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Sustainable Agriculture-Food Supply Chains: Innovation, Technologies, and Decisions

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 6447

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Management, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales SA1 8EN, UK
Interests: agri-food industry; supply chain risk management; supply chain resilience; decision-making; knowledge management
Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 8St, UK
Interests: sustainability; supply chain management; technology
Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4SE, UK
Interests: sustainable supply chain management; food supply chain management; supply chain relationship and network governance; social network research

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Guest Editor
Plymouth Business School, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK
Interests: decision making and intelligent support; knowledge management; product and service value chain innovation; sustainable and global supply chain management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture food supply chains (AFSCs) are defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as “linked events in the agricultural production of food, which involves all stages of production, processing, trading, distribution, and consumption – namely, from ‘farm-to-fork’”. Its smooth, efficient, and sustainable development plays a key role in generating employment worldwide, increasing income of poor households in developing countries, alleviating the impacts of climate crisis, and contributing to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), such as no proverty, zero hunger, and responsible consumption and production. 

Governments launched various programs for promoting AFSCs’ sustainability. For example, the UN environmental program conducted two pilot projects for improving sustainable management of lobster supply chains in Northeastern Brazil and rice production in Thailand’s Central Valley. The FAO has developed appraoches and tools to promote inclusive and efficient food systems by better integrating small-scale farmers into agribusiness. To achieve a better understanding of sustainable AFSCs, we launched this Special Issue to explore how to strengthen sustainable development of AFSCs through innovations, technologies, and decisions. This Special Issue welcomes contributions on the following themes (although this list is not exclusive):

  • Social, environmental, and economic innovations for achieving sustainable AFSCs;
  • The application of Industry 4.0 technologies (e.g., big data) for achieving sustainable AFSCs;
  • Integration decision-making processes into various stages of AFSCs to achieve sustainable AFSCs;
  • The role of knowledge management for achieving sustainable AFSCs;
  • The application of sensors, precision agriculture, and drones for reducing waste consumption;

Dr. Guoqing Zhao
Dr. Femi Olan
Dr. Haiyan Lu
Prof. Dr. Shaofeng Liu
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

  • sustainable agri-food supply chains
  • innovations, advanced technologies
  • decision-making processes

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 6481 KiB  
Article
‘Multi-SWOT’ Multi-Stakeholder-Based Sustainability Assessment Methodology: Applied to Improve Slovenian Legume-Based Agri-Food Chains
by Tanja Dergan, Aneta Ivanovska, Tina Kocjančič, Pietro P. M. Iannetta and Marko Debeljak
Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15374; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215374 - 18 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3441
Abstract
Assessing the sustainability of agri-food chains is challenging for several reasons. It should account for the impacts on environmental, social, and economic wellbeing simultaneously, considering both the individual links in the chain and the chain as a whole. The primary aim of this [...] Read more.
Assessing the sustainability of agri-food chains is challenging for several reasons. It should account for the impacts on environmental, social, and economic wellbeing simultaneously, considering both the individual links in the chain and the chain as a whole. The primary aim of this study is to assess the conditions for meeting the sustainability criteria of a legume-based agri-food chain in Slovenia. Therefore, a quantitative sustainability assessment methodology was developed, using a multi-stakeholder approach, which upgraded the traditional SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. Our approach, called ‘Multi-SWOT’, aggregates the SWOT table inputs identified by stakeholders into factors, themes and focus areas, according to their importance for the agri-food chain, for each sustainability pillar, and links in the chain. By accounting for the relative number of incentives (beneficial factors) and barriers (constraint factors) we identified those factors that enhance the sustainability of the Slovenian legume-based agri-food chain and the factors jeopardising it. The incorporation of multi-stakeholder perspectives presents an innovative approach that adds value to a standard SWOT analysis. The study serves as a guide to help decision-makers better understand the multidimensionality of sustainability and identify effective activities to support and strengthen the current legume agri-food chain in Slovenia. Full article
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16 pages, 837 KiB  
Article
Case Study of the School Feeding Program in Distrito Federal, Brazil: Building Quality in Short Food Supply Chains
by Amanda Souza and Armando Fornazier
Sustainability 2022, 14(16), 10192; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141610192 - 17 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2058
Abstract
This article seeks to analyze the public procurement program for school feeding in Distrito Federal, Brazil from the perspective of short food supply chains (SFSCs) and quality construction. Semi-structured interviews were applied to key actors involved in the Program. The results of this [...] Read more.
This article seeks to analyze the public procurement program for school feeding in Distrito Federal, Brazil from the perspective of short food supply chains (SFSCs) and quality construction. Semi-structured interviews were applied to key actors involved in the Program. The results of this research show that, mainly through the regulations around Food and Nutritional Security and in the encouragement of local family farmer markets, the State has acted for a quality shift through public purchases and, mainly by means of norms such as laws, decrees, and normative instructions, induced a quality change in the production and consumption processes. This study contributed to an understanding of how Executing Entities such as states are working to acquire local and quality agricultural products, which benefits local farmers and improves the quality of school meals. Full article
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