Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
6.8
3.3
Journals
Sustainability
Special Issues
Economic Profitability and Agriculture Sustainable Development
sustainability-logo
Submit to Sustainability Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Economic Profitability and Agriculture Sustainable Development

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 August 2021) | Viewed by 8521

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Yolanda Martínez Martínez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economic Analysis, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: water management; nonpoint pollution control; agricultural economics; water policy; water ecosystem services; invasive species control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of sustainability applied to agriculture means not only preserving the environment and natural resources, but also seeking economic profitability for agricultural products and producing healthy food for present and future generations at prices that are reasonable for consumers. In this spirit, production systems have been developed that seek the label of organic, alternative, sustainable, low-input, regenerative or agroecological.

The implementation of the sustainability paradigm by the institutions involved in the governance of the sector has led to the introduction of more demanding regulations regarding the environmental impacts of the sector. However, the transition to new agricultural practices often requires institutional support through subsidies and other public support that calls into question their real economic profitability in the short and long term.

It is also necessary to develop studies that quantify the level of economic profitability of the sector and compare it with those of other sectors of the economy.

The aim of this Special Issue is to present original research papers in the field of sustainable agriculture, especially from an economic perspective. In this Special Issue, we seek original work that focuses on addressing the new challenges of sustainability, economically evaluating more sustainable agricultural techniques/systems and more environmentally friendly technological solutions for agriculture and livestock.

Studies that propose the economic analysis of policies linked to the promotion of agricultural sustainability and those that measure/compare sustainability from an economic perspective are also welcome.

Specific topics include but are not limited to the following:

- Economic evaluation of new agricultural and livestock management practices;

- Policy tools to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices;

- Evaluation of agricultural systems/techniques based on field experiments;

- Proposals for measuring and comparing sustainability (in time and space).

Dr. Yolanda Martínez Martínez
Guest Editor

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

  • agricultural systems
  • economic evaluation
  • short- and long-term profitability
  • policies to support sustainable agriculture

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 1557 KiB  
Article
Evaluating Benefits of Eco-Agriculture: The Cases of Farms along Taiwan’s East Coast in Yilan and Hualien
by Kai-Lih Chen, Wei-Hsin Kong, Chi-Cheng Chen and Je-Liang Liou
Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10889; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910889 - 30 Sep 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3082
Abstract
The ecological agriculture (hereinafter referred to as eco-agriculture) concept has grown rapidly in Taiwan in recent years. More and more successful eco-agriculture projects have thus sprouted up in Taiwan, and so a quantitative evaluation model of such projects becomes critically important for improving [...] Read more.
The ecological agriculture (hereinafter referred to as eco-agriculture) concept has grown rapidly in Taiwan in recent years. More and more successful eco-agriculture projects have thus sprouted up in Taiwan, and so a quantitative evaluation model of such projects becomes critically important for improving public understanding of eco-agriculture and for providing a basis for policy analysis. This research thus proposes a quantitative evaluation model for eco-agriculture and analyzes the empirical data collected. We take four farms that practice eco-agriculture in eastern Taiwan for the estimation of direct benefits by surveying farmers about their revenues and costs of crop yields. To evaluate indirect benefits, we employ the Contingent Value Method (CVM) to investigate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of users and non-users to support eco-agriculture. Results from the direct benefit estimation indicate that eco-agriculture adoption is unlikely to improve the local livelihoods of farming communities. In terms of indirect benefit estimation, eco-agriculture is beneficial to society, but based on our analysis of the direct benefits, these indirect benefits fail to be transformed into profits, showing that eco-agriculture exhibits positive externalities. This constitutes unavoidable challenges for eco-agriculture to be sustainable if these positive externalities cannot be internalized. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Profitability and Agriculture Sustainable Development)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 1661 KiB  
Article
The Use of Hydromulching as an Alternative to Plastic Films in an Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus cv. Symphony) Crop: A Study of the Economic Viability
by Josefa López-Marín, Miriam Romero, Amparo Gálvez, Francisco Moisés del Amor, Maria Carmen Piñero and José Manuel Brotons-Martínez
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5313; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095313 - 10 May 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2830
Abstract
The use of mulching in agriculture suppresses the weeds around crop plants, enhances the nutrients status of soil, controls the soil structure and temperature, and reduces soil water evaporation. Excessive use of low-density polyethylene mulches is contributing to the accumulation of high amounts [...] Read more.
The use of mulching in agriculture suppresses the weeds around crop plants, enhances the nutrients status of soil, controls the soil structure and temperature, and reduces soil water evaporation. Excessive use of low-density polyethylene mulches is contributing to the accumulation of high amounts of plastic wastes, an environmental problem for agricultural ecosystems. Fragments of plastic from such wastes can be found in soils, in water resources, and in organisms, including humans. The objective of this work was to study the economic viability of the use of different hydromulches in an artichoke crop. Three blends were prepared by mixing paper pulp (recycled from used paper) and cardboard (from paper mills) with different additives: wheat straw (WS), rice hulls (RH), and substrate used for mushroom cultivation (MS). These were compared with low-density polyethylene (Pe), a treatment without mulching on bare soil where hand weeding was performed (HW), and a treatment without mulching on bare soil where herbicide was applied (H). The results indicate that the use of hydromulch in an artichoke crop represents a good alternative for reducing plastic waste in agriculture. The net profits of the hydromulch treatments (MS, WS, RH) were higher than for HW and H, and slightly lower than for Pe. The most profitable treatment was Pe (€0.69 m−3), followed by RH (€0.59 m−3), WS (€0.58 m−3), MS (€0.47 m−3), HW (€0.36 m−3), and H (€0.32 m−3). A sensitivity analysis showed a probability of negative results of 0.04 in Pe, 0.13 in SM, 0.08 in WS, and 0.07 in RH, so the probability that the grower will make a profit is greater than 0.9 with the use of mulch (except mushroom substrate) or polyethylene. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Profitability and Agriculture Sustainable Development)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop