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Citizen science for sustainable agriculture – A systematic literature review

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  • Ebitu, Larmbert
  • Avery, Helen
  • Mourad, Khaldoon A.
  • Enyetu, Joshua

Abstract

Farmers as volunteers in research could potentially provide a rich resource for exploring sustainable agricultural research questions. To discern emerging patterns in citizen science-based studies on topics with relevance for sustainable agriculture and reveal salient challenges and opportunities for conducting such studies, we conducted a literature review of 27 articles from the period 2004–2019 of 250 publications screened from Google Scholar. These articles were thematically grouped under the topics: Soil health, climate adaptation, pest/pathogen monitoring, invasive species, inputs and outputs and pollination. Participants’ characteristics, motivations, study design and project outcomes in the reviewed articles were summarized and discussed. Both observational and experimental studies were represented in the articles, while emerging trends point towards field experimentation and ‘Large-N′ trials by lay farmers. Crowdsourcing lends itself to projects where the main role of the public is local visual observations and reporting, such as in pest/pathogen monitoring. Challenges included methodological issues such as validation procedures, but above all motivation, recruitment, and retention of volunteers. Despite the importance of participatory approaches for deeper citizen involvement for sustainability transitions and for the quality of knowledge outcomes, the role of citizens was overall restricted to data collection. Several of the methodologies proposed would be difficult to implement in low-income countries, and relatively few studies pertained to agricultural concerns of the global South. To lend value to farmers' time, we recommend projects relevant to livelihoods, health issues or local farming problems, accompanied by well-structured data feedback protocols, routing study results back to farmers.

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  • Ebitu, Larmbert & Avery, Helen & Mourad, Khaldoon A. & Enyetu, Joshua, 2021. "Citizen science for sustainable agriculture – A systematic literature review," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:103:y:2021:i:c:s0264837721000491
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105326
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hansen, J. W., 1996. "Is agricultural sustainability a useful concept?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 117-143.
    2. Jacob van Etten, 2011. "Crowdsourcing Crop Improvement in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Proposal for a Scalable and Inclusive Approach to Food Security," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(4), pages 102-110, July.
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    5. Wallerstein, N. & Duran, B., 2010. "Community-based participatory research contributions to intervention research: The intersection of science and practice to improve health equity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(S1), pages 40-46.
    6. Bert Van Wee & David Banister, 2016. "How to Write a Literature Review Paper?," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 278-288, March.
    7. Cornwall, Andrea & Jewkes, Rachel, 1995. "What is participatory research?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(12), pages 1667-1676, December.
    8. Eric Hand, 2010. "Citizen science: People power," Nature, Nature, vol. 466(7307), pages 685-687, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kok, Kristiaan P.W. & Klerkx, Laurens, 2023. "Addressing the politics of mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    2. José Luis Vicente-Vicente & Cristina Quintas-Soriano & María D. López-Rodríguez, 2022. "A Transformative (r)Evolution of the Research on Agriculture through Fostering Human-Nature Connectedness—A Special Issue Editorial," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-7, April.
    3. Atsushi Watabe & Alice Marie Yamabe-Ledoux, 2023. "Low-Carbon Lifestyles beyond Decarbonisation: Toward a More Creative Use of the Carbon Footprinting Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-28, March.

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