On-farm trails are tricot experiments conducted on the fields of participants. Participants in this case are farmers, and their role is to test throughout the growing season the three different technologies in their fields.
Category: Glossary
Administrator
The administrator is the person or organization who coordinates the tricot project. It’s the project manager. The administrator could be a scientist working at a research institute, or at an NGO, governmental extension service, etc. If the adminstrator is not a scientist, she or he might collaborate with scientists or a research institute to develop […]
ClimMob tools (R package)
ClimMobTools is an open source statistics toolkit available on the R platform. It enables administrators to further explore and analyze their tricot data. The ‘ClimMobTools’ R package supports more sophisticated data analysis than what is offered through the easy-to-handle ClimMob online software. R software (free): https://cran.r-project.org/ ClimMobTools: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ClimMobTools/index.html
Field agent
The field agent is the extension worker, linking the implementer and the participants. A tricot project might employ 20 to 30 field agents. Each field agent can cover a different geographical region, and can coordinate 10 to 20 participants. Field agents are vital to a tricot project, as they allow many small trials to take […]
Incomplete block design
Incomplete block design refers to an experimental setup in which not all treatments occur in one block. In the case of tricot, this means that not all technology options (= treatments) occur in each individual trial (=block). Instead, each participant cultivates or tests just three technology options in her/his trial (for example, three randomly assigned […]
Observation card
Observation cards are used by the participants to record their field observations during different stages of the tricot trial. These paper cards are distributed by the field agents at the initial training event. Over the course of the trial period, the growers fill them out, using a pen. Observation cards get designed by the project […]
ODK Collect
ODK stands for ‘Open Data Kit’. ODK Collect is a free app for Android devices that is used to collect and compile data. It completely replaces the need for paper forms, for example during a survey. In a tricot project, the field agents use this app on a mobile devices (smartphone or tablet) to collect […]
Plackett-Luce model
In a tricot project, ranking data is collected on all participants (either farmers or consumers) with each one of them contributing one ‘partial ranking’. The ClimMob software uses the statistical Plackett-Luce model to combine all these partial rankings into a full picture. The image below visualizes an example. Here, three growers each rank their individual […]
Sequentially balanced randomization
‘Random’ means that there is no obvious pattern or predictability in the way items are ordered. Simple randomization is the process of putting anything in a random order. In a tricot experiment, growers receive trial packages that contain a random sub-set of three technology options. For example, if the tricot focus technology is ‘bean varieties’, […]
Trial package
The trial package is a bag given to every participant at the initial training workshop. It contains everything the participant needs to cultivate her/his tricot trial. The trial packages are prepared by the administrator and field agents. Each trial package contains: Three small bags containing the different technology options. For example, if bean varieties are […]