Agri-Food Systems, Land Transitions and Society in Evolving Africa

Dear Colleagues,

More than ever before, Africa is at a crossroad in its agricultural and agri-food systems development, with immense opportunities for growth. Despite this, the continent’s agri-food system has not caught up with the ever-increasing demand for food and fibre. Triggers such as environmental degradation, population growth, urbanisation and changing diets, energy transitions, and climate change are exacerbating the pressure on the continent’s agri-food system. The effects of these factors include accelerated transitions in land use and land cover at a continental scale, loss of biodiversity, an increased presence of invasive species (plants and insects), perpetual food insecurity and rising food imports, and rising ecological debt due to soil and biological diversity degradation. These patterns continue to impoverish resource-dependent societies within the continent that further depend on the cyclic nature of the region’s state of affairs. Examining the trends and drivers of the continent’s agri-food systems, their endogenous elements, and their associated interactions (including how land transitions occur in space and time), as well as how these transitions reshape the landscape organisation and the overall effects on societies, is imperative for recontextualising the potential directions for sustainable agri-food systems in Africa.

African governments and their development partners have recognised these rapidly evolving conditions in the continent. Accordingly, through deliberate effort, governments have attempted to respond to these issues through advancing human capital development and research within the continent. The Regional Centre of Excellence in Agri-Food Systems and Nutrition (CE-AFSN) at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique, is one of the regional initiatives under the African Centers of Excellence Project, Phase II (additional financing (ACE II AF) for Eastern and Southern Africa funded by the World Bank). The aim of this project is to contribute to the transformation of agri-food systems in Africa by providing training to attain highly qualified human resources while delivering high-quality research outputs in agri-food system-related areas. This project hosts both national and regional students and faculties from across Africa to perform associated research and conduct various studies. Through this, this centre and its partners have accomplished several research initiatives and seek to share the outputs of these efforts with the rest of world.

This Special Issue is focused on research from the CE-AFSN and its partners, researchers, and master’s degree and PhD students, as well as students and staff participating in exchange programs within the African region.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to provide insights into the agri-food systems, land transitions, and associated effects on society in Africa.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts covering the following themes:

• Sustainable intensification;
• Integrated farming systems;
• Climate-smart agriculture;
• Land degradation and restoration;
• Land use and land cover change and transitions;
• Land access, use, and social support systems;
• Food security and/or insecurity;
• Social and environmental impacts of change.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Hossein Azadi
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 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. Land 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 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.

• agri-food systems
• transitions
• landscapes
• social systems
• degradation
• rights
• intensification
• climate change
• ecological debt
• drivers