Understanding Structural Barriers and Opportunities for Scaling Agroecological Innovations: Lessons from Push-Pull Technology in East Africa

CONTEXT: Agroecological innovations such as Push–Pull Technology (PPT) offer promising solutions to interconnected challenges of pest pressure, soil degradation, and climate vulnerability in smallholder systems. Despite well-documented benefits, the scaling of PPT remains limited.,OBJECTIVE: This study applies the Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) framework to examine the actors, systemic barriers, and opportunities influencing PPT adoption and scaling in Kenya and Uganda, with emphasis on how structural-functional dynamics shape innovation performance.,METHODS: A qualitative multi-actor design was employed, involving 85 key informant interviews across six AIS domains and 18 focus group discussions. Data were analyzed using a hybrid coding strategy combining deductive codes with inductively emerging themes, which are categorized under AIS functions and micro-level systemic failures and opportunities.,RESULTS: Transdisciplinary collaboration among stakeholders has transformed PPT from a pest management technology into a multifunctional agroecological innovation that enhances pest control, soil fertility, crop productivity, livestock feed availability, and environmental sustainability. However, scaling remains constrained by weak institutional integration, fragmented extension systems, limited private-sector engagement, inadequate multi-actor coordination, and persistent perceptions of PPT as an experimental technology. Entrepreneurial initiatives, including community-based seed multiplication, fodder commercialization, and cooperative development, provide pathways toward localized ownership and market integration.,CONCLUSIONS: Sustainable scaling of PPT requires strengthening innovation governance through improved coordination among research, extension, policy, and market actors, while expanding participatory extension approaches and community-led initiatives. The findings demonstrate that effective scaling of agroecological innovations depends on robust innovation systems that integrate institutions, markets, and knowledge networks, offering lessons for broader agroecological transitions across sub-Saharan Africa.