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Version: current

Coming soon

Here are some of the tools and features currently under development to support tricot users.

Online tricot course​

This open-access multi-module online course will contribute to the creation of a pool of professionals skilled in implementing on-farm trials following the tricot approach, leading to high-quality data collection, analysis and increased understanding of variety performance in use environments. On completion of the course, participants will receive a certificate to demonstrate their newly acquired skills.

Sikia​

Sikia, meaning "to listen" in Swahili, is an offline-first mobile and web platform designed to scale open-ended qualitative research in crop breeding. Developed under the Gates Foundation-funded NDIZI project, it uses automatic speech recognition (ASR) and vision-language models (VLMs) to convert enumerator-recorded farmer interviews and field images into structured, actionable insights.

Traditional methods constrain scale: in-depth household interviews are expensive (+/-170 USD/hh) and logistically challenging, sms-based surveys scale affordably (0.7 USD/respondent) but lack depth and nuance. Sikia complements typical ClimMob survey questions "Which variety do you prefer: A, B, or C?" by enabling richer, open-ended questions at scale—e.g., "What do you like about this product and why?" or "What qualities would you like in a new variety to replace your current one?" Such questions capture nuance and unanticipated insights that predefined formats may overlook, from diverse farmer groups.

Sikia engages local enumerators living in villages so there is no field travel required. These trusted locals use dialects (Sikia-trained for transcription), minimizing bias for authentic responses. Enumerators conduct free-flowing interviews; on-device chatbots prompt for gaps (e.g., "What about variety X on taste?"), ensuring completeness with low training. Tanzania trials used M-Pesa payments to pay enumerators on distance. LLMs extract sentiments, traits, and emergent themes, mapping to breeder ontologies.

Sikia is designed to integrate seamlessly with ClimMob. Tested on 1000FARMS tricot trials, including Tanzania bean (n=480), Sikia quantified gendered preferences (women: taste; men: yield/climate). Swahili models are operational and offline expansion to other African languages is underway.

ClimMob Registration Application​

ClimMob Registration App is a mobile-first Progressive Web App (PWA) for seed evaluation trials — runs in any browser on iOS/Android, no app store needed. It will serve as the data entry front-end for the ClimMob platform, feeding farmer observations into centralised analysis and reporting.

Core features:

  • QR scanning — scan coded seed packages to load structured registration forms tied to specific trial projects
  • Step-by-step forms — captures field conditions, plant performance, GPS location, and photos across three seed varieties per package
  • Offline-first — fill, save, and submit without connectivity; data queues locally and syncs automatically when back online
  • Multi-phase trials — re-scan the same package at sowing, mid-season, and harvest to record stage-specific observations
  • Draft management + submission history — review past entries and resume incomplete forms
  • Light/dark themes, EN/NO language switching — simple UI built for low-tech users in the field