Through an international tender process published by the Nicaraguan government, under the policies of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), IDEATI was selected for the development of the project “Development of applications to reduce maternal and infant mortality and increase productivity agriculture through the use of Broadband in Nicaragua”, within the framework of the Broadband Program coordinated by the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services (TELCOR).
This project includes the development of applications for the Pilot Programs included in the Broadband Program. One is oriented to the Health sector and the other to the Agricultural sector.
For the Agricultural sector, having as beneficiary institution the Nicaraguan Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), the System for the Use of Broadband for Agricultural Productivity (INTAVIRTUAL) was developed, which aims to provide key actors of the agricultural sector in Nicaragua digital tools that allow them to be more productive in the management of their production processes, ensuring sustainability. This is achieved with functionalities that allow farmers to better plan their tasks and make better decisions for the commercialization of their products, expand their market and return better dividends.
The project has been successfully executed from September 2019 to September 2020, and is currently in its support phase. The IDEATI work team overcame the logistical and communication obstacles that have arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the development, implementation and training activities were successfully carried out.
The objectives of the project have been achieved, which included the creation of:
- An administrative portal to dynamically manage content, settings, access to the reporting management tool and data capture instruments.
- An application in web and mobile versions (for Android and iOS) that serves as an interaction channel between INTA executing users and the program’s end users (citizens in general). It is the main data entry and query tool for agricultural producers, community seed banks and end users.
- A statistical tool that allows determining the results of producers, both individually and nationally, based on the data that the producers themselves enter through the applications.
- Interoperability with current INTA systems.
As an added value, and especially considering the situation of the pandemic, IDEATI is carrying out a support phase during which support will be given to the putting into production of the system, as well as making all the adjustments that guarantee a successful implementation.