IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/agecon/v55y2024i2p270-295.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Group‐based and citizen science on‐farm variety selection approaches for bean growers in Central America

Author

Listed:
  • Martina Occelli
  • Jorge Sellare
  • Kauê De Sousa
  • Matteo Dell'Acqua
  • Leida Mercado
  • Saul Paredes
  • Juan Robalino
  • Juan Carlos Rosas
  • Jacob van Etten

Abstract

Participatory approaches for crop variety testing can help breeding teams to incorporate traditional knowledge and consider site‐specific sociocultural complexities. However, traditional participatory approaches have drawbacks and are seldom streamlined or scaled. Decentralized on‐farm testing supported by citizen science addresses some of these challenges. In this study, we compare a citizen science on‐farm testing approach — triadic comparisons of technology options (tricot‐PVS) — with the benchmark state‐of‐the‐art group‐based participatory variety testing approach (group‐PVS) over a set of socioeconomic outcomes. We focus on on‐farm testing of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in the Trifinio area of Central America. We measure the impact of these two approaches on bean growers in terms of on‐farm diversification and food security. We use data from 1978 smallholder farmers from 140 villages, which were randomly assigned to tricot‐PVS, group‐PVS or control. Utilizing a difference‐in‐difference model with inverse probability weighting and an instrumental variable approach, we observe that farmers involved in group‐PVS, and tricot‐PVS had comparable levels of on‐farm varietal diversification with respect to control farmers. Nonetheless, group‐PVS appears to be significantly more effective in boosting household food security, which can be attributed to improved agronomic management of the crops. This study contributes to the next generation of innovations in exploring trait preferences to produce more inclusive, demand‐driven varietal design that democratize participatory varietal selection programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Martina Occelli & Jorge Sellare & Kauê De Sousa & Matteo Dell'Acqua & Leida Mercado & Saul Paredes & Juan Robalino & Juan Carlos Rosas & Jacob van Etten, 2024. "Group‐based and citizen science on‐farm variety selection approaches for bean growers in Central America," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 55(2), pages 270-295, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:55:y:2024:i:2:p:270-295
    DOI: 10.1111/agec.12819
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12819
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/agec.12819?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matin Qaim, 2020. "Role of New Plant Breeding Technologies for Food Security and Sustainable Agricultural Development," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(2), pages 129-150, June.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    3. Aloyce R Kaliba & Kizito Mazvimavi & Theresia L Gregory & Frida M Mgonja & Mary Mgonja, 2018. "Factors affecting adoption of improved sorghum varieties in Tanzania under information and capital constraints," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Michael R. Carter & Rachid Laajaj & Dean Yang, 2013. "The Impact of Voucher Coupons on the Uptake of Fertilizer and Improved Seeds: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Mozambique," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1345-1351.
    5. Jacob van Etten, 2011. "Crowdsourcing Crop Improvement in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Proposal for a Scalable and Inclusive Approach to Food Security," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(4), pages 102-110, July.
    6. Johnson, Nancy L. & Lilja, Nina & Ashby, Jacqueline A., 2003. "Measuring the impact of user participation in agricultural and natural resource management research," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 287-306, November.
    7. Neha Kumar & Jody Harris & Rahul Rawat, 2015. "If They Grow It, Will They Eat and Grow? Evidence from Zambia on Agricultural Diversity and Child Undernutrition," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 1060-1077, August.
    8. Sylvester Ochieng Ogutu & Andrea Fongar & Theda Gödecke & Lisa Jäckering & Henry Mwololo & Michael Njuguna & Meike Wollni & Matin Qaim, 2020. "How to make farming and agricultural extension more nutrition-sensitive: evidence from a randomised controlled trial in Kenya [Agricultural extension: good intentions and hard realities]," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 47(1), pages 95-118.
    9. Melinda Smale & Jason Hartell & Paul W. Heisey & Ben Senauer, 1998. "The Contribution of Genetic Resources and Diversity to Wheat Production in the Punjab of Pakistan," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(3), pages 482-493.
    10. Elske van de Fliert & Ann Braun, 2002. "Conceptualizing integrative, farmer participatory research for sustainable agriculture: From opportunities to impact," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 19(1), pages 25-38, March.
    11. Misiko, M., 2013. "Dilemma in participatory selection of varieties," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 35-42.
    12. Gerald Shively & Celeste Sununtnasuk, 2015. "Agricultural Diversity and Child Stunting in Nepal," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 1078-1096, August.
    13. Chambers, Robert, 1994. "The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 953-969, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Genova, Christian & Umberger, Wendy J. & Peralta-Sanchez, Maria-Alexandra & Newman, Suzie & Zeng, Di, 2021. "The Impact of Smallholder Vegetable Production on Rural Vietnamese Children’s Nutrition Outcomes," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315293, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Abu Hayat Md. Saiful Islam & Joachim Braun & Andrew L. Thorne-Lyman & Akhter U. Ahmed, 2018. "Farm diversification and food and nutrition security in Bangladesh: empirical evidence from nationally representative household panel data," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 701-720, June.
    3. Otterbach, Steffen & Rogan, Michael, 2017. "Spatial Differences in Stunting and Household Agricultural Production in South Africa: (Re-)Examining the Links Using National Panel Survey Data," IZA Discussion Papers 11008, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Klerkx, Laurens & Leeuwis, Cees, 2008. "Institutionalizing end-user demand steering in agricultural R&D: Farmer levy funding of R&D in The Netherlands," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 460-472, April.
    5. Sylvester Ochieng Ogutu & Andrea Fongar & Theda Gödecke & Lisa Jäckering & Henry Mwololo & Michael Njuguna & Meike Wollni & Matin Qaim, 2020. "How to make farming and agricultural extension more nutrition-sensitive: evidence from a randomised controlled trial in Kenya [Agricultural extension: good intentions and hard realities]," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 47(1), pages 95-118.
    6. Lovo, Stefania & Veronesi, Marcella, 2019. "Crop Diversification and Child Health: Empirical Evidence From Tanzania," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 168-179.
    7. Janvier Mwisha-Kasiwa & Cédrick Kalemasi-Mosengo & Oasis Kodila-Tedika, 2023. "Understanding the link between gendered access to agricultural land and household nutrition outcomes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 23/075, African Governance and Development Institute..
    8. Ruel, Marie T. & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Balagamwala, Mysbah, 2017. "Nutrition-sensitive agriculture: What have we learned and where do we go from here?:," IFPRI discussion papers 1681, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Lorena Lombardozzi, 2024. "Untangling the nexus between marketization, crop diversity, farmers' wealth and nutrition: The case of Uzbekistan," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 1489-1506, March.
    10. Aloyce R. Kaliba & Anne G. Gongwe & Kizito Mazvimavi & Ashagre Yigletu, 2021. "Impact of Adopting Improved Seeds on Access to Broader Food Groups Among Small-Scale Sorghum Producers in Tanzania," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440209, January.
    11. Hiroyuki Takeshima & Kamiljon Akramov & Allen Park & Jarilkasin Ilyasov & Yanyan Liu & Tanzila Ergasheva, 2020. "Agriculture–nutrition linkages with heterogeneous, unobserved returns and costs: Insights from Tajikistan," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(4), pages 553-565, July.
    12. Rosenberg, Adam M. & Maluccio, John A. & Harris, Jody & Mwanamwenge, Marjolein & Nguyen, Phuong H. & Tembo, Gelson & Rawat, Rahul, 2018. "Nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions, agricultural diversity, food access and child dietary diversity: Evidence from rural Zambia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 10-23.
    13. Hiroyuki Takeshima & Kamiljon Akramov & Allen Park & Jarilkasin Ilyasov & Tanzila Ergasheva, 2022. "Agriculture-Nutrition Linkages, Cooking-Time, Intrahousehold Equality Among Women and Children: Evidence from Tajikistan," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(2), pages 940-977, April.
    14. Katharina Lehmann-Uschner & Kati Kraehnert, 2017. "Food Intake and the Role of Food Self-Provisioning," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(8), pages 1303-1322, August.
    15. Genova, Christian A. & Umberger, Wendy J. & Newman, Suzie & Peralta, Alexandra, 2017. "To Market, to Market: Does Smallholder Vegetable Production Lead to Increased Children's Diet Diversity and Improved Diet Quality? Empirical Evidence from Northwest Vietnam," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258366, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. E. Nederlof & Constant Dangbégnon, 2007. "Lessons for farmer-oriented research: Experiences from a West African soil fertility management project," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(3), pages 369-387, September.
    17. Anu Rammohan & Bill Pritchard & Michael Dibley & Mark Vicol, 2018. "The links between agricultural production and the nutritional status of children in rural Myanmar," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(6), pages 1603-1614, December.
    18. Frison, Emile & Clément, Chantal, 2020. "The potential of diversified agroecological systems to deliver healthy outcomes: Making the link between agriculture, food systems & health," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    19. Maryia Bakhtsiyarava & Kathryn Grace, 2021. "Agricultural production diversity and child nutrition in Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1407-1422, December.
    20. Alhassan Andani & John Baptist D. Jatoe & Ramatu M. Al-Hassan, 2022. "Production of Indigenous Food Crops: Implications for Children’s Nutritional Status of Farm Households in Northern Ghana," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(6), pages 2651-2665, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:55:y:2024:i:2:p:270-295. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.