What Skills Do Agricultural Professionals Need in the Transition towards a Sustainable Agriculture? A Qualitative Literature Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It is a very good article based on carefully researched literature. I can realise the complexity of the concept of sustainability. Still several pieces of research and grey literature reports argue that sustainability has three Pillars - economic, social and environmental. The article can benefit if in section 3.6 where you deal with technical and subject-specific knowledge you include some specific skills/knowledge related to these pillars., E.G there is an increasing demand for environmental sustainability - what is the technical and specific knowledge that is required by farmers implementing farming practices and by experts. A few sentences will suffice and bring more life to the general discussion.

Author Response

Sustainability in the Brundtland sense, and through the three pillars, means different things in different contexts. The knowledge needed to tackle the UNSDGs is therefore complex, diverse and local, and needs to be negotiated in its context, i.e. with farmers, advisers, suppliers, researchers, policymakers and/or other experts; whoever influences or has a stake in the situation. This requires transdisciplinary and interactive work by these actors through experiential learning, on-farm and on-site, and social learning in groups. Hence, sustainability in the Brundtland sense, and the three pillars, are more of an overall direction given by e.g. the UNSDGs.    

As suggested in the comment, we have added some examples of what technical skills could be in the section of technical and subject-specific skills e.g. reducing the ecological footprint of agricultural production, using soils and biomass as carbon sinks, watershed management, enhancing biodiversity on a landscape level, tightening nutrient flows (i.e. nitrogen and phosphorous) and reducing pesticide use. 

These skills all relate to the three pillars of sustainability in the Brundtland sense, as they must, to be successful, be integrated into the farm practices.  

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is interesting and a method used to browse the literature looks correct. But something is missing in the very beginning. What is the definition of sustainable development? What are the scientific proofs (not political) that agriculture has significant and important (!) influence on climate change, comparing to – say – industry?

I think that the order of goals in the sentence “Agriculture and food production are facing mounting challenges across the globe and need to move towards more sustainable practices in order to combat climate change, environmental degradation, hunger and nutrition, food safety and security, and a still growing population” is wrong. Fighting hunger seems to be the most important challenge – what is the proof that “sustainability” (where? In which countries and continents?) will help – rather not. Can we achieve all the goals simultaneously? I doubt? I think you identified the skills correctly! For me it would be better to write “for future agriculture” leaving sustainability aside.

Author Response

We acknowledge that ‘sustainable development' has been used interchangeably with, for example, sustainable transitions, in the paper and that might have had misleading associations. ‘Sustainable development' is a vast research field, and it is not our intention to define it in this paper. To accommodate this, we have gone through the paper and changed formulations where ‘sustainable development’ occurs inappropriately. 

In regards to the comment about scientific proof that agriculture has a significant influence on climate change, we rely on scientific articles like Springmann et al (2018) that argue that the global food system, including agriculture, is a major driver for climate change, with examples highlighted in this article.    

We acknowledge the existing debate about the role of agriculture, sustainability and different crises like poverty, hunger and nutrition, climate change and a growing population. In this paper, we define sustainability in a broad sense and refer to the SDG’s and their clear statement that poverty, hunger and food safety are striking conditions related to sustainability issues. 

Reviewer 3 Report

Please see attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please kindly check the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Thanks for taking care of the comments.  The revision improved the manuscript.