App to help oversee cocoa

THE Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), through the Papua New Guinea Agriculture Commercialisation and Diversification project, is enabling the use of a cloud-based application to develop and manage cocoa growing.
The department, through its project management unit, aims to transform the cocoa industry at the grassroots level by use of a information management system and baseline survey data collection using the Kobo Toolbox application.
This was revealed by project coordination unit senior monitoring and evaluation specialist Clement Victor during a week-long training programme about the information management system and baseline data survey collection held in Kokopo, East New Britain, last week.
Victor, who facilitated the training, said the project was reporting using the information management system for all the stakeholders whose field activities would be captured.
He said when an extension officer was collecting data in the field, they would upload information into the Kobo Toolbox where it would be recorded by the information management system for the project management unit to view and track the implementation of activities and the progress made by extension officers.
Victor said the information management system had been set up for each lead partner to access and monitor their officers in the field.
During the training, tablets with the Kobo Toolbox were issued by the participants.
Victor said field officers would use the tablets to go to any location and record data for easy retrieval, review and storage.
He said the Kobo Toolbox was an online and offline platform for field data collection designed for use in challenging environments such as PNG.
Victor added that the information management system was where managers could use real-time online information to manage and monitor a project.
Victor said the focus was on effective monitoring and evaluation of the project, and effective data collection targeting beneficiaries.
Stakeholders such as the Cocoa Board of PNG, Kokonas Indastri Korporesen, Agriculture and Livestock Department, University of Natural Resources and Environment, Kairak Centre of Sustainable Rural Development and others attended the training.