Click on the link below to view the webinar by Maria Delfine from the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT on 19 March 2026 entitled Listening to Farmers: Capturing Trait Preferences through Audio Interviews in Tricot Trials.
Presenter Bio: Maria Delfine is a Research Consultant with the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, working in the Inclusive Design and User Research team. Her work focuses on participatory and user-centred research, particularly exploring farmers’ motivations to participate in citizen science and farmer research networks. She has a background in sustainable food systems and nutrition.
For more info, contact Maria at m.define@cgiar.org
Summary of presentation: This pilot study explored the use of audio-based interviews to collect qualitative data from farmers participating in tricot trials in Rwanda. It examined whether audio recordings could provide deeper insights into farmers’ reasoning about seed trait preferences compared to the standard tricot survey method, while also assessing the feasibility of this approach for both farmers and enumerators. Interviews with seven lead farmers showed that audio recordings captured richer explanations of trait preferences and revealed how farmers linked agronomic traits, such as yield and climate resistance, to everyday farming decisions and household outcomes. Overall, the findings suggested that audio-based data collection could complement structured surveys by uncovering farmers’ reasoning and contextual knowledge, thereby strengthening participatory agricultural research.
Audio data collection for tricot trials - a qualitative data analysis report of a pilot study in Rwanda can found at: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/181374
