Climate-Smart and Sustainable Animal Food Value Chains

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Products".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2024) | Viewed by 10041

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Hellenic Agricultural Organization-DIMITRA, Agricultural Economics Research Institute, Ilisia, 11528 Athens, Greece
Interests: socioeconomic sustainability of livestock production systems; agricultural economics; farm management; multifunctionality

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Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Western Macedonia, 53100 Florina, Greece
Interests: agricultural and livestock production economics; cost accounting for agricultural products; innovation; sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Animal food value chains face numerous structural, operational and environmental challenges that challenge their sustainability. Farmers and processors face increasing pressure to intensify production, driven by global market demand and volatile prices, while simultaneously addressing consumer expectations for “green” products with low footprints and high animal welfare. However, these objectives are often conflicting, as the intensification of livestock production systems comes with hefty expenses, animal health and welfare issues, as well as largely negative environmental effects related mainly to GHG emissions, nutrient contamination of soil and groundwater pollution. In addition, logistical packaging and other functions also have environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Thus, the development of sustainable animal production should be considered from a holistic and global perspective in order to capture the cumulative effect of all actors involved across the value chain of animal products. With the adoption of efficient climate-smart technologies, food value chains can make a decisive step towards improving the productivity and resilience of livestock farmers and other value chain actors, and will contribute to the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. 

The aims of this Special Issue are to bring together contributions from a wide range of disciplines related to the concept of sustainable animal food value chains and climate-smart interventions in order to analyze the current situation, to facilitate more effective knowledge exchange and implementation on this topic, to promote best practices and innovations, and to discuss the potential and the limitations of the sustainable animal food value chain framework. Contributions sharing results of research projects and real-life industry applications are particularly welcomed.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcomed. Research areas include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Socioeconomic analysis of sustainable livestock systems and animal food value chains;
  • Sustainable management of livestock farms and valorization of livestock product value chains;
  • Circular economy in livestock production—byproduct and water valorization;
  • Modernization of animal value chains/precision livestock farming with technological trends;
  • Extensive livestock production, pastoralism and traditional ecological knowledge;
  • Production of artisanal food of animal origin as an alternative to industrialized production;
  • Mitigation/adaptation measures to climate change;
  • Innovations and best practices for sustainable livestock production systems and value chains;
  • Policies for sustainable and efficient animal food value chains.

Dr. Athanasios Ragkos
Dr. Georgia Koutouzidou
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • animal food value chains
  • animal health and welfare
  • animal production
  • adoption
  • climate change

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 5627 KiB  
Article
FarmDain, a Decision Support System for Dairy Sheep and Goat Production
by Malamati Louta, Panagiotis Karagiannis, Vasiliki Papanikolopoulou, Sotiria Vouraki, Evangelos Tsipis, Stergios Priskas, Georgia Koutouzidou, Alexandros Theodoridis, Socratis Dimitriou and Georgios Arsenos
Animals 2023, 13(9), 1495; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13091495 - 27 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2140
Abstract
Managing a milk zone in the dairy industry is demanding. Data necessary for efficient management are difficult to acquire because they usually must be collected in organized and standardized ways. On the other hand, software practices constantly provide new tools that can go [...] Read more.
Managing a milk zone in the dairy industry is demanding. Data necessary for efficient management are difficult to acquire because they usually must be collected in organized and standardized ways. On the other hand, software practices constantly provide new tools that can go beyond simple record-keeping practices and add value to the data. In this work, FarmDain is a novel web-based application for sheep and goat management. It aims to improve milk production and processing by digitizing the value chain in data acquisition, processing and visualization between dairy production businesses and their milk suppliers. FarmDain uses state-of-the-art software technologies to model the data collection process and provides a straightforward user interface to facilitate data processing and visualization. Using the app in a case study carried out for 12 months in a dairy sheep farm resulted in lower feeding cost per milked ewe by 5.5% when ewes were allocated into high and low milk production groups compared to the scenario of remaining in one single group. Furthermore, based on reports provided by the app, culling and genetic selection decisions were made to improve the overall farm performance. Similar practices were applied in all farms optimizing their productivity, which led to increased profitability for farms and the Dairy Factory. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Smart and Sustainable Animal Food Value Chains)
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Review

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16 pages, 1510 KiB  
Review
Goat Production, Supply Chains, Challenges, and Opportunities for Development in Vietnam: A Review
by Viet Don Nguyen, Cong Oanh Nguyen, Thi Minh Long Chau, Dinh Quang Duy Nguyen, Anh Tuan Han and Thi Thanh Huyen Le
Animals 2023, 13(15), 2546; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13152546 - 7 Aug 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 7393
Abstract
The current situation of goat production and supply chains in Vietnam, along with its difficulties and possibilities, is presented in this review paper. The data and reports of government agencies, scientific journals, and websites were analysed in order to determine the prevailing situation [...] Read more.
The current situation of goat production and supply chains in Vietnam, along with its difficulties and possibilities, is presented in this review paper. The data and reports of government agencies, scientific journals, and websites were analysed in order to determine the prevailing situation in goat production and marketing. Goats are mainly raised on small-scale farms (73.4% of the total goat population). Goat production is transforming from extensive grazing to cut-and-carry intensive systems. Goat meat and milk supplies have not fully met domestic demand. However, the scale of the domestic market is difficult to ascertain, due to the lack of market research and statistics. Goat marketing is mostly informal and overwhelmingly conducted by small-scale producers and traders, although there are numerous governmental agencies at both the national and local levels regulating formal marketing. The major challenges facing the goat industry are feed shortage; supply inconsistency; limited market infrastructure and research; a lack of sustainable breeding programmes, price incentives, and processing facilities; and competition from foreign suppliers. However, there are opportunities to expand and develop the industry, such as consumers’ health consciousness, increasing demand, high-value adding, and strong government support. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Smart and Sustainable Animal Food Value Chains)
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