Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems最新文献

{"title":"Expanding recognition and inclusion of animal-free organic agriculture in the sustainable agriculture movement","authors":"Mona Seymour","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1293261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1293261","url":null,"abstract":"Animal-free organic agriculture resides at the margins of sustainable agriculture discourse, practice, and imaginaries, which center animal-based forms of farming. However, the concerns and goals of sustainable agriculture are overwhelmingly consistent with those of many forms of animal-free organic agriculture (AFOA), described as organic farming sans animal production, labor, and byproducts. Despite this sidelining, AFOA has great potential to contribute to a more robust sustainable agriculture movement. In order to emphasize the continuities between animal-based and animal-free sustainable agriculture, this Perspective identifies a number of key similarities between animal-free and animal-based sustainable farming, including mutual foci on soil health and shared opposition to intensive animal agriculture. It contends that beyond being compatible with sustainable agriculture, AFOA holds answers to some of the difficult questions currently and potentially confronting animal-based agriculture, such as projected impacts of climate change on animal agriculture and stability of supply chains for animal-based soil amendments. Barriers to greater inclusion of AFOA into the sustainable agriculture movement exist as well; this piece suggests potential ways to address some of these challenges, including the integration of AFOA into formal sustainable agriculture education.","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"44 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138596751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of agricultural subsidies on farm household decisions: a separable household model approach","authors":"Priyanka Lal, B. S. Chandel, R. Tiwari, Mohamed A. El-Sheikh, Sheikh Mansoor, Alok Kumar, Gyanendra Singh, M. Lal, Ravinder Kumar","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1295704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1295704","url":null,"abstract":"This study employs a separable household model to estimate the effect of agricultural subsidies on production and consumption decisions taken by farm households. The study used data from a household survey using a pre-tested schedule to develop and calibrate an agricultural household model.First, we calculated a price index for the model. The index was higher for non-agricultural commodity groups in all the categories of farm households. Expenditure on non-agricultural commodity groups was more than agricultural commodity groups.Results indicated that for the agricultural commodity group, the estimated coefficients of linear expenditure system (LES) model were positive and less than one for all farm household categories except for the wage-price coefficient which was found to be negative. The estimates of profit function in the study area depict that the variable inputs were negatively related to the profit function and the fixed inputs were positively related to profit. Our study highlights a few crucial points – First, the removal of subsidies will decrease the demand for electricity, concentrate and irrigation by 80, 73 and 70 %, respectively. Second, removing subsidies will not only affect the demand for inputs but will also lead to a decline in the consumption demand for both agricultural and non-agricultural commodities. Third, this effect was found to be more prominent in the small and medium categories of farm households.","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"133 38","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138599036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editorial: Continuous living cover: adaptive strategies for putting regenerative agriculture into practice","authors":"Evelyn C. Reilly, Ashley Conway-Anderson, Jose G. Franco, Jacob M. Jungers, E. B. Moore, Carol Williams","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1320870","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1320870","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"78 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138600135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Potential food safety risks in tomato value chains in urban settings of Eastern Ethiopia: a qualitative investigation","authors":"Kebede Amenu, B. Megersa, M. Jaleta, Getachew Dinede, H. Worku, Kemal Kasim, Mukerem Taha, Abdulmuen M. Ibrahim, Jafer Kedir, Lina Mego, K. Roesel, Ralph Roothaert, Ramasamy Srinivasan, Delia Grace, Theodore J. D. Knight-Jones","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1254000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1254000","url":null,"abstract":"The value chains of tomatoes in Ethiopia are largely informal which may pose potential food safety risks. Value chains (VCs) mapping was carried out with emphasis on tomatoes in two major cities in eastern Ethiopia—Harar and Dire Dawa—which were assessed to identify practices likely to result in unsafe food, considering production, transportation, retail, preparation, and consumption.Qualitative methods were used to map the VCs to understand the flows, actors, and practices. Group discussions and key informant interviews were performed to better understand the processes, practices, beliefs, and food safety risks in these VCs.The two cities are supplied by two vegetable VCs: the first and larger being from distant producers in central Ethiopia, and the second from surrounding rural and peri-urban producers. The long-distance VCs involve producers, brokers, transporters, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. The local producers, however, bring their fresh products directly to the cities without the involvement of VC actors other than final retailers and consumers. The study suggests microbiological contamination risks along tomato VCs, potentially including soil contamination, use of sewerage-contaminated irrigation water, untreated manure, unhygienic handling and storage conditions, and dirty contact surfaces during transportation and retailing. Tomatoes are mostly harvested by hand picking, collected, and sorted on the ground exposing to sunlight and physical bruising with potential contamination. More importantly, tomatoes are widely consumed raw without “a kill-step” that certainly contributes to food-borne infections. Suggestions by study participants for improving food safety and hygiene include funding toward improved infrastructure and facilities in the sectors, supporting VC actors with improved technology for quality production, and increasing awareness of good and hygienic practices. Consumers were particularly concerned about contamination with agrochemicals without much emphasis on the potential microbial contaminants. Fresh tomatoes are prepared in a variety of ways and are often consumed raw or slightly cooked. Further recommendations included using health extension workers to conduct awareness campaigns on improved food safety and hygienic practices.The qualitative VC mapping generated useful information for designing intervention strategies, especially targeting developing food safety interventions and an awareness communication campaign.","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"17 14","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138603534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bundled climate-smart agricultural solutions for smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka","authors":"G. Amarnath, A. Taron, N. Alahacoon, Surajit Ghosh","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1145147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1145147","url":null,"abstract":"Smallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable to climate shocks in Sri Lanka. Lack of education and technical skills, poverty, risks inherent to agricultural investments, limited assets, and financial capital are major reasons for low investments in enhancing adaptive capacity. The study explores the use of agricultural technologies in improving smallholder resilience to water-related disasters and their opportunities for recovery. We tested four bundled services to promote climate-smart agriculture practices namely weather index insurance (WII), agronomic advisories dissemination via SMS, weather services, and climate-resilient seeds of maize and rice. The integrated solutions are referred to as Bundled Solutions of Index Insurance with Climate Information and Seed Systems (BICSA) to manage agricultural risks in Sri Lanka. The study conducted the bundled solutions in three agroecological regions spread over five districts and covering more than 2,500 farmers in three cropping periods of Maha and Yala seasons. The results demonstrate that providing bundled solutions significantly protects smallholders against moderate drought events. The satellite-based weather index insurance can offset the long-term consequences of severe yield losses and mitigate the long-term drop in farm productivity. Our findings demonstrate the importance of bundled insurance to mitigate financial risks associated with extreme weather events and enhance resilience to climate change among vulnerable smallholders. It is evident from the study promoting a viable business model among seed companies, insurance companies, and technological partners, along with public institutions such as agricultural extension services can help production-level improvements and develop strategies at both the farm and policy levels that will support a transition to a more resilient farming system.","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":" 41","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138612614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Digitainability and open innovation: how they change innovation processes and strategies in the agrifood sector?","authors":"Isabelle Piot-Lepetit","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1267346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1267346","url":null,"abstract":"By developing a conceptual analysis, this research explores the possibility of fostering a convergence between digitalization and sustainability, also named digitainability. This convergence is often seen as an opportunity to solve the various challenges the agrifood sector faces nowadays, especially those of feeding more people without deteriorating the environment and creating social divides and, at the same time, managing specific risks related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and hunger. The research describes how open innovation is becoming an imperative and explains the contribution of startups in the development of these new innovative initiatives. It also explains how sustainability considerations are closely linked to the development of servitization in the business context. Finally, it explores how these changes impact established companies, forcing them to develop ambidextrous innovation strategies to maintain and support their competitive advantage. In doing so, the paper illustrates some of the well-known effects of this ongoing change, while identifying the opportunities created and the challenges for which more research is still needed.","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139200988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can development of large scale agricultural business entities improve agricultural total factor productivity in China?: an empirical analysis","authors":"Xiaoying Ju, Huizhao Li, Jianxu Liu, Peng Yao","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1281328","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1281328","url":null,"abstract":"Large scale agricultural business entities (hereinafter referred to as “the large scale entities”) are newly sprouted in the process of China’s agricultural transformation from traditional production to modern mode, while the improvement of agricultural total factor productivity is an important driving force to realize agricultural transformation in China. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore whether the former has a promoting effect on the latter. First of all, the effective improvement of agricultural total factor productivity by the large scale entity development is analyzed from the two aspects of scale effect and technology utilization effect, and the effect mechanism is discussed in depth in this paper. Secondly, empirical test was carried out by using the panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2015 to 2020. The benchmark regression results show that the development of large scale entities can significantly improve agricultural total factor productivity. The mechanism test results indicate that the development of large scale entities improves the agricultural total factor productivity by raising the agricultural mechanization level. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the difference between large scale entities would affect the benchmarking results. Therefore, it is believed through the study as discussed in this paper that devoting greater effort to support the development of large scale entities is an important measure to improve agricultural total factor productivity and promote China’s agricultural transformation, but it is necessary to act according to local conditions based on the difference of entity types in the process.","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"58 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139206843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editorial: Evaluating the adoption and impacts of agricultural technologies","authors":"F. Areal, V. Pede","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1340035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1340035","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139208919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editorial: Sustainability and efficiency of food packaging: from food preservation to sale","authors":"R. Pandiselvam, G. V. Nevarez-Moorillón","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1335769","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1335769","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139200753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Floods stress in lowland rice production: experiences of rice farmers in Kilombero and Lower-Rufiji floodplains, Tanzania","authors":"Paulo Sulle Michael, Lupakisyo Mwakyusa, Hilda G. Sanga, M. Shitindi, Damiano R. Kwaslema, Max Herzog, J. Meliyo, B. Massawe","doi":"10.3389/fsufs.2023.1206754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1206754","url":null,"abstract":"The resilience of rice production to floods is a crucial aspect of agricultural development in flood-prone regions. However, little is known about the farming practices and challenges of rice farmers in two river basins in Tanzania: Lower-Rufiji and Kilombero, where rice is the main crop grown. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of farmers in these two rice-growing floodplains regarding the impact of floods on lowland rice production and farmer livelihoods, and the strategies they use to cope with floods. The study used a mixed-methods approach that involved household surveys, key informant interviews, and transect walks to collect data from 180 rice farmers and 14 experts and community leaders. The data analysis revealed that floods were the dominant stressor affecting rice production, occurring mostly during the long rainy season and experienced by all farmers in both locations. Floods not only caused significant crop losses, especially in Lower-Rufiji where farmers reported losing between 75 and 100% of their yield in cases of extreme floods, but also made it difficult to establish and manage crops, leading to crop land abandonment. Floods also affected the livelihoods of rice farmers by forcing them to abandon, rent, or sell their farms. Coexistence of floods with other biotic and abiotic stresses such as crop diseases and droughts also limited the use of short maturing high yielding rice varieties. Farmers have adopted on-farm strategies such as adjusting planting schedules, using different varieties of rice, changing to other crops or activities after the floods to cope with floods, but these practices face numerous challenges. The study recommends the development of early warning systems, breeding for flood-tolerant rice varieties, introgression of tolerance traits to multiple stresses and improving crop establishment methods to enhance the resilience of farmers to floods and other extreme climate events.","PeriodicalId":36666,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"25 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139206254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}