A participant (observer) is a farmer or consumer, and participates in a tricot project as an individual citizen scientist. Participants should be both women and men. Participants can be recruited by the administrator or the field agents.
To participate in on-farm trials, observers (farmers) only need to allocate a small patch of their farm or garden to the cultivation of their three technology options. Farmers receive an initial training, individual trial packages, and assistance during the trial from the field agents.
The tasks of participants (farmers) include:
- Attending an initial training
- Cultivating one trial (= three technology options) per person on his/her own land
- Observing trial development, noting down observations on the observation card
- Reporting observation data to the field agent at the end of the trial
Example of a tricot trial. The grower has planted her three technology options (three different bean varieties) on small plots alongside her normal production plot. In this setting, each tricot variety covered 4 rows of 8 meters length.
To participate on a consumer testing trials, observers (consumers) only need to give their opinion about three different products that they have tested, ranking them.