Rethinking Policy Piloting: Insights from Indian Agriculture By Sreeja Nair . Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. 2021. pp. 177. (hbk). ISBN: 978‐1‐108‐84039‐2

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Author: Vishal Narain
• Date: 01 May 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13625

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13625

Rethinking Policy Piloting:

Insights from Indian

Agriculture

By Sreeja Nair. Cambridge,

United Kingdom: Cambridge University

Press. 2021. pp. 177. (hbk). ISBN:

978-1-108-84039-2

Vishal Narain

Management Development Institute Gurgaon, Gurgaon, India

Correspondence

Vishal Narain, Management Development Institute Gurgaon, Gurgaon, India.

Email: vishalnarain@mdi.ac.in

The question of policy choice, or how policy-makers

choose among a number of policy options, is an impor-

tant question that students and scholars of public policy

engage with. At the same time, policy-makers operate in

an environment that is uncertain and laden with risk.

There is also a need for policy-making to be adaptive, in

the sense of responding to a changing policy context. In

such an environment, how do policy-makers navigate an

uncertain terrain? What can we learn from policy pilots in

such sectors as agriculture in India, which constitutes an

important vote bank for politicians on the one hand, and

is characterized by several structural and institutional con-

straints on the other? Sreeja Nair’s book seeks to provide

an answer to these questions.

Rethinking policy pilots is a well-researched book that

is conceptually well grounded and methodologically rig-

orous. It seeks to examine the conditions for the diffusion

of policy pilots, with an empirical focus on pilots in the

agriculture sector in India. The book is organized into

5 chapters. Chapter 1 provides a rigorous review of rele-

vant concepts and theories; it sets the conceptual

groundwork for the book by engaging with such concep-

tual nuances as the difference between policy pilots and

experiments, pilot upscaling and diffusion and process

and impact pilots. Chapter 2 sets the context of Indian

agriculture, highlighting the structural, institutional, and

hydro-meteorological conditions that characterize it and

make it a very risk-prone sector, especially for the large

number of small and marginal farmers who depend on it

for their livelihoods. Chapter 3 describes the features of

the pilots that are selected for the study and compares

them using a consistent framework that studies the ends

(goals) of the policy as well as the means (instruments).

Chapter 4 presents a comparison of the pilots using a

qualitative comparative analysis. Chapter 5 concludes the

book with lessons for the diffusion of pilots. It sets out a

direction for examining further generalizability and scal-

ing up the findings.

Though the terms policy pilots and experiments are

used interchangeably, Nair marks a distinction between

the two. Drawing on such authors as van der Heijden

(2015) and Jowell (2003), Nair defines policy experimenta-

tion as a process of testing specific policy designs at a

micro-scale to validate their potential as effective solu-

tions to specific policy problems; pilots, on the other

hand, are an advanced form of experimentation and

involve the gradual introduction of policy initiatives to

have these tested, evaluated and adjusted prior to being

launched fully. Thus pilots could be seen as an advanced

form of experimentation, with a focus on how an experi-

ment might work. The word “pilot”represents something

more actionable and scalable than experiment. Experi-

ment may entail a less formal, more unstable, and

nascent strategy or idea that may or may not go on to

become a pilot.

The other important conceptual distinction made in

the book is between upscaling of pilots and their diffu-

sion. Scaling up a pilot refers to an expansion of the pilot

to reach more beneficiaries, increasing the scope of the

pilot, influencing the political agenda and institutional

frameworks, and increasing the capacity of organizations

for the diffusion of the pilot and experimentation

(Uvin, 1995). It could refer to the expansion, replication,

adaptation, and sustaining of the pilot over space and

time to reach a higher number of beneficiaries

(Hartmann & Lin, 2007). Diffusion, on the other hand,

refers to the expansion of the pilot beyond the original

scale and moves from simple replication to full institution-

alization into new or on-going policies (Vreugdenhil

et al., 2010). Diffusion of pilots is thus an umbrella term

that includes a continuation of pilots in myriad forms: this

could take the form of further pilots, or of more perma-

nent projects, or a scaling up and final institutionalization

into policy-making. Nair argues that a pilot can evolve in

many ways and still contribute to policy-making.

Indian agriculture perhaps provides the right context

for this study because of the inherent constraints and

uncertainties, as Nair argues. Two-thirds of Indian agricul-

ture is rainfed, which makes it very vulnerable to climate

variability and change. Agriculture contributes to 15.4%

of the GDP, while it employs 40% of the population. The

sector faces multi-pronged challenges and risks; what

makes the situation challenging is that 83% of the

farmers are small and marginal farmers with low

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