Sustainable Development and Agricultural Economics: Focus on the Current Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract

The current research aimed at addressing the trends, challenges, and opportunities in agricultural economics. The constant development in agricultural economics warrants a better understanding of such changes to help with effective decision making in agriculture. Consecutively, a review of literature has enabled the research to identify three trends; organic farming, agroforestry, and climate-smart agriculture. The research used secondary data and primary data when conducting the thematic analysis. The findings from the analysis revealed that opportunities such as consumer demand, profitability, and government subsidies motivated the farmers into undertaking sustainable practices. Meanwhile, the challenges such as time constraint, farm size, and access to equipment and expert skills acted as barriers that prevented the farmers from adopting sustainable practices.