QConut: A mobile geospatial application for promoting sustainable and climate-smart Pacific Island agricultural landscapes

Abstract

<p>Successful ‘smart’ agricultural interventions provide mutually positive impacts to inhabitants’ livelihoods, landscape sustainability, and the capacity of a system to respond effectively to climate variability. Geospatial technological tools have the potential for accurate and timely locational monitoring within multifunctional landscapes. Information derived from using such tools can substantially inform environmental management, policy, and climate-resilient practice. Our research is developing a mobile geospatial application for contemporary data collection and monitoring, allowing the dynamic capture of landscape information. Through community consultations, stakeholder engagement activities, and Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) user requirements analysis, we have mapped government data flows and information needs of smallholder farmers in the Pacific Island nations of Fiji and Tonga. Subsequently, the barriers experienced by landscape users to access and understand relevant, reliable and usable environmental data and information were identified. We then designed an open-source mobile geospatial application to facilitate knowledge sharing between different landscape stakeholders. Our multi-user open source application – qConut – is being co-developed with the Ministry of Forests in Fiji and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests in Tonga, alongside collaborative participatory contributions from the wider farming communities. Here we present the methodological approach, application functionality, and prototype usability outcomes from field testing undertaken in the Ba Catchment, Fiji, and Tongatapu, Tonga. The qConut application has a current target user focus on agricultural extension officers who are trialling the application within cropping and forestry sectors. Results of trial usage highlight the importance of understanding the specific needs and capacities of all stakeholder groups in developing effective digitally-enabled climate information services. By utilising mobile geospatial technologies our research is helping to address shortcomings in location-targeted information delivery, environmental monitoring, and data sharing within Pacific Island agricultural communities. See www.livelihoodsandlandscapes.com for further information.</p>