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Horticulturae
Special Issues
Economics and Management of Fruit and Vegetable Production
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Economics and Management of Fruit and Vegetable Production

A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural Economics, Policy, Business Management and Marketing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 11914

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhengfei Guan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Food and Resource Economics Department & Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Wimauma, FL, USA
Interests: production economics; labor economics; trade
Dr. Johan Desaeger

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Wimauma, FL, USA
Interests: applied biological sciences; nematode management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fruits and vegetables play an increasingly important role in human diet and health. With growing consumer demand, fruit and vegetable production and trade have been increasing worldwide. However, fruit and vegetable production faces various challenges involving issues in multiple dimensions in economics and science, including intensive labor use, product perishability, volatile market, intensive pesticide and fertilizer use and environmental and human health concerns. The editors of Horticulturae, in collaboration with the Special Issue guest editors Zhengfei Guan and Johan Desaeger, welcome submissions of both review and original research articles.

Horticulturae is a highly ranked peer-reviewed journal in the field of horticulture. It had an impact factor (IF) of 2.331 in 2020 and is ranked in the top quartile (Q1) in the field. This Special Issue covers both economics and crop management topics:

1)   Economic topics include, but are not limited to, production economics, risk management, technology adoption, price analysis, marketing, trade, food safety, farm labor, supply chain, and environmental and sustainability studies.

2)   Crop management topics include, but are not limited to, sustainable practices, organic production, pest and disease management, pesticide use, fertilization, irrigation and water use, fumigation and soil management, post-harvest management, and breeding.  

Authors should state in their cover letter that they are submitting their research for the “Economics and Management of Fruit and Vegetable Production” Special Issue. For general submission guidelines, please refer to the webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/horticulturae/instructions

Dr. Zhengfei Guan
Dr. Johan Desaeger
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. Horticulturae 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 2200 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

  • fruit and vegetables
  • crop management
  • pest and disease management
  • best management practices
  • sustainability
  • food safety
  • supply chain
  • agribusiness
  • economics

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 1917 KiB  
Article
Farmers’ Participation in Modern Supply Chains: The Case of Mandarin Profitability in Punjab-Pakistan
by Rabia Mazhar, Bi Xuehao, Ants-Hannes Viira, Ivana Janeska Stamenkovska, Marina Nacka, Hossein Azadi and Zou Wei
Horticulturae 2022, 8(11), 1041; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8111041 - 7 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2212
Abstract
In developing countries, supply chains are rapidly transforming. However, smallholder farmers, in particular, have experienced mixed impacts in inclusion and exclusion from modern supply chains (MSC). Therefore, by taking Pakistan’s mandarin industry as a case, this study aims to analyze the farmers’ efficiency [...] Read more.
In developing countries, supply chains are rapidly transforming. However, smallholder farmers, in particular, have experienced mixed impacts in inclusion and exclusion from modern supply chains (MSC). Therefore, by taking Pakistan’s mandarin industry as a case, this study aims to analyze the farmers’ efficiency and inclusiveness in modern supply chains and compare them across the farm size categories, i.e., small, medium, and large. For that purpose, cross-sectional data from 300 farmers were collected to test the posit objectives. The empirical investigation was made using the endogenous treatment effect model and the propensity score matching approach. Findings show that large farmers prefer to participate in MSC, driven by contractors, processors or exporters. Conversely, the smallholders are more inclined to participate in the traditional supply chains (TSCs), driven by village vendors, local retailers/consumers, middlemen, and traditional fruit and vegetable markets. The results also revealed a positive connection between efficiency and farmers’ inclusion in the MSC. Orchard size, education, off-farm income, and extension services positively impact profitability. In terms of an increase in farmers’ profitability, the efficiency improvement can benefit the resource-poor smallholders who make up 74% of the total farmers in the sample. Therefore, these results are noteworthy for devising policy actions to facilitate smallholder inclusion in the modern agri-food supply chains to alleviate rural poverty and ensure farmers’ wellbeing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economics and Management of Fruit and Vegetable Production)
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13 pages, 1282 KiB  
Article
The U.S. Sweet Potato Market: Price Response and Impact of Supply Shocks
by Ariel Soto-Caro, Tianyuan Luo, Feng Wu and Zhengfei Guan
Horticulturae 2022, 8(10), 856; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8100856 - 20 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2666
Abstract
Sweet potatoes have become increasingly popular among consumers due to their health benefits, and, as a result, sweet potato production has been growing rapidly over the last decade in the United States. However, the industry is facing major challenges, including the risk of [...] Read more.
Sweet potatoes have become increasingly popular among consumers due to their health benefits, and, as a result, sweet potato production has been growing rapidly over the last decade in the United States. However, the industry is facing major challenges, including the risk of disease outbreaks and adverse weather events, which could potentially have a significant impact on the market. However, the economic literature on the sweet potato commodity is limited. This study models the U.S. sweet potato market price response to supply changes and derives elasticity estimates. This information is essential for understanding the sweet potato market and for simulating the impacts of potential supply shocks, given the challenges that the industry is facing. We found that prices are highly sensitive to supply. North Carolina, the largest sweet potato producer in the country, dominates the domestic market and exerts significantly larger influences on market prices than other producing states. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economics and Management of Fruit and Vegetable Production)
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13 pages, 8732 KiB  
Article
The Dynamic Evaporation Characteristics of Thiophanate-Methyl Droplets and Their Enhancement under Different Wind Conditions
by Guanqun Wang, Mingxiong Ou, Weidong Jia, Huitao Zhou, Shiqun Dai, Xiang Dong, Xiaowen Wang, Li Jiang, Wei Lu and Ming Wang
Horticulturae 2022, 8(8), 721; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8080721 - 10 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1261
Abstract
The dynamic evaporation of single droplets was investigated under controlled conditions. In the evaporation process, a droplet was placed on a peach leaf surface. In this research, the relative humidity and temperature were kept constant, and the wind speeds and thiophanate-methyl concentrations varied. [...] Read more.
The dynamic evaporation of single droplets was investigated under controlled conditions. In the evaporation process, a droplet was placed on a peach leaf surface. In this research, the relative humidity and temperature were kept constant, and the wind speeds and thiophanate-methyl concentrations varied. Based on these conditions, this study aimed to determine the droplets’ dynamic transforming characteristics, including the contact angle, the height of the droplets, and the evaporation rate. Five concentrations and five wind speeds were chosen, and pure water droplets at different wind speeds were used as a control group. All single droplets were generated by a syringe. The results showed that the pure water and thiophanate-methyl droplets’ evaporation mode was CCR (constant contact radius) mode. An increase in the wind speed accelerated the evaporation process, when the wind speed was 0 m/s, the evaporation was the longest, and the shortest evaporation was achieved with 2.0 m/s wind speed. An increase in wind speed enhanced the pure water droplets’ dynamic evaporation process with a maximum enhancement ratio of 3.44 times in the present work. Under the same conditions, the thiophanate-methyl droplets’ evaporation time was shorter than that of the pure water droplets. For thiophanate-methyl droplets, the higher the concentration, the shorter the dynamic evaporation process. A 1250 ppm thiophanate-methyl solution with 2.0 m/s wind speed, had an evaporation ratio that was 2.83 times greater than that measured with 0 m/s wind speed. These results could benefit farmers by suggesting that they should adjust the concentration of thiophanate-methyl depending on the wind speed in order to reduce pollution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economics and Management of Fruit and Vegetable Production)
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22 pages, 489 KiB  
Article
Willingness-to-Pay for Produce: A Meta-Regression Analysis Comparing the Stated Preferences of Producers and Consumers
by Alice Kilduff and Daniel Tregeagle
Horticulturae 2022, 8(4), 290; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8040290 - 29 Mar 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2411
Abstract
Willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates help agribusinesses estimate whether a new product is likely to be profitable. For produce, new products, such as new fruit varieties, need to be adopted by producers before they can be sold to consumers. The study of ex ante fruit [...] Read more.
Willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates help agribusinesses estimate whether a new product is likely to be profitable. For produce, new products, such as new fruit varieties, need to be adopted by producers before they can be sold to consumers. The study of ex ante fruit and vegetable producer preferences is relatively new. This study uses meta-regression analysis to compare the estimated WTP premium between U.S. producers and consumers to determine whether they differ. After controlling for differences in study methods, product attributes, and potential publication bias, the producer WTP was between 14.16 and 27.73 percentage points higher. Subject to several caveats and limitations, this suggests that consumer WTP can be a sufficient metric for the profitability of new produce products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economics and Management of Fruit and Vegetable Production)
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19 pages, 2391 KiB  
Article
The Cost-Benefits and Risks of Using Raffia Made of Biodegradable Polymers: The Case of Pepper and Tomato Production in Greenhouses
by Josefa López-Marín, Amparo Gálvez, Francisco M. del Amor, Mari Carmen Piñero and Jose M. Brotons-Martínez
Horticulturae 2022, 8(2), 133; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8020133 - 1 Feb 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1934
Abstract
The use of plastics in agriculture has increased food production and reduced irrigation, pesticides, and pests. However, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “disastrous” use has occurred, as agricultural soils are being contaminated and have begun to [...] Read more.
The use of plastics in agriculture has increased food production and reduced irrigation, pesticides, and pests. However, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “disastrous” use has occurred, as agricultural soils are being contaminated and have begun to threaten food security, peoples’ health, and the environment. One of the most challenging plastic wastes that must be removed from plants, and instead recycled, is the raffia used to tutor crops. This work studied the economic risk of introducing raffia made from a biodegradable polymer in greenhouse pepper and tomato crops. An expert survey was carried out to analyze the evolution of breaks throughout the season of four biodegradable raffias: cellulose, cellulose + kraft paper, compostable biopolymer, and jute-rayon, comparing them with a polypropylene control for two years (2019–2020) in pepper and tomato crops. Fuzzy logic-ordered weighted averages (OWA) were used to treat and aggregate this information. Income, costs, and the risk of biodegradable raffia breakage were studied. The results show that the material that performed the best was the biopolymer in the two crops studied, as it presented a much lower risk of breakage. The breaks in tomatoes were higher than those produced in pepper for each material. For the biopolymer, the internal rates of return (3.49% in tomatoes and 8.14% in peppers) and the recovery period (18.50 and 13.45 years for tomato and pepper crops, respectively) were very similar to those of polypropylene. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economics and Management of Fruit and Vegetable Production)
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