Transformative innovation policies are gaining currency worldwide, but have been mainly studied in a Global North context and in the energy sector. This paper focuses empirically on Costa Rica's Climate Smart Agriculture policy mix. It addresses key knowledge gaps on the dynamics of transformative policy development in the agrifood sector in a Global South policy context. Results show Costa Rica's policy mix's transformative potential was inhibited by weak implementation capacity and internal and external incoherence between sectors and governance levels, leading to tensions resulting from policy-element interactions such as conflicting goals and interventions with overlapping purposes. The broader implication for theory and practice is that successful transformative policy mixes require close scrutiny of both the balance of the mix and how to fundamentally transform the mix. This includes paying more attention to the phasing out of legacy policy instruments and to how countries’ particular institutional contexts and policy cultures influence transformative policymaking and implementation.

变革性创新政策在全球范围内越来越流行，但主要是在北半球背景和能源领域进行研究。本文实证研究了哥斯达黎加的气候智能型农业政策组合。它解决了全球南方政策背景下农业食品部门变革性政策制定动态的关键知识差距。结果显示，哥斯达黎加政策组合的变革潜力因执行能力薄弱以及部门和治理水平之间的内部和外部不一致而受到抑制，从而导致政策要素相互作用（例如目标冲突和目的重叠的干预措施）造成紧张局势。对理论和实践更广泛的影响是，成功的变革性政策组合需要仔细审查组合的平衡以及如何从根本上改变组合。这包括更加关注遗留政策工具的逐步淘汰，以及各国特定的制度背景和政策文化如何影响变革性政策的制定和实施。