Progress Report: Crowdsourcing Crop Improvement: Evidence Base and Outscaling Model

The project is led by Bioversity International and involves collaboration with Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School, and other partner institutions. The project's main goal is to implement and mainstream Crowdsourced Crop Improvement (CCI) into the practice of NGOs and government extension in Central America. To achieve this, the project focuses on two main objectives: Objective 1, which involves implementing and mainstreaming CCI, and Objective 2, which involves developing CCI into a scalable, user-friendly solution. The project has made significant progress in the first reporting period, with key achievements including the finalization of the group of partners to execute the project, the organization of a field visit and series of meetings to gather information and agree on the approach, and the definition of an approach for the randomized control trial. The project team has also increased the sample size and made more efficient use of budgets, which will enable the estimation of variety diffusion rates beyond the direct beneficiaries and sampling communities that will serve as controls. The project team conducted a field visit to the Trifinio area, where the RCT will be implemented, to present technical details to the CATIE field office, visit partner organizations, and assess the situation of common bean production in the area. The results of the meeting included a clear sense of the gap that the new varieties will fill, a clear vision of what the project wants to achieve, and a shared understanding of the randomized control trial design. The project team has also organized a series of short meetings and Skype calls to reach agreement on technical aspects of the implementation of the crowdsourcing trials and the randomized control trial. The team has calculated minimum detectable effects based on the sample sizes that are attainable with the budget and has developed a clear approach to draw only on farmers that are members of partner organizations, which allows isolating the effect of the delivery mechanism. In addition, the project team has identified an excellent alternative partner, the Research Program in Economics and Environment for Development of CATIE (CATIE-IDEA), led by Francisco Alpizar, PhD, to replace the withdrawn partner, Virginia Tech. The team has also defined the scope of work of all the yearly agreements to be signed with the partners and clearance and signing procedures are well underway for all of them. The project leader, Jacob van Etten, has been invited as a key note speaker to the main agricultural science conference in Central America, the PCCMCA, where he will talk about the project and have conversations with the director of the national agricultural research institute of Guatemala, ICTA, about opportunities to use the Crowdsourcing Crop Improvement methodology in the technology diffusion activities of ICTA and its partners. The project has encountered two problems, including the withdrawal of Virginia Tech from the project, which was addressed by identifying an alternative partner, and the need to adapt the project implementation plan to increase sample sizes and make more efficient use of budgets. The project team has developed a clear approach to overcome these challenges and ensure the successful execution of the project.