title: The tricot approach: an agile framework for decentralized on-farm testing supported by citizen science. A retrospective
Creators: name: De Sousa, Kauê
name: Van Etten, Jacob
name: Manners, Rhys
name: Abidin, Erna
name: Abdulmalik, Rekiya O.
name: Abolore, Bello
name: Acheremu, Kwabena
name: Angudubo, Stephen
name: Aguilar, Amilcar
name: Arnaud, Elizabeth
name: Babu, Adventina
name: Barrios, Mirna
name: Benavente, Grecia
name: Boukar, Ousmane
name: Cairns, Jill E.
name: Carey, Edward
name: Daudi, Happy
name: Dawud, Maryam
name: Edughaen, Gospel
name: Ellison, James
name: Esuma, Williams
name: Mohammed, Sanusi Gaya
name: Van De Gevel, Jeske
name: Gomez, Marvin
name: Van Heerwaarden, Joost
name: Iragaba, Paula
name: Kadege, Edith
name: Assefa, Teshale M.
name: Kalemera, Sylvia
name: Kasubiri, Fadhili Salum
name: Kawuki, Robert
name: Kidane, Yosef Gebrehawaryat
name: Kilango, Michael
name: Kulembeka, Heneriko
name: Kwadwo, Adofo
name: Madriz, Brandon
name: Masumba, Ester
name: Mbiu, Julius
name: Mendes, Thiago
name: Müller, Anna
name: Moyo, Mukani
name: Mtunda, Kiddo
name: Muzhingi, Tawanda
name: Muungani, Dean
name: Mwenda, Emmanuel T.
name: Nadigatla, Ganga Rao V. P. R.
name: Nanyonjo, Ann Ritah
name: N’Danikou, Sognigbé
name: Nduwumuremyi, Athanase
name: Nshimiyimana, Jean Claude
name: Nuwamanya, Ephraim
name: Nyirahabimana, Hyacinthe
name: Occelli, Martina
name: Olaosebikan, Olamide
name: Ongom, Patrick Obia
name: Ortiz-Crespo, Berta
name: Oteng-Fripong, Richard
name: Ozimati, Alfred
name: Owoade, Durodola
name: Quiros, Carlos F.
name: Rosas, Juan Carlos
name: Rukundo, Placide
name: Rutsaert, Pieter
name: Sibomana, Milindi
name: Sharma, Neeraj
name: Shida, Nestory
name: Steinke, Jonathan
name: Ssali, Reuben
name: Suchini, Jose Gabriel
name: Teeken, Béla
name: Tengey, Theophilus Kwabla
name: Tufan, Hale Ann
name: Tumwegamire, Silver
name: Tuyishime, Elyse
name: Ulzen, Jacob
name: Umar, Muhammad Lawan
name: Onwuka, Samuel
name: Madu, Tessy Ugo
name: Voss, Rachel C.
name: Yeye, Mary
name: Zaman-Allah, Mainassara
Publisher: name: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: External validity
subject: Participatory plant breeding
subject: Socio-economic heterogeneity
subject: Target product profile
subject: 580 Pflanzen (Botanik)
subject: 630 Landwirtschaft und verwandte Bereiche
subject: 640 Hauswirtschaft und Familie

description: Matching crop varieties to their target use context and user preferences is a challenge faced by many plant breeding programs serving smallholder agriculture. Numerous participatory approaches proposed by CGIAR and other research teams over the last four decades have attempted to capture farmers’ priorities/preferences and crop variety field performance in representative growing environments through experimental trials with higher external validity. Yet none have overcome the challenges of scalability, data validity and reliability, and difficulties in capturing socio-economic and environmental heterogeneity. Building on the strengths of these attempts, we developed a new data-generation approach, called triadic comparison of technology options (tricot). Tricot is a decentralized experimental approach supported by crowdsourced citizen science. In this article, we review the development, validation, and evolution of the tricot approach, through our own research results and reviewing the literature in which tricot approaches have been successfully applied. The first results indicated that tricot-aggregated farmer-led assessments contained information with adequate validity and that reliability could be achieved with a large sample. Costs were lower than current participatory approaches. Scaling the tricot approach into a large on-farm testing network successfully registered specific climatic effects of crop variety performance in representative growing environments. Tricot’s recent application in plant breeding networks in relation to decision-making has (i) advanced plant breeding lines recognizing socio-economic heterogeneity, and (ii) identified consumers’ preferences and market demands, generating alternative breeding design priorities. We review lessons learned from tricot applications that have enabled a large scaling effort, which should lead to stronger decision-making in crop improvement and increased use of improved varieties in smallholder agriculture.