Many Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) technologies fail to achieve their full potential impact due to low levels of adoption by smallholder farmers and difficulties in scaling CSA. This paper presents how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can act as change agents for the uptake of CSA technologies where their business models may be seen as adoption and scaling mechanisms. Drawing upon our fieldwork in Punjab (India) during which over 100 respondents have been interviewed, critical issues and enabling factors for the business model of two types of SMEs, i.e. farmer cooperatives and individual service providers of climate smart technologies have been identified. Enabling factors supporting adoption are driven by scientific and practical evidence of CSA technologies, good partnership between SMEs and research institutes, good customer relationships and effective channels through farmers’ field trials. Critical issues consist of distortive government subsidies on energy and the lack of market intelligence affecting the profitability of the business model. Scaling is enhanced through market intelligence and a favouring regulatory landscape. However, difficult socio-economic circumstances and distortive government subsidies limit the role of SMEs business model as mechanism for scaling.

由于小农户的采用水平低以及扩展CSA的困难，许多气候智能农业（CSA）技术未能充分发挥其潜在的影响。本文介绍了中小型企业（SME）如何充当CSA技术采用的变革推动者，在这种情况下，他们的业务模型可以看作是采用和扩展机制。根据我们在印度旁遮普邦的实地调查，访谈了100多个受访者，确定了两种类型的SME（即农民合作社和气候智能技术的个体服务提供商）的商业模式的关键问题和促成因素。CSA技术的科学和实践证据，中小型企业与研究机构之间的良好伙伴关系，通过农民的田间试验建立良好的客户关系和有效的渠道。关键问题包括政府对能源的扭曲性补贴以及缺乏影响商业模式盈利能力的市场情报。通过市场情报和有利的监管环境可以扩大规模。但是，困难的社会经济环境和扭曲的政府补贴限制了中小企业商业模式作为规模化机制的作用。