Sustainable Agricultural Landscape: Integrating Production, Ecology, and Community
A Special Issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050) belonging to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027 | Viewed by 1520
Editors
Interests: plant–microorganism interactions; genomics and bioinformatics; biotechnology; sustainable agriculture; integrated disease management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: biodegradation; waste treatment; fruit quality; phosphate rock; solubilization; organic agriculture
Interests: sustainability; sustainable agriculture; sustainable food systems; sustainable diets; food losses and waste; food security; food policy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Agricultural landscapes are undergoing profound transformations driven by climate change, environmental degradation, socio-economic pressures, and evolving policy frameworks. Traditional approaches to agricultural development, often focused on short-term productivity gains, are increasingly challenged by the need to ensure long-term sustainability, environmental integrity, and resilience of food systems. As a result, agricultural landscapes are now recognized as complex socio-ecological systems in which production, governance, innovation, and ecological processes are deeply interconnected.
We are pleased to invite contributions to this Special Issue, which aims to explore how sustainable agricultural landscapes can be designed, governed, and managed through integrated approaches that reconcile productivity with environmental and social objectives. Particular attention is given to the role of agricultural and environmental policies in shaping land-use decisions, guiding innovation pathways, and supporting transitions toward more sustainable and resilient farming systems. Policy frameworks increasingly influence how sustainability goals, such as reduced chemical dependency, climate adaptation, and ecosystem protection, are translated into practice across diverse agricultural contexts.
At the same time, a broad range of scientific, technological, and agronomic innovations contribute to strengthening the adaptive capacity of agricultural systems. Approaches that enhance system resilience, stabilize production, and reduce environmental pressures are central to sustainable landscape management. These include strategies that support more efficient resource use, lower reliance on external inputs, and improved integration of ecological processes within farming systems. Understanding how such innovations interact with policy instruments and socio-economic conditions remains a key challenge for sustainability research.
This Special Issue seeks contributions that address these multidimensional challenges from interdisciplinary and system-oriented perspectives. Rather than focusing on single solutions, the Special Issue encourages holistic analyses that examine how governance, innovation, and management strategies collectively contribute to sustainable agricultural transitions at multiple scales. The topic is fully aligned with the scope of Sustainability, addressing critical issues related to sustainable development, environmental performance, policy coherence, and long-term resilience of agricultural landscapes.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome, and research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Sustainable agricultural and environmental policies
- Governance and policy coherence in agricultural landscapes
- Innovation pathways for sustainable and low-input farming systems
- Crop adaptation and resilience in sustainable agriculture
- Strategies for reducing chemical inputs and environmental pressures
- Agroecological and climate-smart landscape management
- Interactions between policy frameworks, innovation, and sustainability outcomes
- Socio-economic dimensions of agricultural sustainability transitions
- Biodiversity, ecosystem services, and resilient agricultural landscapes
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Rachid Mentag
Dr. Khalid Azim
Dr. Hamid El Bilali
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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 agriculture
- agricultural landscapes
- agricultural policy
- system resilience
- innovation pathways
- low-input farming
- climate adaptation
- environmental sustainability
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