Page 34 - Green Knowledge 2020

In the Resilience project in India (www.resiliencein- dia.org), local farmers received training in how to harvest rice and other products from test fields and report digitally via an app or by SMS. This meant that the project did not lose important data because the researchers could not travel to the project areas.
“Digital platforms and other social media like WhatsApp have also been used to convey important information about weather, market, technology and coronavirus measures to Indian farmers,” says Udaya Sekhar Nagothu, senior researcher and Director of NIBIO’s Centre for International Devel- opment.
In Kenya, the local project office in Nairobi has had daily contact with the Biofuel4Kenya project participants, who live on the shores of Lake Victoria. A WhatsApp group has become a key tool in running the project. Local staff post videos and photos to doc- ument the project’s progress.
“Thanks to digital tools and virtual meetings, we have managed to maintain some level of activity on the projects. However, we are not always able to obtain all the information we need without traveling to the project areas. In some areas, there is also limited or no access to the Internet,” says Nagothu.
He believes the Covid-19 experience will prompt more digitalisation in international projects in the future.
“We have now seen how important digitalisation is in maintaining project activity during a global pan- demic. In the future, digital tools could make processes more efficient and make us better pre- pared to face a range of situations that could restrict travel activities.”
Photo: NRRI, Cuttack.
Digital tools in response to Covid-19
The COVID-19 situation in 2020 has posed challenges to many of NIBIOs international projects. It has however also fuelled several innovative ways to work remotely through digital applications, online tools and other methods.
Goal: Digital tools helped to maintain activity in international projects during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contact: Research Professor/Director of NIBIO-Centre for International Development Udaya Sekhar Nagothu. Email: nagothu.udayasekhar@nibio.no, mobile: +47 990 15 621.
Division of Environment and Natural Resources
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