AgriTrials: field trials that hold up
A trial-data platform that keeps every treatment, control and measurement checkable from field to report.
Why it matters
Agricultural trials decide which products and practices reach farmers. When trial records live in scattered notebooks and spreadsheets, results are hard to check, easy to dispute, and rarely reused.
What we are doing
A trial-data platform that keeps every treatment, control and measurement structured from the field to the final report, with a visible record of who changed what, and when. First-year information-systems students used its data model to design and test data-capture workflows of their own.
Stage: A prototype platform. In 2026 it was used alongside commissioned field trials and as a teaching case for a university first-year class.
What the technology does
Described at the level of what it does, not how it is built. Methods, models and data stay private until their owners decide how to protect and share them.
- A structured data model for trial design, plots, treatments and measurements
- Row-level security, so each party sees only its own trials
- A corrections log, so changes are visible rather than silent
- Reports generated from the verified records, never retyped
The ALOODA path for this programme
Every Uthando programme runs on the same standard operating procedure: six steps and a confidence gate before anything is acted on or published. Read the ALOODA white paper.
- AAttention
Trial results are hard to check once they leave the field.
- LListening
Agronomists, trial clients and lecturers, on what makes a result trustworthy.
- OObserve
How trials are recorded today, and where errors and disputes come from.
- OOrient
Every number in a trial report should trace back to a measurement, a person and a date.
- DDecide
Build the data model first, then the screens, and test it with real trial designs.
- 95The 95% gate
No trial result is reported until its records pass review.
- AAct
Run trials on the platform, and publish results only with the client's approval.
From proof to scale, gate by gate
Nothing moves to the next stage until its gate is passed and evidenced. Honest about where it stands today.
Prove
Show that the problem is real and the approach works: research, a prototype, ethics approvals and first evidence.
Gate: The core claim passes the ALOODA 95% gate.
Pilot
Run it with real people in one setting, under a written agreement, against a baseline.
Gate: Pilot results are verified and every safeguard has worked in practice.
Blueprint
Write the model down so others can run it: the SOP, data standard, training, costs, legal checklist and licence terms.
Gate: An independent partner runs it from the blueprint alone.
Scale
Replicate through partners across sites and countries, under each country's law and with local consent.
Gate: A local compliance check passes before each new country.
Next gate for this programme: A complete trial run on the platform, from design to verified report.
The rules this programme follows
- Client trial data belongs to the client and is never published without written approval.
- Intellectual property terms with the university settled in writing before any joint output.
- The statistical design is reviewed before a trial starts, not after.
- Field records keep their provenance: measured, estimated or reconstructed.
How these laws and standards apply across Uthando: Standards and governance.
Dated, on file, checkable
| When | Record | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Platform prototype and data model | Prototype |
| 2026 | University first-year class project built on the data model | Final presentations due October 2026 |
Held back on purpose
- Clients, products, sites and results
- The full data model and code
- Commercial terms
Records are available to funders and partners under a non-disclosure agreement.
Fund it, partner on it, or test the evidence
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