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The Sustainable Agri-Food Systems in the Era of COVID-19: Opportunities...
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The Sustainable Agri-Food Systems in the Era of COVID-19: Opportunities and Challenges

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 June 2023) | Viewed by 3232

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Giurgiulescu Liviu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Science, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Victoriei Street, No. 76, 430022 Baia Mare, Romania
Interests: wine biotechnology; food safety; food regulation; fermented products; bioactive compounds
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted all sectors of the agro-food industry from Europe. This has had a strong, negative impact and also accelerated the trends to which the agro-food industry should have adapted. The most important of these trends are digitization and changing preferences of consumers. These accelerators create opportunities for a more sustainable recovery. However, different actors in the agro-food value chain must be prepared for larger structural changes which will have an impact on the sector, including climate change and stricter environmental regulations. To a certain extent, the pandemic is a preamble to these changes. The main challenges faced by the agri-food industry after COVID-19 are a new consumer focused on local, traditional products with high nutritional value; distortion and disruption of supply chains through excess deliveries of goods alongside falling domestic demand; the increase in online activity through the emergence of e-commerce of agri-food products and door-to-door delivery; a new approach through new policies and regulations; and competition through proposals to digitize flows. 

This Special Issue aims to showcase answers to the main opportunities and challenges for sustainable agri-food systems in the era of COVID-19.

Dr. Giurgiulescu Liviu
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. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • agri-food e-commerce
  • traditional products
  • new logistic chains
  • biotechnology for safety food
  • new regulations in the agri-food industry

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 682 KiB  
Article
Governance and Actions for Resilient Urban Food Systems in the Era of COVID-19: Lessons and Challenges in China
by Huidan Xue, Yujia Zhai, Wen-Hao Su and Ziling He
Agriculture 2023, 13(9), 1681; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13091681 - 25 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1322
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically challenged urban food systems, has hurt the resilience and fundamental function of urban food systems and also accelerated the trends of digitization and changing preferences of consumers in cities. This research conducted a qualitative analysis of the discourses, [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically challenged urban food systems, has hurt the resilience and fundamental function of urban food systems and also accelerated the trends of digitization and changing preferences of consumers in cities. This research conducted a qualitative analysis of the discourses, actions and interactions of different actors in the urban food systems in China during COVID-19 using an actor-oriented approach and discourse analysis. This research finds that stricter regulations and policies have been implemented by governments to regulate the food supply chain and ensure human health. Local community service personnel, volunteers, stakeholders along the food supply chain and consumers formulated collective actions during the pandemic yet chaos and discourse distortions also emerged at different stages. The pandemic is a preamble to changes in consumers’ preferences and food supply chains in urban communities. There were significant structural changes and a dual structure of urban and rural food systems, where unbalanced supply and demand existed. Collective actions with community governance and an innovative food business model to digitize flows and easily adapt to shocks in food systems are required. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Sustainable Agri-Food Systems in the Era of COVID-19: Opportunities and Challenges)
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19 pages, 2580 KiB  
Article
Food Trade Network and Food Security: From the Perspective of Belt and Road Initiative
by Mohammed Ismail Alhussam, Jifan Ren, Hongxing Yao and Omar Abu Risha
Agriculture 2023, 13(8), 1571; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13081571 - 07 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1430
Abstract
In recent times, there has been a growing interest in the role of food trade in achieving food security. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between food trade and food security within the context of the Belt and Road Initiative [...] Read more.
In recent times, there has been a growing interest in the role of food trade in achieving food security. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between food trade and food security within the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This study employs complex networks alongside the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) regression method on trade data of 46 countries under BRI for the period 2008 to 2018. The resulting complex network showed an enhancement in the food trade relationships and food security levels after BRI, indicating a mutually positive effect. In addition, the closeness centrality measure showed a strong correlation with food security, indicating that food trade has positive spillovers on food security in the proximate countries. Using geographical distance as an instrumental variable, the QAP regression model proved the positive effects of food trade on food security. More investment in trade infrastructure is recommended to reduce the negative effect of geographical distance on food security. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Sustainable Agri-Food Systems in the Era of COVID-19: Opportunities and Challenges)
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