The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications. Citation:Wyckhuys, Kris A.; Bentley, Jeff W.; Lie, Rico; Nghiem,Le Thi Phuong; Fredrix, Marjon. 2017. Maximizing farm-level uptake and diffusion of biological control innovations in today's digital era. BioControl .63 (1) disregarded. In this study, we conduct a retrospective analysis of the extent to which social 39 science facets have been incorporated into biological control research over the past 25 years. 40Next, we critically examine various biological control forms, concepts and technologies using a 41'diffusion of innovations' framework, and identify elements that hamper their diffusion and 42 farm-level uptake. Lastly, we introduce effective observation-based learning strategies, such as African subsistence farmers to control key pests on sorghum and maize (Cook et al., 2007). 128The biggest stumbling block for conservation biological control is that 'from the viewpoint of on insect biological control was consolidated by using the search terms (("biological control" OR 149 "natural enem*") AND ("insect*" OR "arthropod")). These search terms were defined by the 150 authors. Within this set, we ran the following additional queries: 151  (("farmer" OR "stakeholder" OR "public") NOT "public health")), for studies that make 152 reference to end-users; 153 8  (("gender" OR "women" OR "woman")), for studies that make reference to gender-154 aspects (solely of target adopters, and not insects); 155  (("intergeneration*" OR "youth" OR ("young" AND "age") OR "children")) , for studies 156 that take into account age of target adopters, or include youngsters; 157  (("knowledge" OR "innovation" OR "information") AND ("diffusion" OR "transfer" OR 158"dissemination" OR "training")), for manuscripts that allude to knowledge transfer; parasitism by minute hymenopterans or the action of entomo-pathogens, are difficult to observe. 256But, rather surprisingly, farmers were also entirely unaware of insect predation by social wasps; 257 conspicuous and active caterpillar-hunters that are omnipresent in local fields. Wasps (e.g., 258Polybia spp.; Hymenoptera: Vespidae) typically nest under the porch roof of rural homes, and fly Farmer knowledge of pests and natural enemies can be seen as a matrix that compares the 295 "culturally important" with the "ease (or difficulty) of observation" (Bentley, 1992 and explain the best that modern science has to offer, drawing upon logic and analogies (e.g. 325"insects mate, just like other animals") and using animations, diagrams, and photos. 326There may be no local knowledge at all for the culturally unimportant and dif...