Agricultural innovation frames, policies, and instruments: evolution, lessons, and future research

Abstract

Scientific and technical innovation offers solutions to many pressing development problems in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in the agriculture sector. However, successful innovation is almost always contingent on an enabling policy environment. This paper reviews the evolution of research on the interaction between agricultural innovation and public policy. It is organized around a sequence of three distinct conceptual frameworks and policy narratives that have shaped this body of research over the past 60 years: the science and technology policy frame, the innovation system policy frame, and the transformative innovation policy and scaling frame. Drawing on seminal studies—both conceptual and empirical—from each frame, we examine their aims and objectives, the policy issues they sought to address, and the methods of analysis used. We then identify and discuss five key agenda points for future research: (1) approaches that provide integrated frameworks, credible data, and novel methods to better assess multiple policy objectives and inform resource allocation in the context of multiple and competing development goals; (2) strategies that inform scaling efforts through a better understanding of how to develop best-fit approaches that take account of local context for scaling innovations for agronomy and natural resource management; (3) solutions-oriented research through action learning, co-design processes, and evaluations that quantify and qualify real-world impacts of the innovation process in a rigorous and nuanced manner; (4) entry points for organizational and institutional reforms to support innovation processes and scaling; and (5) entry points for supporting and accelerating sustainability transitions and systems-transformation. This agenda highlights the need to consider different technological, organizational, and institutional innovations at multiple scales as well as political and economic factors to better inform policy design and execution in a manner that achieves desired outcomes.