Search Results (31)

Current food production systems rely heavily on resource-poor small-scale farmers in the global south. Concomitantly, the agrifood systems are exacerbated by various a/biotic challenges, including low-input agriculture and climate crisis. The recent global food crisis further escalates the production and consumption challenges in the global market. With these challenges, coordinated efforts to address the world’s agrifood systems challenges have never been more urgent than now. This includes the implementation of deeply interconnected activities of food, land, and water systems and relationships among producers and consumers that operate across political boundaries. Nature-positive agriculture represents interventions both at the farm and landscape level that include a systems approach for the management of diverse issues across the land-water-food nexus. In the present article, we focus on the history of traditional farming and how it evolved into today’s nature-positive agriculture, including its limitations and opportunities. The review also explains the most impactful indicators for successful nature-positive agriculture, including sustainable management of soil, crops, seeds, pests, and mixed farming systems, including forages and livestock. Finally, the review explains the dynamics of nature-positive agriculture in the context of small-scale farming systems and how multilateral organizations like the CGIAR are converting this into transformative actions and impact. To address the climate crisis, CGIAR established the paradigm of nature-positive solutions as part of its research and development efforts aimed at transforming food, land, and water systems into more resilient and sustainable pathways. Full article

European policies on climate change (CC), food security (FS), and biodiversity (BD) represent the EU’s commitment to a sustainable agri-food system, highlighting the interdependence between environmental health and food security. By analyzing key drivers and indicators, the present study evaluates the effectiveness of existing measures and identifies gaps in the policy framework. A Scoping Group activity facilitated dialogue between policymakers, industry, and farmer representatives to gather feedback and strengthen the data–policy link. The results highlight progress in areas such as promoting sustainable agriculture and biodiversity, while pointing out unresolved issues like the challenges faced by smallholder farmers. The study emphasizes the need for real-time monitoring tools and tailored solutions to address the complexities of the agri-food system. It also encourages the integration of emerging technologies, such as IoT and AI, to enhance the sustainability of agricultural practices. Ultimately, the findings call for a landscape-specific approach to maximize biodiversity gains, mitigate climate impacts, and ensure food security within the broader context of the EU’s ecological and socio-economic challenges. Full article

Human and planetary health are interconnected through food and agriculture. Food production and consumption patterns continue to drive the global burden of malnutrition, diet-related disease, climate change, and environmental degradation. There is an urgent need to identify pathways for transforming agrifood systems to be increasingly healthy, sustainable, and just, but conceptual frameworks necessary for visualizing these complex relationships are limited. This systematic scoping review identified existing frameworks for analyzing human and environmental outcomes of agrifood systems and evaluated their inclusion of policy and governance. Frameworks have evolved to increasingly consider the food supply chain activities and actors, the drivers that shape them, and the outcomes of these interactions. The findings of the review were used to develop a conceptual framework specific to modern industrialized agrifood systems where policy landscape is an explicit component. The framework is tailored to researchers and policymakers with the intention of providing a foundation for analyzing and communicating agrifood system issues, including identifying facilitators and barriers to effective policy, places to intervene in the system, and windows of opportunity for successful transformation. Full article

There is a growing consensus that the modern food system lies at the centre of the great challenges facing humanity and that urgent and profound changes are required in the way that food is produced, processed, distributed and consumed. This review analyses sustainability transitions within agrifood systems, focusing on the role of firms and industries as defined by the Sustainable Transitions Research Network (STRN). This paper conducts the first systematic literature review using bibliometric analysis to assess the current state of research on this theme. The findings reveal a significant increase in publications related to firms and industries associated with agrifood sustainability transitions. Furthermore, the focus of current research is geographically concentrated in the European Union. The review identifies four key themes in the literature, based on the co-occurrence of keywords. These are agriculture, innovation, governance, food systems and agroecology. The review identifies an increasing awareness of the role of farmers in driving sustainability transitions at the farm level. Furthermore, there is an increasing awareness of the interrelated characteristics of the agrifood system, which acknowledges the need for sustainable innovations to occur at multiple stages of the agrifood system. The review also shows that there is growing evidence that innovations can occur through disruptive as well as incremental innovation and highlights the importance of governance influencing transitions. The existing literature raises questions about alternative food networks as sustainable innovations, their potential for significant change in the established food system and the validity of their claims regarding food equity and environmental sustainability. A key theme emerging from the literature is an ecological perspective that identifies the complex biological processes and ecosystems that form an integral part of agricultural production. These findings provide a greater understanding of the current literature landscape of agrifood sustainable transitions relating to firms and industries and lay a foundation for future research. Full article

In the dynamic landscape of agriculture and food science, incorporating emergent crops appears as a pioneering solution for diversifying agriculture, unlocking possibilities for sustainable cultivation and nutritional bolstering food security, and creating economic prospects amid evolving environmental and market conditions with positive impacts on human health. This review explores the potential of utilizing emergent crops in Mediterranean environments under current climate scenarios, emphasizing the manifold benefits of agricultural and food system diversification and assessing the impact of environmental factors on their quality and consumer health. Through a deep exploration of the resilience, nutritional value, and health impacts of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) such as quinoa, amaranth, chia, moringa, buckwheat, millet, teff, hemp, or desert truffles, their capacity to thrive in the changing Mediterranean climate is highlighted, offering novel opportunities for agriculture and functional food development. By analysing how promoting agricultural diversification can enhance food system adaptability to evolving environmental conditions, fostering sustainability and resilience, we discuss recent findings that underscore the main benefits and limitations of these crops from agricultural, food science, and health perspectives, all crucial for responsible and sustainable adoption. Thus, by using a sustainable and holistic approach, this revision analyses how the integration of NUS crops into Mediterranean agrifood systems can enhance agriculture resilience and food quality addressing environmental, nutritional, biomedical, economic, and cultural dimensions, thereby mitigating the risks associated with monoculture practices and bolstering local economies and livelihoods under new climate scenarios. Full article

The current geopolitical and socioeconomic landscape creates a difficult and uncertain operating environment for farming and agri-food businesses. Technological innovation has not been suggested to be a “silver bullet” but is one of the ways organizations can seek to reduce environmental impact, deliver net zero, address the rural skills and labor deficit and produce more output from fewer resources and as a result, make space for nature. But what barriers limit this promissory narrative from delivering in practice? The purpose of the paper is to firstly explore the reported social, technical and systemic barriers to agri-technology adoption in an increasingly uncertain world and then secondly identify potential research gaps that highlight areas for future research and inform key research questions. Socio-technical and infrastructural barriers have been identified within the context of the complex hollowing out and infilling of rural communities across the world. These barriers include seventeen factors that emerge, firstly those external to the farm (economic conditions, external conditions including bureaucracy, market conditions, weather uncertainty and the narratives about farmers), those internal to the farm business (farming conditions, employee relations, general finance, technology and time pressures) and then personal factors (living conditions, personal finances, physical health, role conflict, social isolation and social pressure). Adaptive resilience strategies at personal, organizational and community levels are essential to address these barriers and to navigate agri-technology adoption in an uncertain and dynamic world. Full article

Through an exploration of meal regulations, dining rituals, and monastic rules of Han Buddhist and Cistercian monks, this article discusses how food affects space formation, layout organization, and site selection in monastic venues using Guoqing Si and Poblet Monastery as detailed case studies. The dining rituals, such as guotang and the Refectory, transform daily routines into acts of worship and practice, particularly within the palace-like dining spaces. Monastic rules and the concept of cleanliness influence the layout of monastic spaces, effectively distinguishing between sacred and secular areas. The types of food, influenced by self-sufficiency and food taboos, impact the formation of monasteries in the surrounding landscape, while the diligent labor of monks in cultivating the wilderness contributes to the sanctity of the venues. By employing anthropology as a tool for field observation and considering architectural design as a holistic mindset, this article concludes that due to the self-sufficiency of monastic lives, monks establish a sustainable agri-food space system. This ensures that food production, waste management, water utilization, food processing, and meal consumption can be sustainable practices. Food taboos are determined by the understanding of purity in both religions, leading to the establishment of a distinct spatial order for food between the sacred and secular realms. Ultimately, ordinary meals are consumed within extraordinary dining spaces, providing monks with a silent and sacred eating atmosphere. Under the overall influence of food, both monasteries have developed their own food spatial systems, and the act of dining has transformed from a daily routine to a sacred worship. Full article

Digital farming has revolutionized agriculture by integrating technologies like IoT, AI, big data analytics, and remote sensing. This paper explores the impact of digital farming on agricultural engineering practices, highlighting the changes it has brought to the agri-food landscape. By using real-time data collection, analysis, and predictive modeling, agricultural engineers can make informed decisions, enabling precise and sustainable resource management. Precision agriculture technologies can reduce fertilizer and pesticide use by up to 30%, increase yields by 10–20%, and conserve water by up to 50%. Digital farming practices have also increased efficiency and productivity, with autonomous farm machinery and smart irrigation systems. Autonomous tractors operate without human intervention, freeing up farmers to focus on other tasks. Smart irrigation systems automatically adjust watering schedules based on real-time weather and soil moisture data, ensuring optimal watering for crops. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the capacity of digital farming to bring about significant changes in agricultural engineering techniques, in contrast to conventional approaches. It will examine the effects of digital farming on resource allocation, environmental sustainability, and the global food supply, thereby highlighting its potential for transformation. The research aims to inspire stakeholders in the agricultural sector to embrace digital farming as a transformative force, shaping the future of agricultural engineering practices for a more efficient, resilient, and prosperous agriculture sector. Full article

Tactile sensing plays a pivotal role in achieving precise physical manipulation tasks and extracting vital physical features. This comprehensive review paper presents an in-depth overview of the growing research on tactile-sensing technologies, encompassing state-of-the-art techniques, future prospects, and current limitations. The paper focuses on tactile hardware, algorithmic complexities, and the distinct features offered by each sensor. This paper has a special emphasis on agri-food manipulation and relevant tactile-sensing technologies. It highlights key areas in agri-food manipulation, including robotic harvesting, food item manipulation, and feature evaluation, such as fruit ripeness assessment, along with the emerging field of kitchen robotics. Through this interdisciplinary exploration, we aim to inspire researchers, engineers, and practitioners to harness the power of tactile-sensing technology for transformative advancements in agri-food robotics. By providing a comprehensive understanding of the current landscape and future prospects, this review paper serves as a valuable resource for driving progress in the field of tactile sensing and its application in agri-food systems. Full article

The development of a decision framework for landscape governance and management has become one of the prioritised policy instruments for actualising policy objectives related to agri-food systems, biodiversity conservation, nature restoration, environmental management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and the transition to renewable energy supplies. However, the landscape lens in policy making is challenging because of the diverse landscape archetypes, environmental problems, and diverging policy targets that it must address. This highlights the importance of having a robust, evidence-based landscape decision framework. To address this issue, this study undertook a transdisciplinary synthesis of research outputs from the Landscape Decisions Programme (LDP). This study compiles and synthesises outputs from the LDP projects in the context of the relevant literature to develop an understanding of the relationships among the emerging evidence with respect to decision making for sustainable and multifunctional landscapes. The synthesis identified six themes that define the drivers of landscape decisions, and four themes that define the dominant methodological approaches used to generate evidence for landscape decisions. The emergent themes from the synthesis were distilled into five principles that can be used as a basis for the development of a holistic landscape decision framework. Full article

The object of study of this article is the Valencian Maestrat olive growing system (eastern Spain). Its landscape and heritage values are evaluated through a qualitative assessment method based on a Spanish research project studying MTASs (Multifunctional, Territorialized Agrifood Systems), which can be described as an alternative agricultural model to the worldwide agro-industrial model. The results of this analysis show that this olive growing system coincides with the MTAS criteria as regards the landscape, which offers ecosystem services (food, structured soil, and absorption of CO₂ emissions) and possesses cultural and heritage values (ancient olive trees, traditional rain-fed lands, unaltered plot structures, and dry stone structures). However, as far as production is concerned, the Maestrat olive growing system does not respond fully to MTAS principles: its particular environmental conditions (soil and climate) restrict the production of quality oil, which is processed and marketed mainly through cooperatives and is economically viable only thanks to CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) aid. Nevertheless, the cooperative system allows for the survival, albeit precarious, of this agricultural system. Only a small number of Maestrat olive growing farmers produce quality oil in accordance with MTAS criteria (such as local single varieties, unique flavour, proximity sales, territory closeness, or good farming practices). Full article

Optimization of agricultural practices is key for facing the challenges of modern agri-food systems, which are expected to satisfy a growing demand of food production in a landscape characterized by a reduction in cultivable lands and an increasing awareness of sustainability issues. In this work, an operational methodology for characterization of vegetation biomass and nitrogen content based on close-range hyperspectral remote sensing is introduced. It is based on an unsupervised active learning technique suitable for the calibration of a partial least square regression. The proposed technique relies on an innovative usage of Shannon’s entropy and allows for the set-up of an incremental monitoring framework from scratch aiming at minimizing field sampling activities. Experimental results concerning the estimation of grassland biomass and nitrogen content returned RMSE values of 2.05 t/ha and 4.68 kg/ha, respectively. They are comparable with the literature, mostly relying on supervised frameworks and confirmed the suitability of the proposed methodology with operational environments. Full article

Peri-urban vegetable cropping areas, such as horticultural farms, provide several ecosystem services, such as the provision of fresh food. However, food supply must be estimated on the basis of the current and potential demand of future populations, taking into account the landscape carrying capacity towards sustainable agricultural planning. From this perspective, the study aimed at estimating the resilience of the “Agri-food Region of Central Córdoba” (ARCC) and its role in supporting the provisioning of ecosystem services, such as proximal services, provided by the diversified agricultural landscape in the peri-urban area of Córdoba (Argentina). A direct field survey has been carried out to collect data on the main species and types of crops, the annual productivity, and the area covered by each species and type of horticultural crops. The data have been statistically elaborated to test the spatial and temporal variability of productivity as well as the spatial autocorrelation. In relation to crop diversification, a total of 30 vegetable species have been recorded in the diversified farms under study, with 15 species identified as the most frequent crops as on the basis of the area dedicated to each vegetable species sampled in the farms (in %). The productivity of 30 species has been integrated into a single value of “vegetable crop productivity mean” (kg/m²), proposed and measured in this study, which has been 3.46 kg/m². It can be a useful monitoring indicator in diversified production contexts. The estimated food supply (ton/year) of vegetable crops for the 170 farmlands has been 72,881 ton/year. An accurate measurement of the biomass harvested on a given surface area can be useful to assign productivity data to the pixel of each land use/cover class, providing accurate input data for remotely sensed-based models supporting decision-making on food provision in peri-urban systems. In this sense, the paper proposes a methodological framework that can be useful worldwide when up-to-date official productivity data are not available, but they are a necessary basis for planning, decision-making, and the implementation of public policies. Thus, diversity in farming systems can combine high ecological and socio-economic benefits, in terms of ecosystem service provision and sustainable food production. Full article

The creation and deployment of digital technologies throughout the agro-food system contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goal nine. However, various digitalization studies offer limited insight into the policy issues and solutions around emerging technologies and big data systems in agriculture. There is a need for an additional understanding of how agricultural policymaking should respond to the usage of digital technologies in the agri-food sector. Furthermore, evidence is limited on how existing agricultural government programs such as land reform can be linked with digitalization policy. This systematic review of literature sought to determine the transformation that is needed in the political and economic environment for the digital revolution to take place within South African land reform agriculture. A thematic analysis of data sampled from ProQuest Central, Scopus, Dimensions, and Google Scholar reveals five areas of intervention from agricultural policymaking. The digital revolution in agriculture can be brought about by transforming digital infrastructure, data interoperability and governance, digital markets, the compatibility of government incentives with the private sector, and the digital cultural landscape. This essay contributes to agricultural policy and decision-making dialogues that pay attention to digital technologies and land reform programs in South Africa. Full article

Agriculture is a vital sector in Morocco through its contribution to the gross domestic product (13%) and workforce (30%). However, the sector faces important sustainability challenges due to Morocco’s dependence on rain-fed crops for 90% of the production and its vulnerability to climate change. In this context, organic agriculture presents itself as a promising alternative to valorize production and mitigate climate change effects. This article describes the dynamics and development of the organic agriculture niche in Morocco through the lens of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions. The MLP is a widely used framework that bases its analysis on transitions being the result of the interaction of niches, socio-technical regimes, and socio-technical landscape. Results of the literature review and semi-structured interviews show that, although the organic niche is relatively well established (11,000 ha of organic land area in 2019), it is still developing at a slower rate than expected due to multiple setbacks. While organic farming does solve many sustainability challenges that Moroccan agriculture faces, it still lacks the infrastructure and human capital to succeed as a niche. All in all, organic farming is still in the first transition stages and can follow a multitude of pathways before becoming relevant in the current agri-food system. Full article