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Groundnut in Ghana

Richard Oteng-Frimpong, Savanah Agricultural Research Institute

  1. Why did you use Tricot?

It allowed me to reach a larger number of participants to test breeding lines and to distribute lines to farmers that were previously inaccessible. The support of ClimMob platform, including trial design and analysis, is easy and simple to use.

  1. What lessons did you learn using tricot?

Tricot allowed me to test more lines (my current trial has 15 lines). We learned that most participants were quite happy to test the material. The collection of data with ODK is online and means we got our data quickly. We also learned to work with seed companies to see which varieties are accepted by the wider community.

  1. Did you learn anything about logistics and partnerships?

We learned that we needed field agents to translate local languages to collect the data. We found that trait requirements vary depending on users, e.g. early maturing varieties were preferred by female farmers.

  1. How has the approach helped in decision making?

Our results help shape target product profiles for our breeding program. We found that seed size and colour are important traits. Fast maturity was important to avoid environmental stresses and we could disaggregate the data to show that it was more important for female farmers.

  1. What advice do you have for someone who wants to use tricot?

First the tricot approach is very simple and is cheaper than other methods. It saves scientists a lot of time due to ClimMob which helps with trial designs and also ODK where you can see your data collection in real time. It also allows you to work with large numbers of farmers and make robust decisions compared to other methods.

  1. Do you think the tricot approach is appropriate for variety evaluation and release?

Because tricot allows you to target many people for a large number of breeding lines, it is very good source of market intelligence information. It helps you design varieties that are more tailored to the market. Every breeding program should use tricot because it gives you feedback that allows varieties to be widely adopted.

  1. What are the challenges that need to be addressed?

In my case working on groundnuts, I had two major challenges. We required a lot of seeds, so we had to multiply seeds during the off season. Also, there are multiple languages spoken across our study area, so we needed a field agent to help translate farmers’ feedback. If more farmers could understand how to use the ODK app, they could send the data without translation.