Climate smart coffee and cocoa: PhD focusing on GeoCitizen platform to train farmers and to connect them to new markets

The context of climate smart coffee and cacao is in the focus of a PhD carried out by Mona Bartling (supervisor: Prof. Thomas Blaschke). The PhD topic is based on the BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) funded project “Climate smart coffee and cacao: from theory to practice” (CSCC), carried out from January 2017 until December 2019. The CSCC project seeks to improve coffee farmers’ income level while increasing the coffee systems resilience against climate change by mainstreaming climate-smart adaptation and mitigation practices.

Capacity will be built throughout the sector to deliver site-specific information by using the GeoFarmer application which is based on the GeoCitizen platform. These ICT tools will be further developed and used for ‘real-time’ delivery and monitoring of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) package implementation, collection of feedback from all actors and in all stages of the project.

The GeoCitizen platform is the English version of the Bürgercockpit application which is being further developed by the Z_GIS spin-off Spatial Services. Therefore, the enhancement of ICT tools within this project is of use not only to the GeoFarmer application, but all derived application versions of the GeoCitizen platform.

In her PhD Mona Bartling focuses on improving the usability of these ICT platforms by studying the implementation of gamification elements for enabling a higher level of participation, in particular of marginalised user groups with a low level of digital literacy. Partnering institutes in this project are the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). 

Contact: Mona Bartling