Agro-Food Supply Chain from Farm to Fork: Economics, Management and Blockchain Technology
This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management".
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
From primary production to final consumption, the agri-food supply chain plays a central role in ensuring food security, economic stability and sustainable rural development worldwide. In recent years, farms have faced increasing economic pressures stemming from volatile input and output prices, climate-related risks, limited access to credit, labour shortages and increasingly demanding market and regulatory requirements. At the same time, digital technologies such as blockchain have become powerful tools to increase transparency, traceability and trust across the supply chain, potentially improving farmers’ access to markets, financing and the distribution of fair value. Understanding how these economic, managerial and technological dimensions interact is essential for building a resilient and financially sustainable agricultural sector capable of supporting the entire chain from farm to fork.
This special edition aims to present and disseminate the latest advances in the economics, management and technological transformation of agri-food supply chains, with a particular focus on the financial sustainability and resilience of farms as a fundamental link in this chain. We invite the submission of contributions that address theoretical, empirical and applied research on farm-level economic performance; supply chain management practices; and the adoption of digital technologies such as blockchain to support transparency and value creation from farm to fork.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Financial sustainability and resilience of farms in the agri-food supply chain;
- Farm profitability, risk management and access to finance;
- Economic performance and competitiveness of agri-food supply chains;
- Strategies for farm-to-fork supply chain management;
- Blockchain and digital technologies for traceability and transparency in agri-food chains;
- Value distribution and fair pricing mechanisms among supply chain actors;
- The impact of climate change and market volatility on farm financial stability;
- Policy instruments and support mechanisms for sustainable farm finance;
- Digital transformation and innovation adoption in agriculture and food supply chains;
- Assessing the sustainability (economic, social, environmental) of agri-food value chains.
We welcome the submission of original research articles, reviews and case studies that contribute to a deeper understanding of how economic, managerial and technological solutions can together support financially sustainable and resilient agri-food supply chains.
Dr. Gabriela Ignat
Dr. Andy Felix Jităreanu
Dr. Mioara Mihăilă
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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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-anonymized 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 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 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
- farm financial sustainability
- agro-food supply chain
- farm profitability
- risk management
- blockchain technology
- traceability
- agricultural economics
- supply chain management
- farm resilience
- sustainable agriculture
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