Nouvelles

'Tricot': a methodology for climate adaptation

Farmers in Honduras. Course participants discussed how the methodology fits in in ongoing varietal testing in Honduras. Photo: J. L. Urrea (CCAFS)

Farmers in Central American countries test agricultural technologies with a new methodology.

‘Triadic comparisons of technologies’ is a new methodology designed by Bioversity International aiming to reach a large number of farmers with participatory trials for climate adaptation.

In their blog post on Bioversity's website, Jacob van Etten and Brandon Madriz explain the method:

By involving a large number of farmers working in different production environments, the tricot methodology allows scientists to collect more data and increase their understanding of climate adaptation. It also serves as a bridge between research and development practice, by putting technologies to the test directly on the farm.

Bioversity organized courses in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala for professionals to learn about the methodology:

In Nicaragua, participants decided to go for a larger trial than originally planned, now that they fully understood the methodology. In Honduras, participants discussed about how the new methodology fits in ongoing varietal testing schemes and decided to apply it to a wide range of crops. In Guatemala, the national agricultural research institute, ICTA, sent a large delegation of young researchers to learn about the new methodology. Brandon Madriz and Jacob van Etten of Bioversity International served as course instructors.

Read the original story by Jacob van Etten and Brandon Madriz on Bioversity's website: Central American professionals learn about farmer citizen science for climate adaptation

Lili Szilagyi is Communications student assistant at the CCAFS Coordinating Unit.