‘Farmer-researchers’ Join front Line in Testing Crops

Farmers are becoming more involved than ever in the work of developing new, sustainable crop varieties, with a recent study from researchers at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT showing how a “citizen science” approach for on-farm experimentation called tricot, generated agricultural data via local organizations in Central America. 

Jacob van Etten, Principal Scientist and Director of the Digital Inclusion research program at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, explains that the idea for tricot (an abbreviation for triadic comparison of technologies), came from a frustration that he felt years ago, when participating in formalized experimental plots designed to test crop varieties that are conventionally bred for selected traits.

So, instead of crop varieties and other technologies being tested in large-scale field plots under generic conditions, tricot allows new crop varieties to be tested directly in farmers’ fields, the same context where they will hopefully be grown after the study. 

In the paper “Rank-based data synthesis of common bean on-farm trials across four Central American countries” published in the journal Crop Science, 14 trials of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were established by five organizations working in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. 

Van Etten said the exciting thing about this study is that it shows that we go one step further: putting all these data together from several places and seasons and deriving more insights from them than would be possible with any dataset alone, even for places in which no trial was done.

Van Etten said tricot has enabled organizations to expand trials because of a lowering of costs.  

Hale Ann Tufan, an Associate Professor at Cornell's School of Integrative Plant Science Plant Breeding and Genetics Section says Van Etten’s team has a useful understanding of plant breeding as well as statistical methods and social science in equal measure.

“I believe Jacob and his team's deep experience and knowledge of local communities helped make tricot an appropriate innovation, “ she said, “I believe it is the simplicity and agility of tricot which make it a success.”

Research partnerships create ownership

Van Etten said consistent on-the-ground engagement increases applicability, that is, the more informed farmers are, the more  empowered in their decision-making.

Happy Daudi, a senior research officer and plant breeder at the Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute  is a groundnut project leader in Tanzania and her main role is to initiate the trial and make sure everything in the project went well and conducive environment for farmers and extension agent in order to get good and quality data, produce the report and select good varieties for release or other breeding purpose.