Presentation at the ICT4Ag conference in Kigali, November 2013

1. Crowdsourcing crop improvement
for climate change adaptation:
Bioversity´s recent experiences with
citizen science
Jacob van Etten

2. What is the problem
we try to address?
Climate change / variability requires different
varieties
Opportunities for spreading risk among varieties
New varieties as climate shifts
But access to diverse varieties through formal
channels is still limiting in many cases

3. 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

4. Solutions
Participatory variety selection
Farmer experimental groups with a common
plot with different varieties

5. Misiko (2013)
Limitations…

6. Crowdsourcing
Citizen science approach
Individual farmers get free seed samples and
observe them grow
Farmers provide feedback by mobile phones

9. Evaluation card
Unique code: 8181
Germination:_______
Yield:___________
Etc. _____________
________________
________________
________________
1
2
3
8181
1
2
3
Registration card
Unique code: 8181
Name:____________
GPS:_____________
________________
________________
________________
________________

12. + -
A > C > D
A > D > G
A>C>D>G

13. Software prototype

14. Data analysis

15. 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

16. 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
evaluated
6. Data are used
to detect demand
for new varieties
and traits

17. Thank you
j.vanetten@cgiar.org