Sustainable Farming Intensification: Balancing Productivity and Resilience
A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2026 | Viewed by 7
Special Issue Editors
Interests: agricultural productivity; farm efficiency; sustainable development; circular economy; rural management; technological progress in agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: socioeconomic sustainability of livestock production systems; agricultural economics; farm management; agricultural policy; biostatistics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nowadays, the agricultural and livestock sectors are characterized by the predominance of intensive production systems that depend on capital endowments, animals of high yields, purchased feedstuff and hired skilled labor. The prevalence of such intensive production systems is more evident in the developed world, where large-scale farms of entrepreneurial type have emerged, driven by the growing demand for food, the development of high-yield crop varieties and production animals, the adoption of key technologies, the urbanization, the limited resources and the high fixed costs. However, this intensification of the agricultural and livestock production systems leads to large expenses and increased production cost, social inequity, environmental degradation (soil degradation, water pollution and scarcity, greenhouse gas emissions), animal health and welfare issues (indicatively low fertility, short productive life, mastitis, lameness), loss of biodiversity and reduced resilience. The intensification of the production systems often maximizes short-term productivity at the expense of the long-term health of the ecosystems that support agriculture, creating a system that is inherently less resilient and sustainable. This is precisely why the concept of sustainable intensification seeks to balance productivity with these critical economic, environmental and social dimensions.
The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together contributions from a wide range of disciplines relating to the agricultural and livestock production economics, performance analysis, crop production and animal husbandry, management sciences, operations research and environmental analysis to highlight transdisciplinary advancements and to contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the solutions that will help meet the expected productivity in the agricultural and livestock sector and overcome recurring sustainability and resilience challenges. Contributions sharing results of research projects and real-life industry applications are particularly welcome.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:
- Performance and productivity analysis of crop and livestock systems;
- Innovations and best practices for sustainable crop and livestock systems;
- Precision and smart farming technologies;
- Decision support systems to enhance efficiency;
- Optimization of agricultural activities;
- Systems integration and impact assessment;
- Agricultural policies, economics transitions and productivity;
- Efficient management of natural resources/Ecosystem services;
- Agroecological principles for designing productive and resilient farms;
- Novel Agri-food Systems/Sustainable food value chains.
Prof. Dr. Katerina Melfou
Dr. Alexandros Theodoridis
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. 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
- productivity
- sustainability
- resilience
- best practices
- optimization
- efficient use of resources
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
