Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment最新文献

{"title":"Synergistic pathways to a circular bionutrient economy","authors":"Rebecca Nelson ,&nbsp;Jensen Njagi ,&nbsp;Isabella Culotta ,&nbsp;Eli Newell ,&nbsp;Shuai Zhou ,&nbsp;Krisztina Mosdossy ,&nbsp;Erick Abala ,&nbsp;Chuan Liao ,&nbsp;Johannes Lehmann ,&nbsp;Charles Midega","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100898","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100898","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bionutrient circularity can increase food system sustainability. Global food production currently depends substantially on synthetic fertilizers, while massive volumes of crop residues, food scraps, and excreta are undervalued and mismanaged, contributing to environmental degradation and climate change. Transforming these organic underutilized resources through combinations of physiochemical, biological, and thermochemical processes can improve public hygiene while keeping carbon and nutrients within the food system. By redirecting both organic matter and nutrients to soils, bionutrient circularity can offset fertilizer and energy costs. Meanwhile, circular feeds can enable livestock sectors to grow without increasing land demands for crop production, much of which is currently fed to livestock. Synergistic integration of transformation processes and resource recovery pathways will unlock substantial economic and environmental benefits. Realizing the potential of a circular bionutrient economy, however, will require robust management of contaminants, navigation of context-dependent tradeoffs, and integration of sociocultural, technical, operational and regulatory innovation processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100898"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145841470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global estimates of women's and men's employment in agrifood systems from 2000 to 2021","authors":"Valentina Costa,&nbsp;Natalia Piedrahita,&nbsp;Erdgin Mane,&nbsp;Benjamin Davis,&nbsp;Vanya Slavchevska","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100904","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100904","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the recognized importance of women in agrifood systems (AFS), global estimates of their employment—particularly in the off-farm segment—remain scarce. This study addresses this gap by developing an empirical methodology to generate sex-disaggregated AFS employment estimates worldwide, leveraging data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Using this approach, we construct a novel sex-disaggregated dataset covering 183 countries from 2000 to 2021, including a balanced panel of 143 countries covering 93 percent of the global population. Our findings show that in 2021, AFS employed 43 percent of working men and 40 percent of working women globally, reflecting a decline of 12 percentage points since 2000, driven primarily by reductions in agricultural employment. Women accounted for 41 percent of the off-farm AFS workforce, with higher shares in lower-income regions. However, both men and women in agriculture remain concentrated in vulnerable self-employment, including contributing family work. While off-farm AFS offers more wage employment opportunities, women remain disproportionately disadvantaged in accessing these jobs, underscoring persistent gender disparities across regions. These findings provide the first global, sex-disaggregated evidence on AFS employment trends and highlight the need for targeted policies to enhance women's participation and economic opportunities, particularly within higher-value segments of AFS.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100904"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145977833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Food production as insurance against maize price volatility: Nutritional implications for children in Tanzania","authors":"Mkupete Jaah Mkupete ,&nbsp;Dieter Von Fintel ,&nbsp;Ronelle Burger","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100909","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100909","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Maize accounts for nearly three-quarters of daily calorie intake and is cultivated by more than 70% of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. In recent decades, maize prices have become markedly more volatile, raising the share of household budgets spent on staples and threatening diet quality, with profound implications for child nutrition, given their heightened requirements for both energy and micronutrients at different stages of growth. While a large literature documents nutritional losses from food-price inflation, much less is known about whether own food production cushions children against these shocks, as most studies rely on static net buyer–seller classifications that overlook seasonal production, subsistence consumption, and intra-household nutritional buffering. Leveraging panel data on children under five, this paper examines how maize price volatility affects child height-for-age (HAZ), traces dietary mechanisms, and assesses heterogeneity by age and gender. We find that rising maize prices substantially reduce child growth in non-producing households, whereas the adverse effects are largely mitigated among producing households. The protective effect is especially pronounced for girls, and children aged 24–35 months in non-producing households are the most vulnerable. Mechanism analysis shows that producing households experience smaller declines in dietary diversity and micronutrient intake during price spikes compared to their non-producer counterparts. These results underscore the insurance value of smallholder production, demonstrating that reinforcing local food systems can be a key strategy to protect vulnerable children from the deleterious effects of global market volatility in Tanzania and other agriculture-dependent countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100909"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147538673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Potential for improving micronutrient supply and environmental sustainability by using underutilized crops in China","authors":"Yijun Li ,&nbsp;Johanna C. Gerdessen ,&nbsp;Wopke van der Werf ,&nbsp;Anneleen Kuijsten ,&nbsp;Sander de Leeuw ,&nbsp;Wen-Feng Cong ,&nbsp;Shenggen Fan ,&nbsp;Edith J.M. Feskens ,&nbsp;Tjeerd Jan Stomph","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100907","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100907","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rice and wheat provide the bulk of calories in diets globally. However, foods made from these cereals are commonly in refined forms and are low in micronutrients and dietary fiber. Increasing the consumption of more nutrient-dense, underutilized cereals and beans (UCBs), such as millet, sorghum, mung bean, along with unrefined rice and wheat, could improve diet quality. Compared with rice and wheat, UCBs are generally cultivated using less intensive methods, resulting in a lower environmental impact, though their productivity is generally lower. This study explores how reallocating rice and wheat areas to UCBs, either alone or combined with greater use of unrefined rice and wheat, could potentially enhance micronutrient supply (iron, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, zinc), while reducing water use and greenhouse gas emissions in China. A strategy combining area reallocation and greater use of unrefined rice and wheat increased micronutrient supply and dietary fiber by 12–82%, reduced environmental impact by 11–12%, and slightly increased energy supply (3%). These outcomes were achieved by reallocating 7.9 million hectares (Mha) of rice area (26% of the current total) and 1.7 Mha of wheat area to sorghum (+5.5 Mha), millet (+2.5 Mha), beans (+1.4 Mha), and oats (+0.2 Mha). As a result, the supply of UCBs and unrefined rice and wheat products increased, supporting healthier diets. Reallocating only 5% of the rice area would still yield improvements, especially for dietary fiber and iron (<span><math><mo>&gt;</mo></math></span>27%). These findings offer insights for rethinking the value of UCBs and supporting their integration into future food system strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100907"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146188212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Agricultural systems modelling and stakeholder engagement: A review of approaches and impact in Sub-Saharan African cropping and farming systems","authors":"Freeman Nsoh Akaribo ,&nbsp;Madina Diancoumba ,&nbsp;Heidi Webber","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100911","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100911","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Efforts to improve food security and farming livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are challenged by climate variability and change. Crop and farm system modelling are key methods to explore climate risk management and change impacts in the context of sustainable cropping systems. However, their contributions to tangible positive change in SSA remain underexplored. We analysed 71 studies identified through a systematic review to examine how these models are applied in SSA, focusing on stakeholder engagement and the use of results in decision-making. In doing so, we contrasted studies' primary and secondary objectives with their declared outcomes. Findings show climate change adaptation was the most frequently addressed issue, particularly in cropping systems. Projecting and forecasting objectives were generally well aligned with reported outcomes, whereas decision-support objectives were less consistently achieved. Often not stated as a main objective, improved system understanding emerged as the most frequent outcome. About half of the studies involved stakeholders, predominantly male farmers, alongside limited participation of policymakers, NGOs and private-sector actors, which has implications for broader system level transformational change. Where co-development and collaboration were emphasized, models were more likely to support decision-making and build trust, indicating that diverse and participatory engagement enhances model credibility and usability. We identify opportunities for future research, including embedding inter- and transdisciplinary approaches, linking models with participatory and experimental processes and developing adaptive frameworks capable of addressing complex socio-environmental challenges. These shifts will enable models to move beyond technical forecasting toward context-relevant knowledge sources that support resilient, sustainable transformation across SSA's diverse farming landscapes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100911"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147538666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The rapid global rise of agricultural drones: Evidence, drivers, impacts and an agenda for future research","authors":"Ben Belton ,&nbsp;Leo Baldiga ,&nbsp;Scott Justice ,&nbsp;Bart Minten ,&nbsp;Sudha Narayanan ,&nbsp;Thomas Reardon","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100897","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100897","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agriculture is undergoing a new revolution. Technological advances allow drones to perform multiple tasks, including spraying crop protectants, spreading fertilizers, sowing seeds and surveying fields. Use of agricultural drones is growing extremely rapidly, particularly in Asia and Latin America, but has received little attention because it has happened so quickly. This revolution is significant because drones have the potential to enhance agricultural sustainability and reduce health risks by applying inputs more efficiently and safely than conventional methods. Drones also have the potential to raise agricultural productivity and farm incomes, overcome labor scarcity, and support rural livelihoods. But they create tradeoffs, including new environmental and social externalities, and dilemmas around technological sovereignty and data privacy. Prior academic literature on agricultural drones has been largely technical. We review prior literature and diverse non-academic secondary sources to track the extent and characteristics of global agricultural drone diffusion, providing estimates of numbers of agricultural drones in 10 major agricultural producer countries. We analyze drivers of drone diffusion, including technological innovation, falling costs, outsourcing services, and favorable policy environments, and explore emerging evidence of the impacts of drones on farm labor, agricultural efficiency, productivity, and profitability, and occupational health. The paper concludes by setting out an agenda for applied transdisciplinary research on the sustainability and food security impacts of agricultural drones.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100897"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145705248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reduction in cattle numbers can unlock greenhouse gas mitigation potentials without compromising milk and meat production","authors":"Carlos Gonzalez Fischer,&nbsp;Mario Herrero","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100906","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100906","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Increasing productivity is one of the main mitigation strategies for the livestock sector, as it reduces emission intensities while delivering benefits for livelihoods and food security. However, reducing emission intensities does not necessarily result in net emissions reductions. Analyzing the evolution of the cattle sector over 15 years, we describe the relationship between increased productivity and GHG emissions, as mediated by animal numbers. Globally, productivity per animal and total production have increased and emission intensity has decreased. Without this reduction in emission intensities, emissions in 2020 would have been 24 % higher for dairy and 10 % for beef. However, global progress on net GHG mitigation from these sectors has not materialized, as animal numbers and total emissions have increased. These results hide significant heterogeneity, as the dairy sector of upper-middle countries, and both the dairy and beef sectors of high-income countries, have achieved net greenhouse gas mitigation while increasing total production by increasing productivity and reducing animal numbers. These cases demonstrate that it is possible to achieve net reductions in GHG emissions without reducing the production of animal source foods. However, in low-income countries, production growth is still driven by increases in animal numbers. International trade can play a role in reducing emissions: 95 % of dairy and 59 % of beef exports come from geographies that reduced their emissions intensities, but only 41 % of dairy and 9 % of beef exports come from countries that reduced their absolute emissions. Facilitating the transitions of the livestock sector towards reduced herd sizes and increased productivity is required for reducing the sector's emissions in line with ambitious climate stabilization targets like the ones set in the Paris Agreement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100906"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147538669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparing different food banks: A case study application of a proposed standard","authors":"Martin Johannes du Plessis ,&nbsp;Euodia Vermeulen ,&nbsp;Helmut Aschbacher ,&nbsp;Sara Grobbelaar ,&nbsp;Isabel Meyer","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100903","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100903","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Food banks are increasingly recognised as essential actors in reducing food waste and addressing food insecurity by redistributing surplus food outside formal retail systems. Their appraisal is critical for enabling mutual learning, strengthening international collaboration, benchmarking performance, and enhancing donor credibility. This paper introduces a novel methodology for cross-country comparison of food banks, grounded in the Realist Evaluation's Context–Mechanism–Outcome perspective and structured through a value chain lens to organise and identify indicators. The framework comprises 101 dimensions, representing the most comprehensive comparative assessment of food redistribution organisations to date.</div><div>The methodology is applied in a case study comparing FoodForward South Africa (FFSA) and Team Austria Tafel (TAT). The application demonstrates both the usability of the framework and the relevance of the identified dimensions for comparative analysis. Findings highlight substantial differences between the South African and Austrian food banks across nearly all dimensions, including scale, operational models, organisational structures, infrastructure, finances, and regulatory contexts. These contrasts underscore the diverse environments in which food banks function.</div><div>In South Africa's dispersed, high-need context, FFSA's hybrid warehousing and outbound delivery model achieves a broad daily reach. Conversely, in Austria's dense context, TAT's collection-based model operates effectively but at a smaller scale. Despite these differences, both food banks play indispensable roles in reducing waste and supporting vulnerable populations. The study underscores the importance of contextualising evaluation frameworks and offers a transferable tool for systematically comparing food banks across diverse socio-economic settings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100903"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147538675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The alienation of abundance: A resonance theory perspective on food waste","authors":"Viachaslau Filimonau ,&nbsp;Hakan Sezerel ,&nbsp;Mohammad Salehi ,&nbsp;Umidjon Matyakubov","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100912","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100912","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the global challenge of food waste through the lens of Hartmut Rosa's resonance theory. Moving beyond conventional explanations of waste grounded in economic inefficiency and limited consumer awareness, it presents food waste as a symptom of alienation in modern human-food interactions. Methodologically, building on the theory adaptation approach, this paper applies and expands Rosa's concept of muted relationships, drawing parallels with Marxian alienation, across horizontal, diagonal, and vertical axes, to inform the discourse on food waste. It argues that the prevailing instrumental rationality and social acceleration of late modernity hinder meaningful consumer engagement with food throughout its lifecycle, particularly in the production and disposal processes. By framing food waste as a relational rather than ‘purely’ logistical, economic, or behavioural challenge, this paper offers novel theoretical insights into human-food interactions. It highlights how such policy interventions as ethical storytelling, experiential learning, communal initiatives, and slow food campaigns can re-cultivate resonant relationships between consumers and food for more effective waste reduction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100912"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147420950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of genetically modified organisms in food, energy, and sustainability in developing countries","authors":"Chander Shekhar Khare ,&nbsp;David Zilberman","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100902","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100902","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper scrutinizes the complex contributions of agricultural genetically modified organisms (GMOs) towards mitigating the intertwined challenges of food and energy security, particularly within the context of developing countries, while also considering their environmental implications. Offering an analysis, this study delves into the challenges of food scarcity, energy access, and ecological sustainability faced by these nations. It evaluates the current global stance on GMOs, including public resistance and regulatory frameworks. It explores how GMOs can improve agricultural productivity, enhance energy generation, and contribute to environmental conservation in developing regions. This analysis aims to provide insights into how GMOs might be strategically utilized to address the pressing needs of developing countries in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100902"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147538664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}