Workshop for Nicobarese Tribal Farmers on Foldscope Microscopy

20^th March, 2019, Raipur

The ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Raipur organized a one-day Workshop on “Role of Foldscope Microscopy in minimizing the risk of zoonotic diseases, field level diagnosis of plant diseases and ensure the personal hygiene of tribal farmers” today at Harminder Bay, Hut bay.

The Workshop was organized in collaboration with the ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair under the DBT - sponsored Foldscope Project.

The Chief Guest, Smt. Kitri Hilton, First Captain, Tribal Council, Harminder Bay expressed her gratitude on the introduction of novel and frugal technology among the tribal people. She also expressed her wish for disseminating the Foldscope technology to the other remote Island farmers too.

Shri Festus, Secretary, Tribal Council urged the visiting team for provide the Foldscope to the group members during their next visit. This could help them to use the technology effectively for meeting out the objective.

The farmers were provided with hands-on training.

A total of 51 Nicobarese tribal farmers including 31 females participated in the workshop.

Foldscope is the ultra-affordable, paper microscope weighs only 8 grams. Designed to be extremely portable, durable, and to give optical quality similar to conventional research microscopes (magnification of 140X and 2-micron resolution), Foldscope brings hands-on microscopy to new places. The magnification power is enough to enable the spotting of organisms such as Leishmania donovani and Escherichia coli, as well as malarial parasites. A Foldscope can be printed on a standard A4 sheet of paper and assembled in seven minutes. It is part of the "frugal science" movement which aims to make cheap and easy tools available for scientific use in the developing world.

(Source: ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Raipur)