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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how the logic of scaling in startup ecosystems constrains crop protection innovation in agriculture. Drawing on the case of phage-based biological control, it shows how scaling pressures transform simple solutions into complex products that are difficult to adopt by farmers.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how the institutionalized logic of scaling in the biotechnology startup ecosystem constrains the development of biological control solutions for crop protection. Biological control refers to the use of nature-based products to regulate plant pathogens and pests and includes microbial control strategies that rely on bacteria, fungi, or viruses. Despite their potential to reduce reliance on chemical pesticides, the adoption of biological control solutions remains limited in many agricultural systems. Drawing on the case of phage-based microbial control for crop protection, I argue that understanding the slow uptake of these solutions requires examining how the logic of scaling is enacted within the biotechnology startup ecosystem in which most of them are developed. I show that the logic of scaling creates tensions with the territorialized nature of many microbial control strategies, whose success is context-dependent and requires adaptation to specific pathogens, crops, and ecological conditions, thereby complicating their standardization and large-scale commercialization. In the case of phage crop protection, startups are encouraged to develop broad-spectrum cocktails combining multiple phage strains and requiring complex formulation processes. As a result, solutions that could otherwise remain relatively simple and inexpensive are transformed into technologically complex and costly products. By highlighting these dynamics, this paper contributes to discussions on how epistemic infrastructures in agricultural innovation systems constrain agroecological transitions and outlines directions for designing alternative innovation systems better aligned with the ecological specificity and practical uptake of biological control solutions in agriculture.