INTERFACES Colloquium Series - #12

On 26 September, the INTERFACES colloquium was presented by the Minodu project under the title “Experience from fostering local sustainable development through technology and research”. Carina Lange and Dr. Damghane Oudanou shared insights about the project’s ambition to translate complex climate change information into locally adapted action with a focus on the student projects within Minodu.

Carina Lange started by sharing the concept of the project as a puzzle of several pieces: scientific knowledge about climate change in research publications, ancestral knowledge by communities, good practices and field trials, which are all put together through participatory design in the student activities at University of Kara in Northern Togo. The expected solutions comprise, amongst others: technological devices, good practice, communal learning and information sharing via local community network and podcasts which the students elaborate with their supervisors. Madame Oudanou then shared three specific student activities: an evaluation of biological pest control for okra, an analysis of an exchange platform for agricultural information and the production of liquid fertilizer for farm application.

This triggered a very lively discussion in which in particular the scientific rigour of the student projects were discussed. The team clarified that university professors are guiding the students, that the methods researched, in particular for the pest control and fertilizer applications are based on existing knowledge, partly from within partly from outside the communities and that the testing and knowledge building was done closely with the communities. Communication is at the heart of Minodu, not only with researchers or between students and professors but specifically with farmers where the project tries to go new routes using modern technology and at the same time is mindful of the internet connectivity restrictions that exist in the rural areas.