Citizen science breathes new life into participatory agricultural research. A review

Abstract

Participatory research can improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and scope of research processes, and foster social inclusion, empowerment, and sustainability. Yet despite four decades of agricultural research institutions exploring and developing methods for participatory research, it has never become mainstream in the agricultural technology development cycle. Citizen science promises an innovative approach to participation in research, using the unique facilities of new digital technologies, but its potential in agricultural research participation has not been systematically probed. To this end, we conducted a critical literature review. We found that citizen science opens up four opportunities for creatively reshaping research: (i) new possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration, (ii) rethinking configurations of socio-computational systems, (iii) research on democratization of science more broadly, and (iv) new accountabilities. Citizen science also brings a fresh perspective on the barriers to institutionalizing participation in the agricultural sciences. Specifically, we show how citizen science can reconfigure cost-motivation-accountability combinations using digital tools, open up a larger conceptual space of experimentation, and stimulate new collaborations. With appropriate and persistent institutional support and investment, citizen science can therefore have a lasting impact on how agricultural science engages with farming communities and wider society, and more fully realize the promises of participation.

Farmer research networks in principle and practice

“…In the broad context of agricultural research, approaches that engage with farmers as partners in designing and conducting research on topics they have prioritized remains marginal (Van de Gevel et al, 2020). Often, such research is highly circumscribed and localized, providing limited benefits for other contexts, suffers from limited alignment between the interests of researchers and farmers (Bentley, 1994), and does not always take a holistic approach to agroecology as its focus.…”

Citizen Science for Quantifying and Reducing Food Loss and Food Waste

“…Indeed, part of the apparent absence of citizen science in the field of agriculture may be due to this term not being applied to activities that would in other disciplines be called citizen science (Ryan et al, 2018). Furthermore, many participatory research practices pre-date "citizen science, " which has arisen largely in high income countries in contrast to participatory agricultural research, for example, which has a strong history in poor rural areas (van de Gevel et al, 2020). Additionally, while we have introduced some of the potential benefits of citizen science here, the evidence for some of these is still relatively limited and the approach is not without other challenges which may have limited its use in this field so far.…”

“…While citizen science has the potential to be a more cost effective option than traditional scientific approaches (e.g., Palmer et al, 2017), it can also be expensive and time-consuming to conduct, with costs associated with coordinating research, recruiting, training and retaining volunteers, processing data etc. (West and Pateman, 2016) and capturing all outcomes in cost-benefit analyses is challenging (van de Gevel et al, 2020). There are also challenges around who is and who is not participating in citizen science and what this means for the outcomes for participants (National Academies of Sciences, 2018) and conclusions that can be drawn from the data collected (Purcell et al, 2012).…”

The tricot citizen science approach applied to on-farm variety evaluation: methodological progress and perspectives

“…As a citizen science approach, tricot actively involves non-scientists in experimental data generation and interpretation. This follows a broader movement of applying citizen science and crowdsourcing methods in research on food and agriculture, providing a fresh lease of life to participatory agricultural research (van de Gevel et al, 2020;Ryan et al, 2018;Minet et al, 2017).…”