۱- Introduction

۲- Theoretical framing

۳- Materials and methods

۴- The technology package and its introduction

۵- Access to components of the technology

۶- Analysis of the underlying mechanisms

۷- Discussion

References

Abstract

In this article we explore whether and how the dynamics of access shape the scaling of modern agricultural technologies. It is based on the experience of an agricultural research for development (AR4D) project called CASCAPE, which aims to validate and scale agricultural best practices for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. The socio-political dynamics of external interventions are often taken for granted contextual factors in AR4D projects. By contrast, this article takes this context as the point of departure for its analysis. The aim of this in-depth case study is to unpack the concept of access as condition for scaling of agricultural technologies. We identify and analyse the mechanisms that determine access to the various components of a malt barley technology package which was introduced in two highland communities in southern Ethiopia (and later ‘scaled’ to a range of other communities). Our research approach is technographic, implying that we consider the technology to contain both material and social components. The findings suggest that social and clan-based exchange mechanisms (such as clan-based loyalty, reciprocity and vertical accountability) are often rendered invisible even though they are of critical importance in governing access to the material and social components of modern agricultural technologies. Ignoring this socio-political context in the malt barley interventions resulted in an unintended scaling effect in terms of widening the social and economic gap between a few better off farmers and a larger group of poor farmers. The paper thus provides evidence that the socio-political dynamics of access to technology can have an important influence on its wide spread application and may complicate efforts to scale the uptake of technology. Paying more attention to such processes would help to improve the effectiveness of AR4D efforts.

Introduction

It is often argued that one way to improve food security in developing countries is to encourage th e wide-spread adoption of agricultural technologies by smallholder farmers. As a result, donors are increasingly pushing for ‘outcomes at scale’ within Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) (Giller et al., 2017). In some lowincome countries, this pressure results in a plethora of AR4D-initiatives targeting rural communities (Pingali and Spielman, 2016). Adoption rates are a commonly accepted metric for measuring progress in AR4D, but these have increasingly become subject to critiques (Andersson and D’Souza, 2014; Glover et al., 2016). One main thread of these critiques is that adoption cannot be understood as a mere binary, timeless and individual choice for the use of a particular artefact by the wider target audience as this reflects a narrow understanding of what constitutes a technology and the process of technological change. Rather, one should consider technology as a combination of social practices and material elements (Jansen and Vellema, 2011). This understanding leads us to see the process of technological change as one of (re-)configuring the social and material, i.e. re-engineering the relations between the social and material elements of a system (Klerkx et al., 2010; Mosely, 2017). This should lead to greater acknowledgement of the importance of an enabling environment for scaling agricultural innovations.