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Special Issue "Future of Agriculture and Rural Regions from a Perspective of Sustainable Development"

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2023 | Viewed by 4745

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Dr. Artiom Volkov

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Guest Editor

Institute of Economics and Rural Development, Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
Interests: agriculture; common agricultural policy; resilience; sustainability; sustainable development; MCDM; subsidies; direct payments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Mangirdas Morkunas

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Interests: socioeconomic resilience and sustainability of rural regions; performance management; consumer behavior; development of business in unfavorable conditions; shadow economy, business risks
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable agriculture is indisputably one of the main goals of various Governments. However, the balance between green ambitions and production levels is debatable. Agricultural sector assures food security, provides decent jobs in rural regions, maintains biodiversity, assures proper landscape management practices, slower rural-urban migration and etc. Its importance has been reassessed during the disruptions to various food supply chains caused by Covid-19 pandemic.

The paradigm of sustainable development, the Green Deal, a strong agri-environmental ambition open up opportunities and challenges for agriculture and rural vitality, resilience and competitiveness of the agricultural sector. The smooth transformation of the sector is difficult to imagine without government intervention. Governments all over the world have implemented various support measures in order to assure sustainable operations of agricultural sectors. This included not only administrative, legal or social but the financial incentives too. Although there is significant scientific evidence about the negative effects various types of subsidies have on the development paths of numerous economic sectors including agriculture. The proper balancing between positive and side effects of various initiatives at regional, national and global level aimed at enhancing sustainability of agriculture and rural regions requires substantial theoretical knowledge at enriching which this Special Issue is dedicated for.

Dr. Artiom Volkov
Dr. Mangirdas Morkunas
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 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. 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 2200 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

agriculture
rural regions
sustainability
Government
Common Agricultural Policy
resilience

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Open AccessArticle

Research on Agricultural and Rural Public Governance and Sustainable Development: Evidence from 2350 Data

Tingting Huang

and

Qinghua Huang

Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 7876; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107876 - 11 May 2023

Viewed by 489

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture and good governance are part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have attracted great attention from all nations around the world. A scientific metrological and knowledge map analysis was conducted on the spatial–temporal evolution, collaboration network, research hotspots, cluster labels, frontier detection, and evolution path of 2350 pieces of data in this paper. The main results show that research hotspots such as sustainable development, rural development, agriculture, and others have influenced the development of the entire research process and have evolved into larger topic cluster groups such as ecosystem service, sustainable agriculture, land consolidation, and agricultural intensification. Research frontiers such as agriculture, integrated systems, smallholder systems, rural sustainable development, and land consolidation play key roles. Based on the findings, it is necessary to focus on the UN 2030 SDGs, combine the countries’ regional development needs and reality, and further clarify and refine the topics that need to be studied and the problems that need to be solved. More scientific demonstration and more feasible measures should be adopted to jointly deal with and enhance awareness of the current problems and practical challenges and further promote practical development by cohering academic consensus and expanding and innovating the governance models from the comprehensive dimensions of economy, politics, society, culture, and ecological environment so as to achieve good agricultural and rural governance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Agriculture and Rural Regions from a Perspective of Sustainable Development)

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Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Rural Development Potential in the Bioeconomy in Developed Countries: The Case of Biogas Production in Denmark

Jens Fyhn Lykke Sørensen

and

Henning Peter Jørgensen

Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 11077; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141711077 - 05 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1156

Abstract

Policy makers have expressed much optimism about the potentials of the bioeconomy in terms of economic growth and job creation in rural areas in developed countries. However, only few studies have attempted to quantify the rural employment effects of bioeconomic projects. This paper uses the biogas production in Denmark as a case within the bioeconomy. It performs a regional input-output analysis to estimate the number of jobs created in rural areas by an increase in the biogas production. The input-output analysis estimates the direct job creation at the biogas plants, the indirect job creation at firms that supply inputs to the plants, and the induced job creation that is generated locally through increased income spending. The results show that an increase in the biogas production by 10% of the available farm manure will give a permanent increase of 342 jobs and an extra annual income of approximately 21 million euros. Consequently, if all available biomass from farm manure were to be used in biogas production, it would result in 3420 jobs. The calculated employment effect is quite sizable but still somewhat modest compared to the significant employment declines in rural Denmark in recent years. Meanwhile, biogas is only one element in the bioeconomy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Agriculture and Rural Regions from a Perspective of Sustainable Development)

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Open AccessArticle

CAP Direct Payments and Economic Resilience of Agriculture: Impact Assessment

and

Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10546; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710546 - 24 Aug 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1037

Abstract

This study presents an innovative approach to measuring the impact of EU CAP direct payments on the economic resilience of agriculture at a sectoral level. The construct of resilience is approached from the perspective of the resilience of the main functions of the sector. The overall level of direct payments impact on sectoral economic resilience is seen as a weighted sum of the payments’ impact on the resilience of the main economic functions of the sector. Such an approach, allowing for a comprehensive estimate of subsidy impact on the most essential areas of agriculture, is universal and can be adapted to measure economic resilience of other economic sectors. For the empirical application we used panel data from 27 EU countries over the period 2005–2019. The results revealed that the overall impact of direct payments on the economic resilience of agriculture across EU-27 was positive. However, the influence of the payments on different key functions of the sector diverged. The most evident and alarming negative changes in the economic resilience levels were observed in terms of efficiency of farms. Negative impact on separate indicators may pose a risk that the influence of direct payments on economic resilience of agriculture may not be sustainable in the longer run. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Agriculture and Rural Regions from a Perspective of Sustainable Development)

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Open AccessArticle

Towards a Sustainable Grain Production Network: An Empirical Study from Northeast China

and

Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8849; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148849 - 19 Jul 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 842

Abstract

As an important grain-producing area in China, research on the spatial correlation network of grain production in Northeast China is of great significance to ensure food security and realize the sustainable development of grain production. Based on the data of 40 cities in Northeast China from 1999 to 2019, we used the modified gravity model and social network analysis method to explore the structural characteristics of the spatial correlation network of grain production. Then, we divided the network into four blocks—net spillover block, main beneficial block, broker block, and bidirectional spillover block—and explored the interactive relationships and spillover effects between blocks. On this basis, corresponding policy recommendations were put forward. The results are as follows. (1) The spatial correlation network of grain production in Northeast China presents a complicated development trend, but the overall tightness of the network still needs to be improved. (2) The spatial correlation network of grain production is characterized by multi-center distribution, in which important nodes not only play the role of central actors but also act as intermediaries and bridges in the network. (3) There are obvious spatial correlations and spillover effects between blocks, and it is in the agglomeration stage of the agglomeration–diffusion effect. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Agriculture and Rural Regions from a Perspective of Sustainable Development)

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Open AccessEssay

Study on Rural Ecological Resilience Measurement and Optimization Strategy Based on PSR-“Taking Weiyuan in Gansu Province as an Example”

Xiaoling Xie

Gaonan Zhou

and

Shibao Yu

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5462; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065462 - 20 Mar 2023

Viewed by 486

Abstract

Under the dual impact of urbanization and ecological crisis, rural ecological resilience research can improve the system’s level of resisting external pressure and restoring ecological balance and provide a new perspective for sustainable rural development. This study establishes a rural ecological resilience measurement system in Weiyuan based on the PSR framework, evaluates the level of rural ecological resilience in Weiyuan in 2021 using the entropy method and the GWR model and detects its driving factors. The results show that (1) the spatial characteristics of rural ecological resilience diverge significantly, with the ecological resilience level of the three southern forest farms being higher overall the high values of resilience in Qingyuan, Wuzhu and Xiacheng being distributed in the central villages, while other villages are at low and medium values (2) X5 and X7 have negative driving effects on village ecological resilience, and X1, X5, X9 and X10 have positive driving effects on village ecological resilience (3) the dominant drivers and characteristics, we construct a scheme on stressor repair, state adaptation transformation and response efficiency optimization to provide ideas for improving rural ecological resilience. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Agriculture and Rural Regions from a Perspective of Sustainable Development)

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