Harvard master’s student, Jeffrey Mansfield, has been investigating the use of mobile phones to help communities in the Amazon, including agroforestry farmers.

Brazil has one of the highest densities of cellphone use in the world and even remote corners of the vast Amazon River basin have 3G coverage. Vivo, Brazil’s largest wireless provider has even provided smartphones to residents of the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve, whose inhabitants include fishermen, artisans and farmers who practice agroforestry, manage beehives and grow maize, onions, cassava, and tree fruits.

Mansfield spent time in the Amazon with the non-profit Portable Light Project, which involves using a lightweight, flexible solar fabric that comes with a rechargeable battery pack and a USB port that can be used to generate electricity to power cellphones, lights, and other USB-powered devices.

The Harvard Gazette reports how this inspired Mansfield to launch the Taking Charge project that will donate cellphones loaded with helpful apps as well as a user guide with information such as tips on beekeeping, husbandry, irrigation, and trade.

This he believes has the potential to help Amazon residents’ access information on a range of topics, including new farming methods of sustainable agroforestry.

Read the full story: Taking Charge with cellphones