{
  "id": 19908465,
  "title": "The role of social relationships in scaling agricultural innovations: A dimension that remains underreported in research",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/14/the-role-of-social-relationships-in-scaling-agricultural-innovations",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-11-14T02:40:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-11-role-social-relationships-scaling-agricultural.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems underscores the importance of social relationships in the scaling of agricultural innovations, a factor often overlooked in research. Despite the prominence of partnerships and institutional collaboration in climate-oriented agricultural research, their direct influence on scaling processes has been underreported. The findings underscore the necessity of understanding social relationships to enhance the design, monitoring, and evaluation of scaling strategies. The main objective of the study, \"Social capital and scaling in climate-oriented Agricultural Research for Development,\" is to explore the role of social capital, defined as trust, closeness, and support among actors, in the scaling of agricultural innovations. Researchers analyzed 273 reports from 261 projects across 12 CGIAR research programs, conducted between 2018 and 2021. The study identified three scaling pathways: scaling out (reaching more people and places), scaling up (influencing policies and institutions), and scaling deep (transforming relationships, practices, and social norms). While scaling out and up were well-documented, the deep dimension was less explored. The research utilized a latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model to uncover 17 topics across four areas: agricultural systems, climate change adaptation, mitigation, and enabling environments. The central finding reveals that while reports highlight collaborative relationships and scaling outcomes, they rarely explicitly link these social aspects to the scaling pathways. This gap makes it challenging to compare experiences and facilitate institutional learning. However, the study provides concrete examples, such as the dissemination of drought-tolerant bean varieties to over 10,000 farmers through partnerships with national agricultural research organizations, seed companies, and farmer associations. Another example shows how collaboration between researchers and governments led to the inclusion of agroclimatic information in national climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. In Colombia, Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas) exemplify how sustained interactions among farmers, extension agents, and local authorities can bolster trust and support climate information use. The study recommends that governments, development organizations, and research programs explicitly integrate social capital into their theories of change, planning, and monitoring of scaling strategies. This involves identifying key actors and relationships and incorporating indicators of trust, collaboration, network diversity, and participation. The authors caution that networks can sometimes generate inequalities or exclude certain actors, emphasizing the need to understand these dynamics for responsible and inclusive scaling. The findings emphasize the importance of recognizing and documenting social capital's role in scaling pathways, from project design to result monitoring. Integrating these dimensions into theories of change and monitoring systems could improve understanding of the social and institutional conditions for agricultural innovation expansion, enhance learning across projects, and guide more inclusive and responsible scaling strategies.",
  "summary": "A study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems reveals that, although partnerships and institutional collaboration feature prominently in climate-oriented agricultural research, their relationship with the scaling of innovations is rarely explicitly documented. The findings highlight the need to better understand the role of social relationships to strengthen the design, monitoring…",
  "key_points": [
    "Social relationships often underreported in agricultural innovation scaling research",
    "Study explores social capital's role in scaling agricultural innovations",
    "Three scaling pathways: scaling out, scaling up, and scaling deep"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Neglecting the link between social capital and scaling pathways prevents researchers from effectively comparing experiences and building the institutional learning necessary for responsible and inclusive agricultural innovation expansion.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}