Initial establishment of a farmer-based expriment network in the Indo-Gangetic Plans (IGP) Region: Pilot project for on-farm participatory climate change adaptation and visualization

INTERIM TECHNICAL REPORT Reporting period: 25 August 2010 to 14 December 2010Four project sites, namely: Karnal, Haryana; Ludhiana, Punjab; Pusa, Bihar; and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, were identified and agreed upon. At each project site ten farmers were selected to carry out field experiments and to participate in project activities as per the agreed workplan. Ten wheat varieties were identified for this study based on their past performance, namely: HD 2329, PBW 343, DBW 17, WH 711, HUW 234, K9107, K307, UP 262, HD 2733 and KRL 19. Seeds of these ten varieties were procured by the Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), India, and trial sets were dispatched to each project site for timely sowing. Sowing of the experimental varieties was completed by 20 November, 2010, using a line sowing method with a recommended package of practices. A uniform plot size of 3 m x 6 m with three replications was used at each site. Staff of CIAT, CCAF-CP visited New Delhi to discuss the progress of the project activities and also visited two of the project sites (i.e. Karnal and Ludhiana), where they were able to meet with a few farmers who agreed to participate in the project. The team was impressed with the response from the scientific staff, as well as that of the farmers

Seeds for Needs - India: Broadening the genetic base of crops to empower farmers for climate change adaptation through crowdsourcing

A poster to introduce our approach to exposing farmers to more crops and their varieties, increasing first-hand knowledge about different traits and strengthening their seed systems and seed saving capacity. The poster shows how we are upscaling activities and some of the results so far, as well as innovative weather capturing technologies we are using and future plans

Agrobiodiversity conservation and use in Asia, Pacific and Oceania

The Asia, Pacific and Oceania (APO) region is the centre of diversity of many important species of crops, animals and livestock. Most of its resource-poor farmers depend on this agrobiodiversity for food security and livelihood. Agrobiodiversity in APO has served as the source of genetic materials that propelled the Green Revolution in the region. It has enabled continuous growth in productivity, allowing agriculture to cope with declining yield, emergence of pests and diseases and occurrence of abiotic stresses like drought and floods. Agrobiodiversity is also being explored in developing climate change ready crops for the future. In recent years, this agrobiodiversity has been threatened due to simplification of ecosystem and species, and planting of a few preferred varieties. Several countries have thus initiated programmes focusing on collecting, characterizing, evaluating, documenting and conserving the region’s extant crop diversity. Approximately 900,000 accessions of the most important crops including wild relatives have been collected and maintained. However, these were not exhaustive. APO countries vary in their capacity to implement national genetic resource programmes, with 18 out of 45 countries having at least some kind of national coordination system. This has led to a situation where the collections are there but may not be viable anymore and hence can be lost forever. Nonetheless, APO’s genetic resources are underutilized, with only a small portion of agrobiodiversity being used in genetic improvement programs or in agriculture. There are still many constraints to the greater use of genetic resources including the continuing under-investment in this area. To promote collaboration on the conservation and sustainable use of genetic diversity in APO, Bioversity International (formerly the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, IPGRI) organized regional and crop/plant networks. Recently, the different networks have been tapped by the Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) in developing and implementing the regional strategy for conservation and utilization of crop diversity. Bioversity in APO is primarily responsible in coordinating the mplementation of Bioversity’s global programs aimed at improving livelihood, food security and better nutrition through conservation and utilization of genetic resources. The national programmes of member-countries are Bioversity’s main partners in programme implementation. To respond to the aforementioned challenges these activities need immediate attention in the region: 1) review of priorities, 2) strengthen network collaboration, 3) enhance capacity development, 4) strengthen germplasm exchange and quarantine procedures, 5) promote use of new methodologies, 6) improve information and documentation system, 7) increase focus on underutilized crops, and 8) promote Global Plan of Action (GPA) implementation

What are the prospects for citizen science in agriculture? Evidence from three continents on motivation and mobile telephone use of resource-poor farmers

As the sustainability of agricultural citizen science projects depends on volunteer farmers who contribute their time, energy and skills, understanding their motivation is important to attract and retain participants in citizen science projects. The objectives of this study were to assess 1) farmers’ motivations to participate as citizen scientists and 2) farmers’ mobile telephone usage. Building on motivational factors identified from previous citizen science studies, a questionnaire based methodology was developed which allowed the analysis of motivational factors and their relation to farmers’ characteristics. The questionnaire was applied in three communities of farmers, in countries from different continents, participating as citizen scientists. We used statistical tests to compare motivational factors within and among the three countries. In addition, the relations between motivational factors and farmers characteristics were assessed. Lastly, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to group farmers based on their motivations. Although there was an overlap between the types of motivations, for Indian farmers a collectivistic type of motivation (i.e., contribute to scientific research) was more important than egoistic and altruistic motivations. For Ethiopian and Honduran farmers an egoistic intrinsic type of motivation (i.e., interest in sharing information) was most important. While fun has appeared to be an important egoistic intrinsic factor to participate in other citizen science projects, the smallholder farmers involved in this research valued ‘passing free time’ the lowest. Two major groups of farmers were distinguished: one motivated by sharing information (egoistic intrinsic), helping (altruism) and contribute to scientific research (collectivistic) and one motivated by egoistic extrinsic factors (expectation, expert interaction and community interaction). Country and education level were the two most important farmers’ characteristics that explain around 20% of the variation in farmers motivations. For educated farmers, contributing to scientific research was a more important motivation to participate as citizen scientists compared to less educated farmers. We conclude that motivations to participate in citizen science are different for smallholders in agriculture compared to other sectors. Citizen science does have high potential, but easy to use mechanisms are needed. Moreover, gamification may increase the egoistic intrinsic motivation of farmers

Data analysis manual for coconut researchers

This publication on ”Data Analysis Manual for Coconut Researchers” provides basic statistical concepts and includes: sampling methods, frequency distribution of observations, estimation and tests of significance, analysis and relationships between variables, basic principles for planning and conducting coconut field trials, basic experimental designs for coconut trials, experimental designs for coconut trials with modified blocking, experimental designs for multiple factors, analysis of multilocation trials, and multivariate analysis and determination of genetic distance. The manual provide details of experimental designs to use in agronomic, breeding trails and germplasm characterization and evaluation. The data used for most of the examples in this manual are actual research data on coconut generated at the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasaragod, India. Almost all the analyses described in this manual have been described with some suitable examples and step-by-step procedures. Using this tutorial-type manual, coconut researchers as well as other researchers can practice computation by themselves using the examples provided in this manual and then use the same procedure to analyze their own data.The manual also include introduction to 'R' and its use to perform statistical analysis for data presentation in this manual and are presented as Appendices. The objective of the appendices is to explain how the 'R' statistical software can be used to perform the analyses presented in the manual. Data in the Tables of this manual have been copied into text files readable by 'R'. The contents of these text files are printed at the end of respective appendices. A gray background is sued for 'R' commands and a frame with white background for the results returned by 'R'. It is easy to test the 'R' commands by copying the text of the gray areas into the 'R' console. It is therefore expected that this publication will help the scientific community to better plan and manage their experiments and, analyze and interpret their experimental data

Lathyrus genetic resources network: Proceedings of a IPGRI-ICARDA-ICAR Regional Working Group Meeting, 8-10 December 1997, New Delhi, India

Neglected and underutilized crops ”have received relatively less attention in national or international priorities. IPGRI has recognized the potential importance of such crops, and in partnership with others around the world, has undertaken a series of activities to understand and promote the role of such crops in helping to achieve food security and agricultural sustainability through local peoples” maintenance of diversity and in realizing their potential for improvement. The potential of Lathyrus sativus (Grass pea) as a nutritious pulse with high quality grain and fodder, is well recognized in South Asia, Ethiopia and parts of Central, West and North Asia, where other species of this genepool also occur. The local types are tolerant to flood and drought conditions and possess unique adaptation as a post-rice crop across much of South Asia. Other cultivated species of Lathyrus are L. ochrus and L. cicera mainly grown in Central, West and North Africa as a fodder crop. These proceedings are the outcome of the first meeting of this Working Group. This meeting, which took place at NBPGR, New Delhi in December 1997, reviewed progress, reaffirmed the concern and interest of the participating countries in this crop and worked out on the modalities of the Lathyrus Genetic Resources Network (LGRN) - its proposed structure and functioning

A novel strategy to discover and use climate-adapted germplasm

Between 2012 and 2015, 150 researchers, research managers, gene bank managers, extension agents, university professors and staff of non-government organizations from Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala, Nepal, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe acquired new knowledge and skills about the use of climate and crop modelling tools and data sources including the climate analogue tool introduced through the CGIAR research programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Applying these tools and data to their national context, they assessed the changing needs for national and foreign-sourced plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in the context of climate change adaptation. Research teams are now designing strategies to deploy germplasm that is better adapted to future climate changes and that could contribute to increased food security. They are integrating these strategies into organizational agenda’s that will be implemented with own resources

First experiences with a novel farmer citizen science approach: crowdsourcing participatory variety selection through on-farm triadic comparisons of technologies (TRICOT)

Rapid climatic and socio-economic changes challenge current agricultural R&D capacity. The necessary quantum leap in knowledge generation should build on the innovation capacity of farmers themselves. A novel citizen science methodology, triadic comparisons of technologies or tricot, was implemented in pilot studies in India, East Africa, and Central America. The methodology involves distributing a pool of agricultural technologies in different combinations of three to individual farmers who observe these technologies under farm conditions and compare their performance. Since the combinations of three technologies overlap, statistical methods can piece together the overall performance ranking of the complete pool of technologies. The tricot approach affords wide scaling, as the distribution of trial packages and instruction sessions is relatively easy to execute, farmers do not need to be organized in collaborative groups, and feedback is easy to collect, even by phone. The tricot approach provides interpretable, meaningful results and was widely accepted by farmers. The methodology underwent improvement in data input formats. A number of methodological issues remain: integrating environmental analysis, capturing gender-specific differences, stimulating farmers' motivation, and supporting implementation with an integrated digital platform. Future studies should apply the tricot approach to a wider range of technologies, quantify its potential contribution to climate adaptation, and embed the approach in appropriate institutions and business models, empowering participants and democratizing science