How Farmers and Tech Teamed Up To Better Test Crops
- From
-
Published on
14.08.24
- Impact Area

Food insecurity is on the rise worldwide, with 345 million people in 82 countries suffering acute food insecurity in 2022; making it more important than even to test and roll-out new crop varieties adapted to changing local conditions and in keeping with local needs and capabilities.
But it wasn’t always so easy to get farmers and agricultural researchers on the same page: not so long ago, most crop varieties and other technologies were tested in large-scale field plots under generic conditions. This meant there was little attention paid to how weather conditions affected crop yield and there was also little interest or buy-in from farmers.
Jacob van Etten, Principal Scientist and Director for Digital Inclusion, explains that tricot, (an abbreviation for triadic comparison of technologies) was originally developed to create a more cooperative “citizen science” focus, allowing new crop varieties to be tested directly in farmers’ fields, in the same context where they will hopefully be grown after the study.
“It’s the interaction between people and technology that drives innovation,” he says, “We are still doing methodological research on how we can design trials in a way that farmers can get out of it that they want to get out of it.”
Related news
-
ILRI-CGIAR poultry research facility: A research and development hub open to the global scientific community
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)31.07.25-
Food security
In a world facing mounting food security challenges, poultry research is becoming increasingly impor…
Read more -
-
Nematode - resistant potatoes, a boost for food security in Kenya
Sehlule Muzata31.07.25-
Climate adaptation & mitigation
-
Food security
-
Nutrition, health & food security
Underneath Kenya’s potato fields, a silent killer is at work. Microscopic worms - potato cyst…
Read more -
-
Togo Taps Regional Hub in promoting soil health and boosting farm productivity
Sustainable Farming Science Program29.07.25-
Climate adaptation & mitigation
-
Health
Togo’s farmers struggle with poor soils and declining yields. The reason: low awareness of nutrien…
Read more -