I sometimes look at some scientists argue about the scale of the technology generated especially in agricultural research (plot-level research findings for large scale). E.g. Organic farming vs conventional farming. When some scientists do not want the findings of research they start to complain plot level research. I grew up with plot-level research and all the findings are fine and going well. Even technologies generated at the laboratory level are leading the world today. What is the reflection of the size of the plot-level experiments in Agriculture and the environment for the extrapolation of the results to wide areas?
Tadele Amare Kassie If I have understood your idea clearly, you have done a plot-level experiments in the experimental field with agricultural technology and found positive results. Now you would like to scale up, such as implementing that technology in a larger land or so. For this, we have to follow some conventions, for instance, we have to disseminate our results to scientific communities to get their constructive feedback. If they are convinced with the results, especially policy level stakeholders, then we can propose our finding/results for implementing at regional/national. Publishing articles, writing blogs, short communications, presenting in international conference, writing policy brief may draw attention of stakeholders.
good question. Sometimes it is necessary to ask these types of questions in the agri-food sector. However, it is still disturbing, the answer will depend on the objectives set in each investigation and the scope that is proposed. The results of any investigation will be the starting point to begin new investigations with other scales.
It depends on the size of your plot. As long as it is a macro-plot, it is easily scalable. The only issue is if you did experiments in a micro-plot, in which case, on scale-up multiple issues will arise generally. In any case, during scale-up, as a rule of thumb, upto 2 orders of magnitude is easily scalable. 3 orders of magnitude is okay, with large margins of error. However, scale-up has a problem as soon as you have 4 orders of magnitude above. For ex: if your experimental plot is 1 acre, you can scale-up to 100 acre without any problems, upto 1000 acres with some problems, and you will need to do a reanalysis if you want to scale it up to 10,000 acres or more.
I feel the resources and other production inputs available may need to be taken into account when considering scaling-up the good results obtained at plot-level for one to achieve almost the same at a larger scale
Wonderful discussion point. I think the level does matter because national level findings may not always represent region. Similarly, a regional study may not necessarily represent the gobal perspective. And sometimes the type of research may be out of context, if carried out in a regional level. However, starting point in a nation is important to scale up in the broader area. Further discussion @ Anubhav Pratap-Singh for more detail.
Dear Yadunath Bajgai, Kafula Chisanga, Anubhav Pratap-Singh, Barlin Olivares, Proloy Barua and Nawab Khan,
Thank you very much for your reflections on my question!
Yes, In most cases, scale does matter, whether we like it or not.
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