google search took me to an article where people win Lumia 520 for being creative with rice artwork. I ended up on their Facebook page and I realized that it is quite a popular competition but much about that later

Considering how popular rice is in Kenya, I thought Daawat is into something. That something might be on how to sell more of their product but I think people need to think differently on how to increase production of food in general. It is really shameful that at this stage food security in Kenya is still a far way dream.  The question is, can we get a connection point, Food vs. Technology or better still how to use technology to increase the production of food. Around the world the focus on agribusiness has been intense and we have seen the rise of  “ag tech”.   In Kenya , unfortunately, I feel that not much thoughts have been put into this, especially by those who sleep, eat and drink technology.

Sometime I wonder if we are going about it the wrong way. Majority of the tech work being done around agriculture and food is more about how to connect farmers with buyers. And admire the work being done by the likes of mFarm but I feel we need to expand the horizon.  In this case I mean persuading more people to get involved and at the same time doing more in getting the right type of technology needed to increase the food production. Kenyan population is a time bomb, and it gets scary that the country is not producing more to cope with annual population growth.

But it is a worldwide problem, according to stats I picked from http://investeddevelopment.com

“Projections show that there will be 9 billion people in the world by 2050. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates say we need a 70% increase in food production from 2005 levels to feed all those people, and we have to grow, harvest, distribute, and consume our food more efficiently. Our growing population is becoming increasingly urban: the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 7 out of 10 people will live in a city by 2050. We’re not gaining additional resources like land or water, nor are we gaining more farmers”.

Ok, let me go back and think about this more but before I go, let me finish with this Daawat Rice competition maneno.

First check out their Facebook page here. In every ten days Daawat Rice share rice art that they have created themselves. They then ask the fans to replicate the rice art. The person who manages to replicate the rice art in the best way possible is winner. From that you can see that you can only be a winner if you are very creative. Try your luck and see if you can hack the following image

And for the trouble of being a winner the prizes are

1. Nokia Lumia 520
2. Daawat rice hamper

How about the second best:

1. Nokia Asha 501
2.  Daawat rice hamper.

In attempt to make it easy for those interested I found the following tips according to hapakenya.com

1. Dye the rice where needed. Put rice the you want to dye in separate bowls to cover for the different dyes. Follow this link to learn how to dye rice. It will take approximately 30 minutes for the rice to dry. Food dyes are readily available in supermarkets and food stores.
2. Make an outline of what you want to create. Once the rice has dried, then you can fill up your outline.
3. Once you are happy with your work, take a picture of it and then post it on the Daawat Facebook page.

Follow Daawat Rice of Facebook for updates on the competition.