Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100904
Valentina Costa, Natalia Piedrahita, Erdgin Mane, Benjamin Davis, Vanya Slavchevska
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.
{"title":"Global estimates of women's and men's employment in agrifood systems from 2000 to 2021","authors":"Valentina Costa, Natalia Piedrahita, Erdgin Mane, Benjamin Davis, 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":"2026-01-15","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-24DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100898
Rebecca Nelson , Jensen Njagi , Isabella Culotta , Eli Newell , Shuai Zhou , Krisztina Mosdossy , Erick Abala , Chuan Liao , Johannes Lehmann , Charles Midega
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.
{"title":"Synergistic pathways to a circular bionutrient economy","authors":"Rebecca Nelson , Jensen Njagi , Isabella Culotta , Eli Newell , Shuai Zhou , Krisztina Mosdossy , Erick Abala , Chuan Liao , Johannes Lehmann , 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":"2025-12-24","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100899
M. Carvajal-Yepes , C. Petroli , M. Correa , F. Breseghello , G. Tapia , E. Salazar , A. Chassaigne , M. Ferreyra , P.H. Reyes-Herrera , M. Guzmán , A. Mendoza , R. Vidal , F. Condón , N. de Almeida , E. Fernandez , L. Rodríguez , W. Solano , A.J. Morales , B.L. Velásquez-Flores , J. Soto , C. Sansaloni
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a center of origin and domestication for globally important crops such as cassava, common bean, maize, and potato, all of which are key to food and nutrition security worldwide. Despite this strategic role, many national genebanks in the region face technical, financial, and policy barriers that limit the use of genomic tools for characterization and conservation. These genebanks safeguard the genetic diversity needed to enhance crop yields, climate-change resilience, nutritional quality, and pest and disease resistance. In 2022, CGIAR Centers and partners established the “Community of Practice (CoP) of national genebanks in LAC” to strengthen regional capacity for generating and interpreting digital sequence information (DSI), facilitate collaboration, and promote sustainable management of plant genetic resources. Through coordinated capacity-building activities, joint crop-based analyses, and shared learning, the CoP has connected 17 institutions across 13 countries. Members have begun generating and interpreting DSI for common bean, maize, and potato, while addressing gaps in data sharing, interoperability, and policy frameworks. Looking ahead, the CoP seeks to conduct diversity analysis, establish regional core collections, integrate existing global data portals, and advocate for policy alignment to sustain genomic characterization and access to diversity. This CoP initiative provides a model applicable in other regions to strengthen genebank operations through collaborative innovation and coordinated action, contributing to resilient and equitable global food systems.
{"title":"Strengthening national genebanks through genomics and regional collaboration: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean","authors":"M. Carvajal-Yepes , C. Petroli , M. Correa , F. Breseghello , G. Tapia , E. Salazar , A. Chassaigne , M. Ferreyra , P.H. Reyes-Herrera , M. Guzmán , A. Mendoza , R. Vidal , F. Condón , N. de Almeida , E. Fernandez , L. Rodríguez , W. Solano , A.J. Morales , B.L. Velásquez-Flores , J. Soto , C. Sansaloni","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100899","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100899","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a center of origin and domestication for globally important crops such as cassava, common bean, maize, and potato, all of which are key to food and nutrition security worldwide. Despite this strategic role, many national genebanks in the region face technical, financial, and policy barriers that limit the use of genomic tools for characterization and conservation. These genebanks safeguard the genetic diversity needed to enhance crop yields, climate-change resilience, nutritional quality, and pest and disease resistance. In 2022, CGIAR Centers and partners established the “Community of Practice (CoP) of national genebanks in LAC” to strengthen regional capacity for generating and interpreting digital sequence information (DSI), facilitate collaboration, and promote sustainable management of plant genetic resources. Through coordinated capacity-building activities, joint crop-based analyses, and shared learning, the CoP has connected 17 institutions across 13 countries. Members have begun generating and interpreting DSI for common bean, maize, and potato, while addressing gaps in data sharing, interoperability, and policy frameworks. Looking ahead, the CoP seeks to conduct diversity analysis, establish regional core collections, integrate existing global data portals, and advocate for policy alignment to sustain genomic characterization and access to diversity. This CoP initiative provides a model applicable in other regions to strengthen genebank operations through collaborative innovation and coordinated action, contributing to resilient and equitable global food systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"48 ","pages":"Article 100899"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145841473","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100897
Ben Belton , Leo Baldiga , Scott Justice , Bart Minten , Sudha Narayanan , Thomas Reardon
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.
{"title":"The rapid global rise of agricultural drones: Evidence, drivers, impacts and an agenda for future research","authors":"Ben Belton , Leo Baldiga , Scott Justice , Bart Minten , Sudha Narayanan , 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":"2025-12-09","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100894
Sarah K. Lowder , Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi , Nicola Cerutti , Kelly Parsons
The academic as well as the international community has recognized the need to transform food systems and the importance of government policies in achieving that goal. However, there is no single source of information on all food system related policies that might provide a description of what countries are currently doing. As a first step, this article describes what types of policies are in place throughout the world, highlighting patterns across countries at different income levels. The article draws on a new resource, the Food System Policy Database (FSPD), which for the first time compiles and systematizes existing global databases on government policies impacting the food system. The article presents key findings. For instance, most food system specific policies are concentrated at the producer end or at the consumer end of food systems. The segments that are least regulated by specific food system government policies are toward the middle of the value chain (eg. processing, retail, and food service). Additionally, producer subsidies are by far the most widespread type of policy lever. Countries nevertheless rely on a variety of tools, with a majority of countries also using trade policies, regulations and policies to provide information to consumers about food. The article concludes by recognizing limitations of the data and how those might be addressed going forward.
{"title":"Food System Policies: A global snapshot from the Food System Policy Database","authors":"Sarah K. Lowder , Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi , Nicola Cerutti , Kelly Parsons","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100894","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100894","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The academic as well as the international community has recognized the need to transform food systems and the importance of government policies in achieving that goal. However, there is no single source of information on all food system related policies that might provide a description of what countries are currently doing. As a first step, this article describes what types of policies are in place throughout the world, highlighting patterns across countries at different income levels. The article draws on a new resource, the Food System Policy Database (FSPD), which for the first time compiles and systematizes existing global databases on government policies impacting the food system. The article presents key findings. For instance, most food system specific policies are concentrated at the producer end or at the consumer end of food systems. The segments that are least regulated by specific food system government policies are toward the middle of the value chain (eg. processing, retail, and food service). Additionally, producer subsidies are by far the most widespread type of policy lever. Countries nevertheless rely on a variety of tools, with a majority of countries also using trade policies, regulations and policies to provide information to consumers about food. The article concludes by recognizing limitations of the data and how those might be addressed going forward.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"47 ","pages":"Article 100894"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145693353","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100892
Lauren Phillips , Agnes Quisumbing , Vanya Slavchevska , Benjamin Davis , Talip Kilic , Erdgin Mane
{"title":"Gender Inequalities in Agrifood Systems: An overview of the state of research","authors":"Lauren Phillips , Agnes Quisumbing , Vanya Slavchevska , Benjamin Davis , Talip Kilic , Erdgin Mane","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100892","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100892","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"47 ","pages":"Article 100892"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145693234","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100891
David Leblang , Michael D. Smith , Dennis Wesselbaum
Food insecurity, which affects access to safe and nutritious food, has significant implications for health and well-being. This issue has worsened in recent years, driven by factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical instability. This study examines food insecurity across three age groups – adolescents, adults, and older adults – using data from the Gallup World Poll for 132 countries, based on surveys of >390,000 individuals. The research, which uses the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), finds that food insecurity is highest among adolescents, with a notable increase in their vulnerability over recent years. Socioeconomic factors such as income, education, and health issues, along with social capital, also play a key role in influencing food insecurity. Additionally, interpersonal inequality is more pronounced among immigrants and individuals with high levels of trust but low social support. These findings underline the need for targeted policies that address the specific needs of different age groups, especially adolescents, to reduce food insecurity and its related impacts on health and development.
{"title":"Food insecurity across age: Evidence from a global study","authors":"David Leblang , Michael D. Smith , Dennis Wesselbaum","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100891","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100891","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Food insecurity, which affects access to safe and nutritious food, has significant implications for health and well-being. This issue has worsened in recent years, driven by factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical instability. This study examines food insecurity across three age groups – adolescents, adults, and older adults – using data from the Gallup World Poll for 132 countries, based on surveys of >390,000 individuals. The research, which uses the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), finds that food insecurity is highest among adolescents, with a notable increase in their vulnerability over recent years. Socioeconomic factors such as income, education, and health issues, along with social capital, also play a key role in influencing food insecurity. Additionally, interpersonal inequality is more pronounced among immigrants and individuals with high levels of trust but low social support. These findings underline the need for targeted policies that address the specific needs of different age groups, especially adolescents, to reduce food insecurity and its related impacts on health and development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"47 ","pages":"Article 100891"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145693354","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100886
Davide Danilo Chiarelli , Harsh Nanesha , Martina Sardo , Athanasios Ragkos , Maria Cristina Rulli
Global food insecurity currently affects over 30 % of the world's population, highlighting the need to understand how agricultural systems can be optimized to reduce resource pressures while maintaining productivity. Irrigation is critical for crop production in semi-arid and arid regions such as the Mediterranean, yet it accounts for substantial freshwater use and energy consumption, with associated environmental impacts. In this study, we assess the impacts of crop reallocation on irrigation water, energy demand, and direct CO2 emissions across the Mediterranean. Using a spatially explicit optimization framework integrated with hydrological modelling, we evaluate 32 crops grouped into nine categories, explicitly accounting for irrigation water sources and methods. Our results indicate that optimized crop distributions could reduce irrigation water demand by up to 80 % (70 km3/year), lower energy requirements by up to 85 % (72 × 106 GJ/year), and cut direct CO2 emissions by up to 84 %, without reducing overall food production. Beyond resource savings, we explore the economic and social implications of crop reallocation, noting that less water-intensive crops may be less profitable or culturally less accepted, underscoring the need for supportive policies and incentives. The framework is adaptable to other water-stressed regions, enabling the assessment of trade-offs between water, energy, and carbon under locally specific conditions. By providing a quantitative evaluation of the potential environmental and resource impacts of alternative cropping strategies, this study offers a robust tool for understanding how agricultural systems can be managed to improve sustainability, resilience, and resource efficiency under climate and water constraints.
{"title":"Water-saving driven crop reallocation reduces irrigation energy demand in the mediterranean","authors":"Davide Danilo Chiarelli , Harsh Nanesha , Martina Sardo , Athanasios Ragkos , Maria Cristina Rulli","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100886","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100886","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global food insecurity currently affects over 30 % of the world's population, highlighting the need to understand how agricultural systems can be optimized to reduce resource pressures while maintaining productivity. Irrigation is critical for crop production in semi-arid and arid regions such as the Mediterranean, yet it accounts for substantial freshwater use and energy consumption, with associated environmental impacts. In this study, we assess the impacts of crop reallocation on irrigation water, energy demand, and direct CO<sub>2</sub> emissions across the Mediterranean. Using a spatially explicit optimization framework integrated with hydrological modelling, we evaluate 32 crops grouped into nine categories, explicitly accounting for irrigation water sources and methods. Our results indicate that optimized crop distributions could reduce irrigation water demand by up to 80 % (70 km<sup>3</sup>/year), lower energy requirements by up to 85 % (72 × 10<sup>6</sup> GJ/year), and cut direct CO<sub>2</sub> emissions by up to 84 %, without reducing overall food production. Beyond resource savings, we explore the economic and social implications of crop reallocation, noting that less water-intensive crops may be less profitable or culturally less accepted, underscoring the need for supportive policies and incentives. The framework is adaptable to other water-stressed regions, enabling the assessment of trade-offs between water, energy, and carbon under locally specific conditions. By providing a quantitative evaluation of the potential environmental and resource impacts of alternative cropping strategies, this study offers a robust tool for understanding how agricultural systems can be managed to improve sustainability, resilience, and resource efficiency under climate and water constraints.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"47 ","pages":"Article 100886"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145693356","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100884
Lixia H. Lambert , John P. Schoeneman Jr. , Dayton M. Lambert , Marten W. Brienen
Understanding and mitigating the spatial and temporal volatility of agricultural commodity prices remains a critical yet challenging task. Fluctuations in food and agricultural commodity prices exacerbate food insecurity and impact farmers worldwide. This research examines the impact of road network measures on the volatility of agricultural commodity prices. We utilized monthly price data from the FAO Food Price Monitoring and Analysis Tool, which encompasses 236 markets across 60 countries, for eight food groups comprising 36 commodity categories, from 2015 to 2023. For each market, we constructed road network measures, including road density, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality, using data from the Global Roads Inventory Project and a 2015 population density raster, both gridded at 2.5 arcminutes. The regression results show that markets located near denser, better-connected road networks tend to exhibit lower food price volatility. However, the local advantages of road networks on price stability vary significantly depending on the food group and specific network measures: bread and oil markets tend to be destabilized by centralization, while beans and vegetables are stabilized. No consistent or statistically significant effects are observed for grains, roots, or animal food groups across all network centrality measures. Findings highlight the complex and heterogeneous relationship between transportation infrastructure and food price volatility, as well as the need for regionally and commodity specific infrastructure policies to mitigate food price volatility.
{"title":"Road networks and food price volatility","authors":"Lixia H. Lambert , John P. Schoeneman Jr. , Dayton M. Lambert , Marten W. Brienen","doi":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100884","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100884","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding and mitigating the spatial and temporal volatility of agricultural commodity prices remains a critical yet challenging task. Fluctuations in food and agricultural commodity prices exacerbate food insecurity and impact farmers worldwide. This research examines the impact of road network measures on the volatility of agricultural commodity prices. We utilized monthly price data from the FAO Food Price Monitoring and Analysis Tool, which encompasses 236 markets across 60 countries, for eight food groups comprising 36 commodity categories, from 2015 to 2023. For each market, we constructed road network measures, including road density, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality, using data from the Global Roads Inventory Project and a 2015 population density raster, both gridded at 2.5 arcminutes. The regression results show that markets located near denser, better-connected road networks tend to exhibit lower food price volatility. However, the local advantages of road networks on price stability vary significantly depending on the food group and specific network measures: bread and oil markets tend to be destabilized by centralization, while beans and vegetables are stabilized. No consistent or statistically significant effects are observed for grains, roots, or animal food groups across all network centrality measures. Findings highlight the complex and heterogeneous relationship between transportation infrastructure and food price volatility, as well as the need for regionally and commodity specific infrastructure policies to mitigate food price volatility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48741,"journal":{"name":"Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment","volume":"47 ","pages":"Article 100884"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145693233","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100896
Zhuang Qian , Wu Chen , Li Xue , Andrea Adelmo Della Penna , Jeanine Ammann , Carole Liechti , Dario Dongo , Gang Liu
Transforming food systems is essential for global sustainability and requires understanding from both socioeconomic and physical dimensions. However, sustainable food systems literature is largely dominated by socioeconomic dimension, while physical understanding of food systems remains limited. Such physical characterisation is often done using material flow analysis (MFA) to explore and quantify flows from farm to fork. This quantification translates food system dynamics into comparable and transparent metrics, making MFA a crucial tool in driving an efficient transformation. Here, using a critical literature review, we analysed 127 agrifood MFA studies on their systems, data, and indicators. We characterized food supply chain into five stages (primary production, processing and manufacturing, trade, distribution and retailing, and public and household consumption) and found very few covered all stages (16 studies). Among all stages, primary production was the most studied (99 studies), while distribution and retailing was the least studied (33 studies). Existing studies covered 12 food categories, primarily focusing on cereals (52 %), vegetables (46 %), and meats (43 %), with less attention on dairy products (34 %). Only 34 studies have a single food category resolution, while most aggregated multiple categories together. We found that over half of agrifood MFAs used data only from secondary sources (e.g., statistics), whereas less than 20 % used exclusively primary data. Agrifood MFAs commonly used indicators of substance, food, and bio-nutrient to quantify biomass associated flows, informing key food systems issues like nutrient circularity and waste management. Accordingly, we call for research on full chain MFAs, single food category analyses, and the use of more targeted datasets.
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