Innovation in the agrifood sector is key to achieving transformation agendas and the Sustainable Development Goals. Over the past decade, scaling innovation has shifted from simplistic “copy-paste” models to approaches that acknowledge context-specificity, complexity, and unpredictability. Scaling is increasingly seen as a means to societal transformation rather than merely promoting specific technologies or services.
This special issue of Agricultural Systems seeks to broaden discussions around responsible scaling for transformative agri-food systems. Topics include:
– Gender and intersectionality
– Anticipating and mitigating unintended consequences of innovation at scale (e.g., GHG emissions, widening social inequality, income gaps)
– Client- and demand-driven innovation and scaling approaches
– Responsible use of scarce resources and sustainability of scaling investments
– Alternative agricultural research for development models that respond to ongoing debates of decolonization