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Conti, Costanza, Parida, Prashant, Hall, Andy, Rao, Nitya 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6318-0147, Gopi, Girigan, King, E. D. I. Oliver and Swaminathan, Soumya
(2026)
Reinterpreting scaling as synchronising and sequencing: A case study of food system innovation in eastern India.
Agricultural Systems, 237.
ISSN 0308-521X
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Abstract
Context: While early debates on scaling focused on widespread technology adoption on farm, the food system transformation agenda has reframed scaling as a systemic process requiring interconnected changes at the system level. Yet, what enables scaling processes to succeed, going beyond pilot projects, remains unclear. Objective: This case study revisits how scaling of sustainable innovation can occur, shedding light both on the features of a scaling process that can trigger food system transformation, and the roles organisations can play in supporting such scaling. The case explores these questions by examining efforts of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) to reintroduce and expand production and consumption of millets in Odisha, India. Methods: We conduct a purposive search for relevant information, including published and unpublished MSSRF documents, academic and technical literature, and key informant interviews. Interviews were conducted with custodian farmers, rural consumers, MSSRF staff with direct knowledge of historical interventions, government advisors, and policymakers. The data was organised historically to showcase the evolution of the scaling process. Results and Conclusions: The case study reveals how the scaling process happened across different but interconnected spheres —the local sphere, the networks, relationships and intermediation sphere, and the system sphere. Within each sphere, MSSRF tackled several elements: technologies, infrastructure, behaviours and values, Research & Development (R&D) trajectories, policies and institutions, and political economy. Once these elements had undergone change in one sphere, the organisation could move to operating in the next sphere. In the case of MSSRF, at the local sphere, this meant building technologies and infrastructure through participatory R&D while setting up community institutions to help behavioural shifts. The initial credibility built for the innovation at the local sphere allowed the organisation to move to the next – with much broader visibility and expansion of technology, infrastructure, R&D, community institutions as well as policy interest. This interest and expansion once again led to changes in the system sphere, where the innovation was anchored at the state level through the set-up of an ad-hoc innovation-mission, further bolstering the changes in the multiple elements. This finding highlights an important feature of scaling: both synchronised (i.e. happening at the same time) and sequenced (i.e. happening in a temporally coordinated manner) changes are critical for interventions to move beyond the local sphere towards the system sphere. Significance: The paper offers a novel conceptual framework (the 3S framework) for understanding scaling as a process that requires both synchronisation across multiple system scales and strategic sequencing over time. Without synchronisation and sequencing, “pilots never fail but never scale”, as they find themselves unable to couple acceptability and change at the local level, with sustained engagement and efforts to “move up” to the next spheres, which would ultimately achieve scaling. The paper then points to the importance of multifunctional organisations capable of operating across different scales and successfully performing a synchronisation and sequencing function, scaling innovation and moving towards the broader transformation of the food system.
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