Merge pull request #17 from AgrDataSci/dev

update - reorganization of text

docs/01-introduction-to-tricot/introduction.md

@@ -6,41 +6,13 @@ sidebar_position: 1
 
 > Jacob van Etten, Jonathan Steinke, Kauê de Sousa
 
-The tricot approach (triadic comparison of technology options) is a participatory method designed for product use testing in agriculture. It has been applied in on-farm trials, consumer testing, concept evaluation, and iterative product development. The approach leverages citizen science to generate robust, scalable insights across diverse environments and user contexts. Here's how it integrates into different aspects of product use testing:
-
-1. On-Farm Testing
-
-Farmers receive three randomly assigned technology options (e.g., seed varieties, fertilizers) and independently evaluate their performance under local conditions. No direct supervision is required, making it cost-effective and scalable, especially in remote areas. Data collection focuses on farmer-reported outcomes such as yield, resilience, and preference, linked to environmental metadata (e.g., soil, climate), socio-economic metadata (e.g., market preferences, household dynamics, management practices) and DNA metadata.
-
-2. Consumer Testing
-
-Tricot integrates consumer preferences for end-use products (e.g., taste, cooking quality, shelf life). Farmers and end-users assess outputs from tested options (e.g., crops, processed goods) to ensure alignment with market demands. The approach helps bridge the gap between agricultural production and consumer needs by combining field performance with end-user satisfaction.
-
-3. Concept Testing
-
-Tricot can be used to evaluate broader concepts, such as innovative farming practices, new varieties and agroforestry designs. Participants compare three alternatives in usability, practicality, or benefits, ensuring the development of context-specific solutions. This iterative testing phase supports refining ideas before large-scale implementation.
-
-4. Farmer-Centric Data and Decision Support
-
-By empowering farmers as co-researchers, tricot generates farmer-driven data, enriching breeding programs and product development pipelines. Insights into environmental interactions and user preferences guide demand-driven breeding and agricultural innovation. The [ClimMob](https://climmob.net/) Platform enable real-time data collection, analysis, and visualization to inform decision-making.
-
-5. Scaling and Adaptation
-
-Tricot's simplicity allows broad implementation across geographies, crops, and technologies. The model is adaptable to low-resource settings, supporting smallholders while enabling private sector product testing. It also fosters inclusivity, involving women, youth, and marginalized groups in the innovation process.
-
-6. Outcomes and Impact
-
-Enhances crop diversity and resilience by tailoring recommendations to local needs. Increases adoption rates by aligning product characteristics with farmer and consumer preferences. Supports sustainable and climate-adaptive agriculture by integrating real-world testing with robust scientific analysis. In summary, the tricot approach is a dynamic, end-to-end solution for product use testing in agriculture, integrating farmer trials, consumer insights, and conceptual testing. It drives innovation by prioritizing user needs, ensuring product relevance, and enabling resilient and inclusive agricultural systems.
-
-#Introduction (RTB)
-
 Tricot (triadic comparisons of technologies, pronounced “try-cot”) is a citizen science approach for testing technology options in their use environments, originally conceived in 2011 (van Etten 2011). The Oxford English Dictionary defines citizen science as “the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world by members of the general public, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists”. Different definitions are given by others, but our use of it is not far from this one. 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).  
 
 Tricot addresses important challenges that have plagued on-farm testing, which is an often-underrated activity in the agricultural sciences (Kool, Andersson, and Giller, 2020). Also, the approach is increasingly used for areas closely related to on-farm testing of varieties, such as fertilizer testing (AKILIMO scaling project by IITA and CIP in Rwanda) and food product testing for sweetpotato implemented by CIP (Moyo et al., 2020, 2021). Testing technologies in their use environments is important for external validity of experiments, the degree to which the findings have application outside of the experimental setting. To overcome common issues in user testing, the tricot approach streamlines the approach through digital support throughout the experimental cycle, simplifies the experimentation format to make user participation easy, and enhances data analysis by enriching it with data about the user context. 
 
 The method was first implemented and tested in the period between 2013 and 2016 for on-farm testing of varieties, and an earlier article reported about methodological progress in this period (van Etten et al., 2019). Much of this work was part of the Seeds for Needs initiative, aiming at broadening the range of varietal diversity to farmers to adapt to climate change (Fadda et al., 2020). These projects were focused on cereals and grain legumes. Since then, the tricot approach has been used for other trials, by different organizations (including private sector) and for different applications (food products, fertilizers, etc.), and for clonal crops (cassava, sweetpotato, potato), vegetables, and a perennial crop (cocoa). The present article reports on 1) methodological progress; 2) discusses important considerations that implementers of the tricot approach need to consider; and 3) areas open for future research. 
 
-#Description of the tricot approach (RTB)
+# Description of the tricot approach 
 
 The tricot approach has been described in several publications (van Etten et al., 2019; van Etten, 2011; van Etten et al., 2020; Steinke et al., 2017; van Etten et al., 2019; Fadda et al., 2020; Beza et al., 2017). Here, a short synthesis will be provided.  
 
@@ -61,7 +33,35 @@ The approach is supported by the ClimMob digital platform (https://ClimMob.net).
 
 There are several other elements that support the users. The different steps of the tricot approach are described in a manual (van Etten et al., 2020). Also, there are online guides and videos available from https://climMob.net.
 
-#How tricot works (from short guide)
+# How is the tricot approach is used?
+
+The tricot approach (triadic comparison of technology options) is a participatory method designed for product use testing in agriculture. It has been applied in on-farm trials, consumer testing, concept evaluation, and iterative product development. The approach leverages citizen science to generate robust, scalable insights across diverse environments and user contexts. Here's how it integrates into different aspects of product use testing:
+
+1. On-Farm Testing
+
+Farmers receive three randomly assigned technology options (e.g., seed varieties, fertilizers) and independently evaluate their performance under local conditions. No direct supervision is required, making it cost-effective and scalable, especially in remote areas. Data collection focuses on farmer-reported outcomes such as yield, resilience, and preference, linked to environmental metadata (e.g., soil, climate), socio-economic metadata (e.g., market preferences, household dynamics, management practices) and DNA metadata.
+
+2. Consumer Testing
+
+Tricot integrates consumer preferences for end-use products (e.g., taste, cooking quality, shelf life). Farmers and end-users assess outputs from tested options (e.g., crops, processed goods) to ensure alignment with market demands. The approach helps bridge the gap between agricultural production and consumer needs by combining field performance with end-user satisfaction.
+
+3. Concept Testing
+
+Tricot can be used to evaluate broader concepts, such as innovative farming practices, new varieties and agroforestry designs. Participants compare three alternatives in usability, practicality, or benefits, ensuring the development of context-specific solutions. This iterative testing phase supports refining ideas before large-scale implementation.
+
+4. Farmer-Centric Data and Decision Support
+
+By empowering farmers as co-researchers, tricot generates farmer-driven data, enriching breeding programs and product development pipelines. Insights into environmental interactions and user preferences guide demand-driven breeding and agricultural innovation. The [ClimMob](https://climmob.net/) Platform enable real-time data collection, analysis, and visualization to inform decision-making.
+
+5. Scaling and Adaptation
+
+Tricot's simplicity allows broad implementation across geographies, crops, and technologies. The model is adaptable to low-resource settings, supporting smallholders while enabling private sector product testing. It also fosters inclusivity, involving women, youth, and marginalized groups in the innovation process.
+
+6. Outcomes and Impact
+
+Enhances crop diversity and resilience by tailoring recommendations to local needs. Increases adoption rates by aligning product characteristics with farmer and consumer preferences. Supports sustainable and climate-adaptive agriculture by integrating real-world testing with robust scientific analysis. In summary, the tricot approach is a dynamic, end-to-end solution for product use testing in agriculture, integrating farmer trials, consumer insights, and conceptual testing. It drives innovation by prioritizing user needs, ensuring product relevance, and enabling resilient and inclusive agricultural systems.
+
+# How the tricot approach works 
 
 With the tricot method, large numbers of farmers carry out many small, simple trials on their own farms instead of a few big, complex trials conducted at research stations. A research center provides the participating farmers with material for the on-farm trials. The farmers 
 provide observations from their trials to the ag-ricultural research center, where the data from all mini-trials is aggregated and analyzed. The 

docs/01-introduction-to-tricot/steps.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ sidebar_position: 2
 
 > Rachel Chase
 
-**This guide provides a short overview of each of the 10 steps needed to develop and implement a tricot project.**
+**This section provides a short overview of each of the 10 steps needed to develop and implement a tricot project.**
 
 ![Tricot 10 steps](./img/10StepsTricot.png)