Data from: What are the prospects for citizen science in agriculture? Evidence from three continents on motivation and mobile telephone use of resource-poor farmers

As the sustainability of agricultural citizen science projects depends on volunteer farmers who contribute their time, energy and skills, understanding their motivation is important to attract and retain participants in citizen science projects. The objectives of this study were to assess 1) farmers' motivations to participate as citizen scientists and 2) farmers' mobile telephone usage. Building on motivational factors identified from previous citizen science studies, a questionnaire based methodology was developed which allowed the analysis of motivational factors and their relation to farmers' characteristics. The questionnaire was applied in three communities of farmers, in countries from different continents, participating as citizen scientists. We used statistical tests to compare motivational factors within and among the three countries. In addition, the relations between motivational factors and farmers characteristics were assessed. Lastly, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to group farmers based on their motivations. Although there was an overlap between the types of motivations, for Indian farmers a collectivistic type of motivation (i.e., contribute to scientific research) was more important than egoistic and altruistic motivations. For Ethiopian and Honduran farmers an egoistic intrinsic type of motivation (i.e., interest in sharing information) was most important. While fun has appeared to be an important egoistic intrinsic factor to participate in other citizen science projects, the smallholder farmers involved in this research valued 'passing free time' the lowest. Two major groups of farmers were distinguished: one motivated by sharing information (egoistic intrinsic), helping (altruism) and contribute to scientific research (collectivistic) and one motivated by egoistic extrinsic factors (expectation, expert interaction and community interaction). Country and education level were the two most important farmers' characteristics that explain around 20% of the variation in farmers motivations. For educated farmers, contributing to scientific research was a more important motivation to participate as citizen scientists compared to less educated farmers. We conclude that motivations to participate in citizen science are different for smallholders in agriculture compared to other sectors. Citizen science does have high potential, but easy to use mechanisms are needed. Moreover, gamification may increase the egoistic intrinsic motivation of farmers.农业公民科学项目的可持续性依赖于贡献时间、精力与技能的农民志愿者，因此明晰其参与动机，对于吸引并留存公民科学项目的参与者而言至关重要。本研究的目标为：1）评估农民作为公民科学参与者的参与动机；2）调研农民的移动电话使用情况。基于既往公民科学研究中确立的动机因素，本研究开发了基于问卷的研究方法，可用于分析动机因素及其与农民个体特征的关联。本研究在来自不同大洲的三个农民社区中开展问卷调研，这些农民均以公民科学参与者的身份参与项目。研究采用统计检验方法，对比三个国家内部及国家间的动机因素差异。此外，本研究还评估了动机因素与农民个体特征之间的关联。最后，采用主成分分析（Principal Component Analysis，PCA）方法，根据农民的参与动机对其进行分组。尽管不同类型的动机存在一定重叠，但对于印度农民而言，集体主义型动机（即助力科学研究）相较于利己型与利他型动机更为重要。而对于埃塞俄比亚与洪都拉斯的农民来说，利己内在型动机（即对分享信息的兴趣）是最主要的参与动机。尽管在其他公民科学项目中，“乐趣”常被视为重要的利己内在型参与动机，但本研究涉及的小农群体将“打发空闲时间”列为最不重要的参与动机。研究共区分出两类主要农民群体：一类以分享信息（利己内在型）、提供帮助（利他型）以及助力科学研究（集体主义型）为参与动机；另一类则受利己外在型因素驱动，包括参与预期、与专家互动及与社区互动。农民的所属国家与受教育程度是解释其动机差异约20%的两项最关键个体特征。相较于受教育程度较低的农民，受教育程度较高的农民将助力科学研究视为更重要的参与动机。本研究得出结论：相较于其他行业的参与者，农业领域小农参与公民科学项目的动机存在显著差异。公民科学项目确实具备较高潜力，但仍需开发易用的参与机制。此外，游戏化设计或可提升农民的利己内在型参与动机。