Special Issue "Challenges of Contemporary Agriculture, Rural Areas and Agri-Food Supply Chain under Conditions of Uncertainty"

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: 31 August 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Piotr Prus
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Economics and Counseling in Agribusiness, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Biotechnology, UTP University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz, Poland
Interests: sustainable development; sustainable development of rural areas and agriculture; education for sustainable development; rural advisory services; agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS); diffusion and adoption of innovations in rural areas; multifunctional development of rural areas; entrepreneurship; non-agricultural entrepreneurship in rural areas; horizontal and vertical integration in the food sector and agriculture; formation and operation of agricultural producer groups
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture and rural areas are constantly changing. These transformations are influenced by the dynamically changing socio-economic environment, as well as changes in the natural environment. Currently, more and more attention is paid to climate changes and the need to prevent and/or adapt to them, as well as protecting natural resources. Agriculture is facing enormous challenges in this regard. In addition, agriculture and rural areas are faced with many uncertainties due to problems related to epidemiological threats such as African Swine Fever (ASF) and SARS-CoV-2. These uncertainties affect the entire agri-food sector, including food supply chains.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are now the most important guideline for sustainable development for all economic, social and environmental actors. They also provide important guidelines for the development of agriculture and rural areas, as well as logistics in the agri-food market, which is the basic aggregate of the economies of almost all countries. Their implementation is particularly important for the functioning of sustainable food supply chains as well as non-food raw materials of agricultural origin.

The purpose of this very interdisciplinary Special Issue is to look for an answer to the question of how in this difficult, but interesting from the researchers' point of view, time can the inhabitants of rural areas, professionals related to agriculture and agri-food logistics cope?

I would like to cordially invite colleagues from various scientific disciplines who conduct research on agriculture, rural area development, agri-food logistics, etc., to submit articles to this Special Issue.

Dr. Piotr Prus
Guest Editor

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 papers will be 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 monthly 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 1600 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

  • sustainable development of rural areas
  • sustainable agriculture
  • challenges of agriculture and rural areas under conditions of uncertainty
  • sustainable agricultural techniques and technologies
  • livestock welfare and sustainable breeding
  • challenges of agriculture in the face of climate change
  • impact of subsidies on the development of agriculture and rural areas
  • the role of agricultural advisory services in the development of agriculture and rural areas
  • multifunctional development of rural areas
  • non-agricultural functions of rural areas
  • social development of rural areas
  • reduction in poverty and social exclusion in rural areas
  • employment and unemployment issues in rural areas
  • agricultural markets
  • agricultural policy
  • agri-food trade and international agri-food markets
  • agri-food logistics
  • consumer behavior changes affecting the directions of agricultural production
  • food security and food safety
  • climate changes
  • climatic risk and crop production
  • water resources and water management – agricultural and environmental aspects
  • rainfall and water deficits
  • irrigation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
The Organisational Resilience (OR) of Rural Non-Profits (RNPOs) under Conditions of the COVID-19 Pandemic Global Uncertainty
Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 670; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070670 - 15 Jul 2021
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Abstract
The study investigated the organisational resilience (OR) levels of rural non-profit organisations (RNPOs) in the areas of activity or non-activity to adapt under the global uncertainty conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, in April/May 2020, the managers of 35 RNPOs located [...] Read more.
The study investigated the organisational resilience (OR) levels of rural non-profit organisations (RNPOs) in the areas of activity or non-activity to adapt under the global uncertainty conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, in April/May 2020, the managers of 35 RNPOs located in Poland were queried. The Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (ρS), the coefficient of determination (R2) and a transformation coefficient (d) were primarily used to verify the hypotheses and interpret the relationships studied. The study revealed four OR descriptive levels—progressive (PR), sustainable (SR), regressive (RR), and downward (DR). The findings also show that the undertaken activities are related to the OR descriptive levels. RNPOs realised one of two adaptations: passive adaptation aimed at returning to the pre-pandemic original state with no changes may lead to a bounce backwards and an uncertain survival, whilst active adaptation leads to a transformation process between OR levels to move forward and thrive in adapting to post-pandemic changes. This study confirmed that building OR requires understanding the ways of transformations among OR levels to undertake activities in strategic areas, i.e., activity scope (AS), cooperation (CO), and finance (FI), to adapt and transform RNPOs’ in an environment of post-pandemic uncertainty. Full article
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Article
Ground Frosts in Poland in the Growing Season
Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 573; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070573 - 23 Jun 2021
Viewed by 354
Abstract
The ongoing climate warming affects, among others, and the variability of thermal conditions in spring and autumn are resulting in earlier dates of the beginning and end of the growing season. The present paper provides detailed characteristics of the phenomenon of ground frosts, [...] Read more.
The ongoing climate warming affects, among others, and the variability of thermal conditions in spring and autumn are resulting in earlier dates of the beginning and end of the growing season. The present paper provides detailed characteristics of the phenomenon of ground frosts, addressing the question of whether the risk of frost-related damage in the extending growing season is still present. The assessment of temporal and spatial distribution of ground frosts (5 cm above ground level-AGL) in Poland in the thermal growing season (AT > 5 °C) was conducted on the basis of the results of air temperature measurements at 5 and 200 cm a.g.l. obtained from 52 station of the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management—National Research Institute for the period 1971–2020. The thermal growing season was calculated using the method by Gumiński. The following were calculated: the dates of the occurrence of ground frosts in spring and autumn, duration of the frost-free period, the number of days with frosts of various intensity, according to years, ten-day period and days in a year together with trends of change. The conducted analysis demonstrated that the number of days with frosts in the thermal growing season in the multiannual period under analysis (1971–2020) does not show any statistically significant changes. It was found that in the thermal growing season, the average number of days with ground frosts in Poland amounts to 28 and ranges in spring from 15 to 22, and in autumn from 8 to 12. Most frequently, approx. 49%, slight frosts are recorded, followed by moderate (29%), severe (15%) and very severe (7%). A positive effect of water reservoirs on decreasing the frequency and intensity of frosts, as well as sporadic occurrence of the phenomenon in the second half of June were demonstrated. Statistically significant earlier dates of disappearance of frosts in spring, later dates of occurrence in autumn and the lengthening of the frost-free period from approximately 2 days in the north-east of Poland to approximately 8.0 days over 10 years in the Pomerania region, create increasingly more favourable conditions for the cultivation of plants with high thermal requirements in Poland. Full article
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