CONNECT LIVE 2020
Through the local guides program, Google has inspired my Agronomy in skills and expanse. For without google, farming could be boring indeed. Google links us to markets, sharpens our knowledge, provides us with tools to network, tools to make friends, tools to understand far of areas and aim to know them etc. I’m a serious consumer of google maps, android operating systems, google mail, google cloud products, google weather products, etc. Ostensibly, the above form the epitome of google guide programs.
For the last two decades, I’ve worked as a Pan-African Agronomist and have been also to Israel doing all at my disposal in the fields of food security and commercial crop growing. I mitigate farming problems in relation to climate change and do help people make money to earn honest livelihoods through farming. I’m a horticulturist by profession and I practice agronomy and horticulture as a career, hence my work involves moving around the world to work on farms growing vegetables, fruits, flowers, etc.
Where did the local tour guide program find me in this? Farming is much about food production in the vast farm fields of the world, hence you link with hotels, organizations, people etc. for value and supply chains. I worked in my homeland Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Israel, Mozambique, and now in Nigeria. I’ve worked in some of these countries more than ones. I have also visited Ghana, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Turkey, etc. To most of these places, Google can take you to any corner that you didn’t know via maps. Google search engine can link you to what you need in terms of knowledge and understanding the scope of your job.
Farming is never done within cities hence I often rely on countryside hotels for meals and accommodation till I find a permanent place of residence. This offers me a chance to explore such localities and dig more into people’s way of life- culture, matters security, food type and other dietary habits. The local guides program captures some of these locations while am around and asks me questions to help enrich the google travelers search engine and it has always been my pleasure to answer them.
The local guide program means a lot to me. It gives me an opportunity to tell others what is happening in the places I visit. It educates many on what to expect from the places I visit. It places my name on the world map. I’m not a celebrity but the local guide program corroborates my efforts as a Greenhouse farming expert into various environments that I visit and report about. It is fun to report on these matters and it is more fun when someone reaches me to inquire on services offered at a particular facility. In a snapshot, the guides program is an eye opener for understanding the world, this world that has become a small village.
In Kenya, google maps helped me to locate Bondo university where my sister in law was about to graduate. This saved my driving time since I didn’t stop to ask anyone about the road to Bondo university. My brother who was my passenger in the car got so fascinated with google maps that he went and bought an android phone the following morning and ensured that his maps were working.
In Ethiopia, where local internet network is tricky at times, I needed services of a local guide to understand the country and what it offers in terms of business, social life, fun, etc. In Israel, as small as the country is, every taxi I boarded depended on google maps to move me around destinations. In the Southern Africa region of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia etc. google maps were a perquisite to my every movement.
My favorite sample areas include hotels, farms, guest houses and any entertainment spots. For after doing all that you need to do on the farm, having a refreshing evening comes into mind next, if at all your evening isn’t crowded with official works like report writing and the rest.
Thank you.
Ochieng Barasa
Signed this 29th March 2020.
