SUMMARY:

Increasing the scale of agricultural innovation is needed for ending rural poverty. The issue of 'scaling up' has been debated widely, but many different approaches and definitions are being used. Resources available for agricultural research and extension are limited but taxonomies of scaling up approaches have thus far failed to distinguish between efficient and inefficient approaches. In economy, three concepts are frequently used to describe what happens when the scale of a system, a process or a component is changed: diminishing returns, returns to scale and scalability. The concept of scalability offers an advantage over diminishing returns or returns to scale as scalable solutions can be applied again and again within their horizon of relevance without having to be adapted or redesigned. A framework for understanding the nature of scale increase is proposed that describes agricultural innovation as a process consisting of four sub processes: policy, design, dissemination and use. The application of a design and the sub processes dissemination and use are subject to either diminishing returns, returns to scale or scalability. In each case, a different kind of trade-off can be expected between the effort made and the resulting increase in scale.

Referring to this article can be done as follows:

Kantebeen, P.J., 2008. The nature of scale increase in agricultural innovation. Retrieved from: http://en.kantebeen.nl/the-nature-of-scale-increase-in-agricultural-innovation.pdf