Agricultural Engineering for Sustainable Agriculture

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture must satisfy the rising demand for safe and healthy food, feed, and fibers from a growing human population, without depleting non-renewable resources or compromising the environment, assuring economic profitability, and social and economic equity.

Agricultural engineering has great potential to enhance the global sustainability of agriculture in all fields of application, from the development and correct use of innovative machinery to the latest application of digital farming solutions. Such innovative solutions apply to the efficient production of crops as to the processing of biological resources to satisfy the demand of consumers and a wide range of industries for food, feed, fibers, bio-energy, and bio-based products. Agricultural engineering plays an essential role in developing engineering-based methodologies and decision support tools for waste process and treatment to reduce the greenhouse gas emission, to reduce and correctly apply pesticides and fertilizers, and for management and protection of soil, water, and environmental resources. Sustainable agriculture engineering notions include the novel design of structures, facilities, monitoring devices, and equipment for agricultural production and ergonomic and work organization.

The object of this Special Issue is to collect contributions related to engineering applications to promote sustainable agriculture in different geographical, technical, climatic, and socio-economic contexts. Contributions can have potential exploitation for every actor involved in the agricultural system, from farmers to consumers, from researchers to policymakers and land planners, from service providers to technical resources (machinery, chemicals, etc.) producers. Manuscripts demonstrating the relevance of agricultural engineering in achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals, the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy and the promotion of the paradigm of the circular economy and digitization in agriculture are welcome.

This Special Issue focuses, but is not limited, to the agricultural engineering in the following areas:

• Agricultural machinery, equipment, and structures;
• Agricultural resource management (including land use and water use);
• Agro-food waste management;
• Biofuels and renewable energies;
• Circular economy;
• Energy efficiency and conservation;
• ICT, artificial intelligence, decision support systems, and solutions for digital and precision agriculture
• Livestock production (including pig, poultry, fish, and dairy animals)
• Livestock waste management and emission;
• Nutrient recycling;
• Organic farming;
• Climatology and atmospheric science;
• Soil management and conservation (including erosion and erosion control, compaction and sealing);
• Sustainable postharvest management practices;
• Water management and conservation and storage for crop irrigation and livestock production.

Dr. Eugenio Cavallo
Dr. Niccolò Pampuro
Dr. Marcella Biddoccu
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.