Crowdsourcing crop improvement for climate change adaptation: Bioversity´s recent
experiences with citizen science
Jacob van Etten
What is the problem we try to address?
Climate change / variability requires different varieties
Opportunities for spreading risk among varietiesNew varieties as climate shifts
But access to diverse varieties through formal channels is still limiting in many cases
Why don´t have farmers not have more access to varieties?
Seed producers• Incentives to produce only few varieties• Lack of information on seed demand
Farmers• Lack of information about available varieties• Seeing is believing / learning by doing
Solutions
Participatory variety selection
Farmer experimental groups with a common plot with different varieties
Misiko (2013)
Limitations…
Crowdsourcing
Citizen science approach
Individual farmers get free seed samples and observe them grow
Farmers provide feedback by mobile phones
Evaluation card Unique code: 8181
Germination:_______Yield:___________Etc. _____________________________________________________________
1
2
3
8181
1
2
3
Registration cardUnique code: 8181
Name:____________GPS:_____________________________________________________________________________
+ -A > C > DA > D > G
A>C>D>G
Software prototype
Data analysis
Some preliminary conclusions
Farmer like to participate: curiosity, access to seed
Most farmers are ready to answer by phone, but some problems with access
Data quality is good enough
The method is easy to implement but is (still) paper intensive
Women can be involved through women groups
Need to experiment with Interactive Voice Response systems
In summary…
4. Farmers test and report back by mobile phone
5. Farmers receive tailored variety recommendations and can order seed
2. Each farmer gets a different combination of varieties
3. Environmental data (GPS, sensors) to assess adaptation
1. A broad set of varieties (10-50) is evaluated6. Data are used
to detect demand for new varieties and traits
Thank you
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