Signs Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Agriculture is the direct or indirect livelihood of three quarters of the world’s poor, who live in rural areas.

The 2008 food crisis and the subsequent global financial crisis, showed the extreme vulnerability of developing countries to fluctuations in food prices and supplies.

But the impact was not only on developing world farmers – it affected consumers world-wide in food scarcities, eg rice in Thailand, and higher prices.

In Nov 2008 Egypt – UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) sponsored the first ever international conference on Sharing Innovative Agribusiness Solutions – From Farms to Markets: Providing Know-how and Finance.

If the conference activities can be sustained it’s an initiative that would potentially benefit small farmers in developing world, consumers everywhere and the planet as a whole.

“Our vision is sustainable development”

In his opening speech Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish, Founder of SEKEM said that Sustainable development could satisfy our needs and aspirations without decreasing the chances for future generations……but that we need to learn the basic principals of ecology.

“….. Being ecologically literate means understanding the principles of organisations of ecological communities including our educational com¬munities, political and business communities. So that principles of education, management and politics include the principles of ecology.”

A little about SEKEM

In 1977 the economic and social hardship of his countrymen galvanised Social Entrepreneur and medical doctor Dr Abouleish into buying 70 hectares of desert scrubland, 60 km north-east of Cairo and close to the River Nile.

He called the new experimental farm there SEKEM – from Ancient Egyptian: “vitality from the sun”.

SEKEM was able to transform the desert into a showcase example of sustainable agriculture and a healthy ecosystem through biodynamic farming methods.

Its efforts in organic cultivation led to the conversion of the entire Egyptian cotton industry to organic methods.

Starting off with a dairy and crop farm, SEKEM soon began to produce herbal teas and to market its biodynamic produce in Europe. This initiative helped other farms in Egypt to switch to biodynamic farming. A part of its mix of activities the farm uses bio-fertilizers.

The 2008 Cairo conference brought together over 400 agribusiness stakeholders from more than 65 countries, including representatives of private and public institutions (technical and financial), international organizations, donor countries, civil society, universities and research institutions to share innovative agribusiness solutions

Topics covered supply/value chains, market access and linkages, Compliance with standards and conformity assessment, Technology and value addition and Innovative forms of financing

Participants were enthusiastic about working together to achieve change. central to the debate were “Innovation and opportunity”, “partnerships based on trust” and “the need for commitment”, also the need for a holistic approach to agriculture taking into account the needs of specific groups, and avoiding the mistake of thinking that “one size fits all”.

Four key issues were identified:

1. Financial: small producers need finance to bridge the gap between initial costs and eventual benefits to help them enhance their productivity and agricultural product distribution.

2. Up to date information: small farmers and SMEs need access to up-to-date market information to enable them to compete effectively in local, regional and international markets.

One example cited was an Indian project, an e-Choupal (“choupal” means gathering place in Hindi) programme that places computers with internet access in rural farming villages; e-Choupals acted as both a social gathering place for exchange of information and an e-commerce hub.

3. Investment in supply-chain infrastructure: Governments, the food industry, agribusiness and consumer goods retailers need to invesr in supply-chain infrstructures, which have a long economic life.

e-Choupal had a role here too: Out of an initial effort to re-engineer the procurement process for soy, tobacco, wheat, shrimp and other cropping systems in rural India grew a highly profitable distribution and product design channel for the company – an e-commerce platform and also a low-cost fulfilment system focused on the specific needs of rural India

4. Use of technology: using technological know-howfor improving yields, includingbio-fertilizers applied as soil or seed inoculants and foliar spray, reduction of post-harvest losses through better product preservation techniques, quality preservation processes and innovative ingredients to reduce microbial and toxin contamination, increased cost-efficiency related to local production, collective brands and quality criteria enhancement to strengthen small-scale producers, packaging technology and efficient logistics.

A range of follow-up activities was reportedly initiated, including a new project (supported by the Italian Development Cooperation) to extend ETRACE(UNIDO’s Egyptian Traceability Centre for Agro-Industrial Exports) activities and help other developing countries to establish similar centres.

Further follow-up initiatives will focus on promotional and outreach activities such as the development of an interactive networking and matchmaking platform for agribusiness practitioners, which will allow continuous sharing of more innovative solutions and best practices with more participants and thus foster more business and development partnerships

If the momentum from this conference can be sustained the future could be brighter for all of us, consumers and farmers alike.

The scary reality about computer crashes is that the warning signs are few–if they exist at all–and even when you know what to look for, these signs can be very difficult to detect.

For this reason, computer backup is necessary every day, because it’s near impossible to know if, or when, your hard drive is at risk of an imminent crash.

I often hear prospective clients say dismissively: “Well, I just bought this computer not too long ago–it’s practically brand new–so I don’t need to worry about backup just yet.”

And that’s when I tell them about Google, the single largest owner of computer hard drives in the world.

In February 2007, Google Inc. released a study that they conducted on their own computers entitled Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population. According to this study, which was the most extensive of it’s kind ever completed, hard drives are most likely to fail if they are less than 3 months old, or more than 2 years old. Basically, if you think computer backup is unnecessary because your computer is new, you may be in for a terrible shock.

But if you’re still intent on holding off on all precautionary action until you can personally perceive a problem with your computer, there are some signs that–if you’re lucky enough to notice them–may indicate that your computer is in imminent danger of a critical crash. I want to emphasize, though, that these warnings may, or may NOT, be apparent. The absence of any or all of these signs does not mean that your hard drive is in the clear.

Remember: a hard drive crash can happen unexpectedly at any given moment, and the likelihood that you will see it coming is ridiculously small, and certainly not worth the risk. Operating your business on a computer without automatic daily offsite backup is a recipe for bankruptcy, as over 70% of companies that suffer major data loss go out of business within one year.

That being said, here are several warning signs that may indicate that your computer is at risk of hard drive failure:

1. Your computer is slow to boot (turn on).

If you notice that your computer is not starting up quite as quickly as it usually does, and this decrease in speed cannot be attributed to the installation of new anti-virus software, your hard drive may be suffering from bad blocks/sectors.

Your hard drive contains magnetically coated metal disks that spin at a speed of about 5400 times per minute. If these disks (or their coating) become damaged in any way, a catastrophic failure is likely within 6 months time.

2. Your computer starts to whir, and/or make noise.

A change in the way that your computer sounds could indicate that the disks within your hard drive are having difficulty completing their rotation. Remember: your computer has moving parts, and these parts are situated in extremely close proximity to each other. Specks of dust, not visible to the human eye, can damage these disks and impede their movement, let alone the metal fingers that support these disks.

3. Your computer experiences a read/write error, or indicates that a disk has failed to respond.

According to the Google Inc. study mentioned above, hard drives are 30 times more likely to fail within 60 days of experiencing an initial scan error, than drives that have yet to receive such errors.

So how can you protect your computer against a crash?

1. The number one BEST way to protect your computer (and your business) is not to attempt to protect it against a crash, but to plan for data recovery after a crash.

The reason being is there is no fail-safe way to prevent a computer crash. Simply search “automatic computer backup” and the name of your city, province or state, to sign up with one of the many secure online storage services available.

2. Enlist the services of a reputable IT Service company that offers monthly service contracts, and have them clean and test your hard drive on a regular basis.

Regular cleaning of your hard drive will not only prolong the life of your computer, but will reduce the risk for data loss.

3. Ask your computer to scan for errors and bad blocks.

Your computer may not be kind enough to automatically alert you when sectors of your hard drive are damaged, but you can ask it to scan for trouble. To do so, follow these steps:

o Right click on My Computer.

o Select Manage, which brings up the Computer Management display that is split between a right and a left side.

o On the left side look for Event Viewer, and click the plus sign to its left. A list will appear below.

o Click System. A list will appear in the right side of the display.

o Scroll down the list to search for any red “X” Error entries. These entries indicate an existing problem.

o Double click on the red “X” entries to bring up the Event Properties display, which will tell you more about the error.

In closing, I highly recommend that you commit, right now, to backing up your computer via an offsite secure storage service. Waiting one more day to protect your business, may just be one day too many.

Tag: Signs

Warning Signs of a Computer Breakdown