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Sustainability
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Sustainability of Rural Areas and Agriculture under Uncertainties
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Sustainability of Rural Areas and Agriculture under Uncertainties

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 6281

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Daowei Sun

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Australian Cotton Research Institute, Narrabri, NSW 2390, Australia
Interests: sustainability of natural and rural systems; water productivity and sustainability; climate change impacts on agricultural systems; agricultural innovation adoption; application of systems approaches (systems thinking and system dynamics) to address complex issues of the rural and agricultural sectors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Aizhi Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China
Interests: rural and agriculture development; price change in agricultural commodity; operation mechanisms of agricultural commodity markets; policies on rural and agricultural industries; international investment and international trade
Prof. Dr. Xinliang Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bejing, China
Interests: natural resources information systems; monitoring land use and land cover change through remote sensing; evaluation of environmental effects of land use and land cover changes; monitoring and evaluating terrestrial ecosystems
Dr. David Mitchell

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Orange Agricultural Institute, 1447 Forest Road, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
Interests: soil science; surface hydrology; agricultural water policy and planning;

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are here to call for submissions to this Special Issue of the Sustainability journal, with the theme of “Sustainability of rural areas and agricultural industries under uncertainties”.

Food and fibre are indispensable resources to our society and their production heavily relies on healthy rural systems and sustainable agricultural industries. The rapidly increasing population, along with improving living standards, imposes challenges to agricultural industries in terms of both productivity and the quality of products. We all understand that there must be healthy rural communities to support sustainable agricultural industries, and vice versa. However, there are many uncertainties imposed on both rural systems and agricultural industries. These uncertainties include climate shocks (such as natural disasters, including drought, floods, hurricanes, hail, and fire), in addition to extreme weather, pandemics, biosecurity incidents, world economic downturn, international trading conflicts, regional conflicts, changes in national policies, urbanisation, land use change, the evolution of social norms and even undesired outcomes of innovations, etc. We sincerely invite you to share your wisdom, knowledge, expertise and experiences here to address these uncertainties for sustainable rural areas and agricultural industries.

We invite contributions that broach the following aspects:

  • Research findings focused on rural systems, agricultural industries, or both.
  • A better understanding, measurement or prediction of uncertainties in rural areas and agricultural industries.
  • Research findings on how to address uncertainties in rural areas and agricultural industries.
  • Reporting on innovative or proven effective research methods (qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods).
  • Case studies addressing uncertainties in rural areas and agricultural industries that have regional or international significance.
  • Intervention strategies and practices to minimise impacts from different uncertainties.
  • Research can also focus on certain aspect/s of rural and agricultural systems, i.e., economic, financial, workforce, environment, water, soil, biosecurity, food consumption, logistics and e-commerce, or rural infrastructures, etc.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of topics. All related topics are all welcome.

Dr. Daowei Sun
Prof. Dr. Aizhi Yu
Prof. Dr. Xinliang Xu
Dr. David Mitchell
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability of rural systems
  • sustainable agricultural industries
  • natural disasters
  • social challenges
  • food and fibre production
  • innovations

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 4316 KiB  
Article
Evolution of the Spatial Patterns of Global Egg Trading Networks in the 21 Century
by Aizhi Yu, Huiling She and Jingsheng Cao
Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11895; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511895 - 2 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1437
Abstract
Global agriculture and food system is faced with increasing uncertainty from natural disasters, epidemics, financial crises, and wars. Agricultural trade can provide a powerful supplement to global food security. Eggs have been recognized as the most important protein source for many years as [...] Read more.
Global agriculture and food system is faced with increasing uncertainty from natural disasters, epidemics, financial crises, and wars. Agricultural trade can provide a powerful supplement to global food security. Eggs have been recognized as the most important protein source for many years as they contain the highest quality protein naturally available while the price is competitive. Egg trading plays an important role in enhancing the resilience of the global food system under uncertainty. We empirically investigate the evolution of global egg trading networks by social network analysis. And, the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) is applied to detect factors that impact global egg trading networks. The results show that in the 21st century, global egg trading networks are becoming more complex and the clusters are undergoing dynamic differentiation and integration. Additionally, compared to cultural difference among countries, factors including geographical distances, natural endowments, economic developments, trade policies, and political stability have a more significant effect on the evolution of egg trading networks. Our work provides suggestions for participating countries to develop more resilient egg trading networks to resist external shocks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Rural Areas and Agriculture under Uncertainties)
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29 pages, 509 KiB  
Article
Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Agribusiness Technology Innovation: Evidence from 231 Listed Firms in China
by Lanlan Li, Yanlei Gao and Xiudong Wang
Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10037; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310037 - 25 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1354
Abstract
The role of enterprise technological innovation in driving high-quality economic development has become increasingly prominent in a dynamic environment of uncertainty. This study examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty on enterprise technological innovation and its mechanism of action using panel data of [...] Read more.
The role of enterprise technological innovation in driving high-quality economic development has become increasingly prominent in a dynamic environment of uncertainty. This study examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty on enterprise technological innovation and its mechanism of action using panel data of agricultural listed firms in China 2007–2021. We obtain the following results. (1) Economic policy uncertainty significantly promotes technological innovation in agricultural firms, and this finding holds under various robustness checks, and works mainly through two paths: tightening financial flexibility and highlighting managerial capabilities. (2) From the heterogeneity results, the incentive effect of economic policy uncertainty on technological innovation in agricultural firms is more pronounced in state-owned agricultural firms, basic agricultural firms, and high adjustment cost agricultural firms. (3) Government subsidies strengthen the role of economic policy uncertainty in promoting technological innovation in agricultural firms. The results of this study provide data support for agricultural firms technology innovation decisions and have important implications for the guidance of national economic policy formulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Rural Areas and Agriculture under Uncertainties)
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12 pages, 24014 KiB  
Article
Impact of Major Function-Oriented Zone Planning on Spatial and Temporal Evolution of “Three Zone Space” in China
by Xinliang Xu, Rigala Na, Zhicheng Shen and Xiaojuan Deng
Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 8312; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15108312 - 19 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1191
Abstract
Major function-oriented zone (MFOZ) planning is an important blueprint for the spatial development and protection of the Chinese national territory. The “Three Zone Space” (TZS) perspective, including agricultural space, ecological space, and urban space, is an important principle and method for the transformation [...] Read more.
Major function-oriented zone (MFOZ) planning is an important blueprint for the spatial development and protection of the Chinese national territory. The “Three Zone Space” (TZS) perspective, including agricultural space, ecological space, and urban space, is an important principle and method for the transformation and diffusion of MFOZ planning to implement territory planning from the central government to local branches. More than ten years have passed since the release of the MFOZ plan in 2010 in China, but there is still a lack of comprehensive and systematic analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the TZS under the impact of MFOZ planning. Therefore, based on high-resolution remote sensing land use data from 2010 to 2020, this paper systematically analyzes the changing characteristics of the TZS on the national scale by reasonably determining TZS areas in China. The main results are as follows: in 2020, the proportions of ecological space, agricultural space, and urban space in China were 78.635%, 20.083%, and 1.282%, respectively. The TZS areas reflected the spatial pattern of MFOZs in China. From 2010 to 2020, the spatial heterogeneity of the TZS changes was significant. In China, agricultural space and ecological space as a whole showed a decreasing trend, with dynamic degrees of −0.05% and −0.04%, respectively, while urban space showed a significant expansion trend, with a dynamic degree of 4.69%. The temporal change processes of the TZS in the periods of 2010–2015 and 2015–2020 were noticeably different. The agricultural space first showed an increasing trend and then a decreasing trend. The ecological space showed a decreasing trend in the two periods, while the urban space showed a significant expansion trend in the two periods. From 2010 to 2020, the urban spatial structure of the optimized development zones tended to be stable, and the ecological space reduction in the key ecological function zones has gradually been curbed, but the agricultural space in the main agricultural production zones has shown a slight decline. On the whole, the dynamic changes in the TZS from 2010 to 2020 in China are basically in line with the governance objectives of territorial space. The reasonable allocation and development of the “three zone space” is of great significance for protecting the natural and ecological environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Rural Areas and Agriculture under Uncertainties)
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19 pages, 976 KiB  
Article
Research on the Impact and Spillover Effect of Green Agricultural Reform Policy Pilot on Governmental Environmental Protection Behaviors Based on Quasi-Natural Experiments of China’s Two Provinces from 2012 to 2020
by Qun Gao, Hengyang Chen, Mei Zhao and Ming Zeng
Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2665; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032665 - 1 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1664
Abstract
The green agricultural reform policy pilot embraces the development trend of the times. The green agricultural policy pilot implemented in China’s Zhejiang Province is an attempt to find a balance between environmental protection and economic development in order to achieve the national “dual [...] Read more.
The green agricultural reform policy pilot embraces the development trend of the times. The green agricultural policy pilot implemented in China’s Zhejiang Province is an attempt to find a balance between environmental protection and economic development in order to achieve the national “dual carbon” goals. Have the goals been achieved? Zhejiang Province is the national pilot zone of green agricultural development. Jiangsu Province is notably homogeneous with Zhejiang Province but has not been included in the pilot policy. Based on the comparative studies of the two provinces with quasi-natural experiment logic, this paper analyzes the mechanism of the national green agricultural pilot zone policy acting on the environmental protection behavior of local governments and the actual effect of such policy using the data of 22 cities in both provinces from 2012 and 2020 as the panel data and relying on the DID model. According to the research findings, the national green agricultural development pilot zone policy has significantly increased the investment of local governments in environmental protection in Zhejiang Province where the policy has been fully implemented, and the negative spillover effect has reduced the economic governance efficiency of local governments in the short term. However, the investment of local governments in Jiangsu Province where the policy has not been fully implemented has not increased significantly and the economic governance efficiency has not reduced significantly. Double robustness tests based on the parallel trend test and DID-PSM (Differences-In-Differences and Propensity Score Matching) have verified the reliability of the research findings. Both Zhejiang and Jiangsu are provinces with developed industrial economies. Agriculture only accounts for a small proportion of their GDP. In addition, there is a natural conflict between green agriculture and industrial manufacturing in these two provinces. However, for those provinces dominated by agriculture or tourism, the effect of such green agricultural development policy may be different, which requires follow-up deeper research in an effort to thoroughly learn about the impact of agricultural policy pilot on local environmental protection behaviors, especially economic performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Rural Areas and Agriculture under Uncertainties)
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