iPhone Application for bottled coconut water in Mauritius

Gone are the days when we had to go to the market or to the beach to drink coconut water in Mauritius! 

Being a tropical island,  coconut trees are found across  the country and coconut/coconut water is a popular product, which is very much appreciated by Mauritians and tourists. Traditionally when we buy a coconut, the coconut seller cut the top of the nut and put a straw in it for consumption. Most of these coconut sellers are found on the beach or in certain markets. However, since 2010, there is a new product on the Mauritian Market which is a bottled coconut water named "Coco Up". 

I first saw this product last year at the University of Mauritius Cafeteria, where an artificial coconut (a very attractive one - painted green) was put on the counter for marketing purposes. Then I saw the bottled coconut water in the refrigerator next to the counter, but this did not convince me to buy it (since I prefer drinking fresh coconut water on the beach). Gradually I started to see Coco up water in supermarkets, and I still did not buy it...

iPhone Application

This week I was on Facebook when I saw an iPhone application for some product in Mauritius. When I clicked on the link, I realised that it was actually for the bottled coconut water Coco-up. This application geo-locates the different selling points in Mauritius, which allows customers to stay tuned on deliveries as well as promotions. Moreover, it enables the user to benefit from latest news and activities and to keep in touch with deliveries.

Below are some screen-shots from the application website which gives a better idea of how it works:

Description of Application

Location of different selling points, time of delivery and availability

Description of selling point when clicked on the location

Delivery, spacial orders or queries

This iPhone application is free and can be downloaded HERE (Concept and Design by Air Valid Development Ltd - Mauritius)

Use of other ICTs

Apart from the iPhone application, the marketing of Coco up is also done on Facebook and Twitter. 

Coco up page on Facebook

Coco up page on Twitter

The use of ICTs in marketing is not a new concept in Mauritius, but this particular one has caught my attention because it is the first agriculture-related iPhone application that I have seen so far in Mauritius. Personally I find it really useful for people who like this product as they can easily find where to buy freshly delivered Coco up water and they will also be notified when there are special offers. While searching for details on this iPhone application and on the product itself, I ended up buying a Coco up water this week at Rs25 (25 cL) and it actually had a very good taste! :)

Just like coco-up, I believe this concept can be applied for other agricultural commodities (vegetables, flowers, eggs, flavoured milk and other value-added/innovative products) for marketing since it's one of the best ways to get close to the customer and provide them with what they are looking for. 

In-vitro propagation of Breadfruit in Mauritius

In the context of food security in Mauritius, breadfruit has been identified as an important alternative staple crop by the government. Presently, the two main staple food in Mauritius are rice and wheat (consumed in the form of bread etc.) and it is a well known fact that both commodities are not grown in the country and we are importing all the staple food that we are consuming. Over the years, breadfruit trees have become rare in Mauritius which can be explained by various reasons; it is a crop which is under-utilised and when it not consumed, it falls on the floor from the tree, creating a foul smell and attracting insects. As a result, many trees have been cut down and today there are few trees found mainly in backyards over the island.
If breadfruit is to be used as a staple crop in a National Food Security Programme, it means that thousands of breadfruit trees need to be productive and the only way to produce this amount of plants in a short period of time is by in-vitro propagation, also known as tissue culture.In-vitro propagationIn-vitro propagation (also known as micro-propagation) is about taking a cell from a plant, sterilise it, and allow it to grow in a medium (usually agar) which contains nutrients (both micro and macro nutrients). From this short description, micro-propagation sounds to be very simple, but this technique is actually not an easy one. It requires skills (trained personnel) and specialised production facilities (laboratory). The video below gives a brief over-view of tissue culture:
In Mauritius, research on breadfruit is being carried out by the Agricultural Research and Extension Unit and the University of Mauritius, while in-vitro propagation is being done by the Food and Agricultural Research Council (FARC). The presentation below has been shared by the FARC on the Mauritius Breadfruit Sector Consortium Wiki, which gives a very good idea of how breadfruit planlets are produced in-vitro in Mauritius.

In the past years, the production of in-vitro banana planlets have known a huge success in Mauritius as thousands of plants have been produced to meet the demand from the local market and for export. With respect to food security, the same response is expected from breadfruit in the coming years.

Hungry Planet - Episodes 12 and 13

In the Episode 12 of Hungry Planet, we see that job creation in rural areas offers hope for Mali youths. Problems in accessing food from outside the country spell shortages for the people of South Sudan. A project offering agriculture advice to 300 farmers in Ethiopia enjoys a domino effect as thousands more get involved.  

In the Episode 13 of Hungry Planet, farmers in Croatia use nuclear technology (SIT) to tackle the Mediterranean fruit fly pest. In Ghana, investing in local entrepreneurs creates employment and a market for cassava producers. Food is distributed to thousands affected by recent attacks in South Sudan's Jonglei State.

Source: Youtube

Partnership Inception Workshop by the Mauritius Breadfruit Sector Consortium, 9th-10th February 2012

The Mauritius Breadfruit Sector Consortium organised a two-day Partnership Inception Workshop on 9th-10th February 2012 at the Food and Agricultural Research Council (FARC), Reduit. This workshop is supported and is part of the PAEPARD Project, which is facilitating this collaboration among various stakeholders involved in the Breadfruit Sector in Mauritius, as well as European Partners (African-European Partnership). Stakeholders present at the workshop were from Research institutions, the University of Mauritius, farmer organisations, breadfruit exporters, breadfruit growers, the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security (plant protection and propagation) and the private sector. The workshop was facilitated by two external facilitators who have been selected and trained by PAEPARD.

The overall Objectives of this workshop were for stakeholders to:

• Get to know each other
• Understand PAEPARD
• Appreciate the importance of partnership within the consortium
• Understand and apply the value-chain approach
• Participate actively in different group activities
• Establish a framework for effective partnership

Day 1 - Introduction to PAEPARD and establishment of knowledge base
The first day of the workshop was focused on getting to know about the PAEPARD project, the breadfruit sector consortium and the establishment of a 'knowledge base' on breadfruit. Power-Point presentations were delivered by the Facilitators, followed by a Group Activity to establish the knowledge base. In order to facilitate communication, information sharing and discussion among the stakeholders, a wiki has been created for the consortium. One page on the wiki consists of a Google map where a crowd-sourcing experiment is in progress which aims to locate breadfruit trees in Mauritius. During the workshop, a demonstration was done on how the stakeholders present in the workshop can add breadfruit trees to the Google map and encourage other people they know to contribute in this exercise, as the knowledge on where these trees are located across the island may be useful to many partners within the consortium and also for other stakeholders in the breadfruit sector in Mauritius. The Power Point presentations below gives an over-view of the activities that were proposed to the participants on Day 1 of the workshop.

Day 2 - Value-chain approach, roles of the stakeholders and way forward
The theme for Day 2 was on the value-chain Approach, roles of stakeholders and the way forward for the consortium. From Day 1, a lot of information and knowledge were generated. From this activity, it was clear about what we know on breadfruit in Mauritius, which information/knowledge is missing and from these, what are the questions that we are asking ourselves. Activities that followed on Day 2 were based on:

• Validating the information that we know (Is the information documented or indigenous knowledge?)
• Looking for links between the different components present in the value-chain 
• Clustering questions that we have at different levels of the value-chain
• Locating who are the stakeholders involved at different levels of the value-chain, why are they involved in that specific area and how are they going to contribute in the value chain

By the end of these activities, a lot of information, knowledge, ideas and questions were generated, which would be used for further discussion during the next meetings and the Second Partnership Inception Workshop (for value-chain mapping and analysis). The last session of the workshop involved a plenary discussion on the way forward for the consortium to work as a team.

The workshop was an exhaustive one in the sense that participants had to think and probe a lot to get maximum information that we have and locate where we are, so that we can find a mechanism to collaborate among stakeholders for a common vision.

More details on the consortium Wiki.

The slideshow below are some pictures that were taken during the workshop:

Me and Agriculture - Our Story

Very often, I am questioned about "Why have you chosen agriculture when you could have done something more interesting and get a stable job?". When I think about it, the only the answer I can get is that I have a passion for it. I have no idea how it happened, but there are many factors that have contributed to it.

I still remember the day when I decided to enrol for an agriculture course at the University of Mauritius... There was no specific reason for this decision, I just wanted to do something different because I was not happy with what I was doing. I was a very confused student in high school and did not like what I was studying (chemistry and physics at that time). In my mind I just knew that I was going to do something that will keep me close to nature and even if does not work, I should at least try it. My parents encouraged me to go forward with it, but there were a lot (well, more than a lot) of people who were telling me not to study agriculture because there are no job prospects and graduates in agriculture are still looking for jobs. Fortunately, I did not listen to anyone and did what I wanted.

Well, my first days at the Faculty of Agriculture were really cool. This faculty is the smallest one in the university and is like a family where all students know each other. We used to hang out together and then came the part when we had to work at the university farm for practicals. Like me, there were several friends who had never cultivated the land or even held a hoe in their hands. We all had a small plot (5m by 10m), where we had to cultivate crops (beans, cucumber, eggplant, coriander, carrot). From land preparation to harvesting, we had to do all. Not to mention how tiring it was to till the soil, demarcate the plot, dig furrows, and weeding! Everyday we used to go to the farm before our classes (usually at 07:30 to 08:00) to irrigate the crops and Saturdays were kept for weeding after classes. We used to complain a lot (I even cried one day when it was so hard to work in the sun), but when the day for harvest came, the satisfaction that we get cannot be described. Simply awesome feeling!

Similarly, everyday was a new adventure. All the practicals (related to crop&livestock production, pest and disease management, biotechnology, food science, agricultural engineering, agricultural extension etc)  that we did were very interesting and there were site visits as well during which we were learning a lot. Gradually I started to like this new environment and I was also doing well in my studies. 

After my first year at university, I was on training in Agricultural Extension at the Agricultural Research and Extension Unit (AREU). This internship was very beneficial for me. I was assisting extension officers in the field and office and met many planters and breeders. By the end of the 2 months' training, I just knew that I love field work and started to look at agriculture in a different perspective. When I did not know about something, I was probing and searched what it is about. This curiosity made me start to use social media a lot.

When University resumed, I started volunteering in the Agricultural Society in organising the World Food Day and other events on campus, through which I was getting in touch with almost all students at the faculty, lecturers and agricultural organisations as well. After this experience I joined AIESEC, which is the best part where I got the opportunity to lead teams and work on social issues other than agriculture. This experience has helped me develop my leadership &  management skills and take initiatives.

With this new self-confidence, I started to grab all opportunities that I came across through social media and tried to contribute by sharing my experience in agriculture. I found about the ARDYIS essay contest by CTA on the MAISNET Blog and wrote an essay on Agriculture and ICTs in Mauritius. To my biggest surprise, I was selected as one of the best participants in the East Africa region and was trained on web 2.0 for development by CTA in Accra, Ghana (March 2011). After this training, I was a fan of web 2.0 tools and started to share information on agriculture on my profile on social media networks and started to blog about agriculture. Through these initiatives, I got other awesome opportunities in agriculture: Attending the Regional Dialogue of FANRPAN in Swaziland (September 2011) and being appointed as consultant for a case study on agriculture and youth policies in Mauritius; my selection as Agricultural Innovation Facilitator and training by PAEPARD in Uganda (November 2011).

My curiosity about agriculture made me discover youth leadership and ICTs and today my life is  revolving around these. Agriculture was my starting point, but without web 2.0 tools and leadership skills, I would not have been able to grab opportunities, take risks and contribute in sustainable development. I work , I volunteer, I blog, I network with people over the world, I share information on agriculture and encourage the use of ICTs in agriculture. I love what I do, and highly encourage youths to do things which they are passionate about. We do not have to follow a pattern and do things which look cool but in fact are not. Do things which look crazy and different, always try something new and see what you are passionate about, because when you have found it, the rest will just follow! 

The video below is one that inspires me a lot. It is about passion and I hope you like it as much as I do!