Crop adaptation to climate change requires accelerated crop variety introduction accompanied by recommendations to help farmers match the best variety with their field contexts. Existing approaches to generate these recommendations lack scalability and predictivity in marginal production environments. We tested if crowdsourced citizen science can address this challenge, producing empirical data across geographic space that, in aggregate, can characterize varietal climatic responses. We present the results of 12,409 farmer-managed experimental plots of common bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) in Nicaragua, durum wheat (Triticum durumDesf.) in Ethiopia, and bread wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) in India. Farmers collaborated as citizen scientists, each ranking the performance of three varieties randomly assigned from a larger set. We show that the approach can register known specific effects of climate variation on varietal performance. The prediction of variety performance from seasonal climatic variables was generalizable across growing seasons. We show that these analyses can improve variety recommendations in four aspects: reduction of climate bias, incorporation of seasonal climate forecasts, risk analysis, and geographic extrapolation. Variety recommendations derived from the citizen science trials led to important differences with previous recommendations.

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Location‐specific information is required to support decision making in crop variety management, especially under increasingly challenging climate conditions. Data synthesis can aggregate data from individual trials to produce information that supports decision making in plant breeding programs, extension services, and of farmers. Data from on‐farm trials using the novel approach of triadic comparison of technologies (tricot) are increasingly available, from which more insights could be gained using a data synthesis approach. The objective of our study was to present the applicability of a rank‐based data synthesis approach to several datasets from tricot trials to generate location‐specific information supporting decision making in crop variety management. Our study focuses on tricot data from 14 trials of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) performed between 2015 and 2018 across four countries in Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua). The combined data of 17 common bean genotypes were rank aggregated and analyzed with the Plackett–Luce model. Model‐based recursive partitioning was used to assess the influence of spatially explicit environmental covariates on the performance of common bean genotypes. Location‐specific performance was predicted for the three main growing seasons in Central America. We demonstrate how the rank‐based data synthesis methodology allows integrating tricot trial data from heterogenous sources to provide location‐specific information to support decision making in crop variety management. Maps of genotype performance can support decision making in crop variety evaluation such as variety recommendations to farmers and variety release processes.

ESTE ESTUDIO VINCULA LA PROBLEMÁTICA FORESTAL Y AMBIENTAL A NIVEL MICRO con el nivel de políticas más sectorial a través de un estudio de caso y consulta a expertos locales y nacionales. Aporta al conocimiento de las principales barreras legales e institucionales que impiden a los finqueros ganaderos fomentar y aprovechar mejor el recurso arbóreo en sus fincas. Identifica medidas de políticas y ajustes al marco legal forestal que podrían contribuir a favorecerlo. El estudio discute sobre el desconocimiento de la legislación forestal del país entre los finqueros y una falta de coordinación entre los actores institucionales, INAFOR y alcaldías, en relación con la gestión del recurso y el otorgamiento de permisos para aprovechamiento, lo que favorece la ilegalidad y la no sostenibilidad de los recursos forestales. Se concluye que en zonas ganaderas del interior existe un potencial de aprovechamiento forestal que puede ser explotado de manera sostenible si se dirige la atención a mejorar los conocimientos del marco regulatorio, la capacidad de manejo técnico del recurso arbóreo en fincas, el entrenamiento en el manejo de la legislación y los procedimientos para el aprovechamiento forestal, y la articulación entre el INAFOR y las municipalidades en un marco de descentralización.