Reconfiguring agricultural water management practices: Lessons from research on scaling of controlled drainage and subirrigation systems

As climate change is impacting society in a more rapid and visible way, there is a higher pressure to implement mitigation and adaptation strategies, which in the case of agriculture is packaged as climate smart agricultural (CSA) practices. To facilitate this implementation, there is a need to understand how CSA practices can be brought to scale. In this article we propose a practice-based approach to research scaling that can help unpack the complexity of change, by focussing on everyday practices. We applied this approach by researching the scaling up of controlled drainage with subirrigation (CD-SI), which is an alternative water management practice being trialled out in the high-lying sandy soils of the Netherlands. The research uses a combination of interviews, participant observation and a limited literature review as the methodology. In analysing the network of practices, with CD-SI systems as the key material aspect of the novel water management practice, the mechanisms that underpin the possible scaling of CD-SI have been identified. The CD-SI system integrated quite easily into the everyday practices of farmers, yet questions about water access and use remain crucial to the scalability of CD-SI systems. The CD-SI systems were investigated as they were thought to be more sustainable in water use, yet this research concludes that there is limited reconfiguration of everyday water management practices with the introduction of this new material element. Discussed in brief, we conclude that the practice-based approach has proven to be a useful addition to the various approaches to scaling research. • Innovations are still struggling to go beyond trials to affect sustainable change. • A practice-orientated approach can help unpack the complexity of change. • There is a dichotomy (off-farm/on-farm) of meanings associated with CD-SI systems. • Bridging this dichotomy is key in efforts to scale up CD-SI systems. • CD-SI did not substantially reconfigure agricultural water management practices.