Special Issue "Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Resilience"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Daniel El Chami
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sustainability Research and Innovation, S.P. 13, Località Ca' Nova, 26010 Ripalta Arpina (CR), Italy
Interests: sustainability; agrosystems; ecosystem services; natural resources management; tradeoffs; climate change; adaptation; resilience
Dr. Maroun El Moujabber
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM-IAMB), Via Ceglie 9, 70010 Valenzano (BA), Italy
Interests: : joint research; sustainability; agrosystems; food security; renewable energy; climate change; adaptation; resilience

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture, fundamental for human survival, integrates biological, chemical, and physical processes for food and feed supply. From one side, the high dependence of agriculture on natural processes increases its vulnerability to climate variability and uncertainty. From another side, agriculture also contributes a significant share of the GHG emissions that cause climate change, drastically endangering our existence. The literature suggests sustainable agriculture as a practice to preserve our natural ecosystems and mitigate climate change. However, sustainable agriculture is still intensively debated in the scientific community, and it still has no agreed definition. In many cases, there is a misuse and misinterpretation of the concept.

If sustainability focuses on preserving our ecosystems, adaptation and resilience concentrate on protecting people from the changes brought by a changing climate to the ecosystems and allow them to absorb, withstand, and bounce back after climate adversities. Therefore, this Special Issue will publish all types of articles accepted by the journal (e.g., research, review, opinion). It will explore the interconnections and tradeoffs between different agriculture practices and ecosystems and their adaptation and resilience capability under climate change conditions.

Focus: This issue will focus on agricultural practices (including livestock production and fisheries) in all geographical locations and hydro-climatic conditions.

Scope: The scope of this issue includes investigations of the adaptation and resilience of agro-systems to climate change in terms of the interconnection between social, environmental, and economic outcomes.

Purpose: This issue aims to add to the scientific literature and show to the agro-food sector the sustainable practices that could create a balance between the three pillars of sustainability and improve social well-being, increase economic outcomes, and reduce negative environmental externalities.

Dr. Daniel El Chami
Dr. Maroun EL Moujabber
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 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. 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 1900 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

  • Sustainability
  • Agrosystems
  • Ecosystems
  • Tradeoffs
  • Resilience
  • Adaptation
  • Scenarios
  • Climate change

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Assessment of Ionomic, Phenolic and Flavonoid Compounds for a Sustainable Management of Xylella fastidiosa in Morocco
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7818; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147818 - 13 Jul 2021
Viewed by 444
Abstract
Morocco belongs to the countries ranked at a high-risk level for entry, establishment, and spread of Xylella fastidiosa, which has recently re-emerged as a plant pathogen of global importance causing olive quick decline syndrome (OQDS). Symptomatic infection by X. fastidiosa leads to [...] Read more.
Morocco belongs to the countries ranked at a high-risk level for entry, establishment, and spread of Xylella fastidiosa, which has recently re-emerged as a plant pathogen of global importance causing olive quick decline syndrome (OQDS). Symptomatic infection by X. fastidiosa leads to devastating diseases and important economic losses. To prevent such losses and damages, countries without current outbreaks like Morocco need to first understand their host plant responses to X. fastidiosa. The assessment of the macro and micro-elements content (ionome) in leaves can give basic and useful information along with being a powerful tool for the sustainable management of diseases caused by this devastating pathogen. Herein, we compare the leaf ionome of four important autochthonous Moroccan olive cultivars (‘Picholine Marocaine’, ‘Haouzia’, ‘Menara’, and ‘Meslalla’), and eight Mediterranean varieties introduced in Morocco (‘Arbequina’, ‘Arbosana’, ‘Leccino’, ‘Ogliarola salentina’, ‘Cellina di Nardo’, ‘Frantoio’, ‘Leucocarpa’, and ‘Picholine de Languedoc’), to develop hypotheses related to the resistance or susceptibility of the Moroccan olive trees to X. fastidiosa infection. Leaf ionomes, mainly Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na, Zn, and P, were determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). These varieties were also screened for their total phenolics and flavonoids content. Data were then involved in a comparative scheme to determine the plasticity of the pathogen. Our results showed that the varieties ‘Leccino’, ’Arbosana’, ‘Arbequina’ consistently contained higher Mn, Cu, and Zn and lower Ca and Na levels compared with the higher pathogen-sensitive ‘Ogliarola salentina’ and ‘Cellina di Nardò’. Our findings suggest that ‘Arbozana’, ‘Arbiquina’, ‘Menara’, and ‘Haouzia’ may tolerate the infection by X. fastidiosa to varying degrees, provides additional support for ‘Leccino’ having resistance to X. fastidiosa, and suggests that both ‘Ogliarola salentina’ and ‘Cellina di Nardö’ are likely sensitive to X. fastidiosa infection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Resilience)
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Article
Bibliometric Network Analysis of “Water Systems’ Adaptation to Climate Change Uncertainties”: Concepts, Approaches, Gaps, and Opportunities
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6738; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126738 - 14 Jun 2021
Viewed by 822
Abstract
In response to the impact of climate change and to the uncertainties associated with the various dimensions of hydrologic variability, water systems’ adaptation has risen to the top of global agendas. In accordance, identifying the additional science needed to improve our understanding of [...] Read more.
In response to the impact of climate change and to the uncertainties associated with the various dimensions of hydrologic variability, water systems’ adaptation has risen to the top of global agendas. In accordance, identifying the additional science needed to improve our understanding of climate change and its impacts, including the scientific advances needed to improve the effectiveness of actions taken to adapt water systems, is of the utmost importance. To this aim, this research draws on a systematic bibliometric study of data, generated from the Web of Science research engine between 1990 and 2019, combined with a statistical analysis, to explore academic publication trends, and identify the strategic gaps and opportunities in global scientific research. The analysis shows the consistent level of national and international collaboration among authors, institutions, and countries, and highlights the substantial contribution of the USA and the UK to this research field. The statistical examination shows that the adaptation-informed literature on water systems remains fragmented, and predominantly centred on the framing of water resource planning and management, in addition to water engineering and infrastructure. The analysis also revealed a relatively skewed understanding of various important dimensions, such as governance, integrated water resources management, and stakeholder engagement, which are crucial for planning and implementing an efficient adaptation process. Observations reflect on the need to build water-related adaptive approaches based on a thorough understanding of potential climate uncertainties, rather than to generically address all the uncertainties in one scenario analysis. These approaches are required to combine short and longterm actions rather than considering only current and short-term measures, and to similarly associate policy and engineering, and equally consider the robustness, flexibility, reliability, and vulnerability during the planning phase. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Resilience)
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Article
Food Gap Optimization for Sustainability Concerns, the Case of Egypt
Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2999; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052999 - 09 Mar 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 811
Abstract
Nowadays, even with the growth and progress of the agricultural sector, the food gap (FG) is still wide, particularly for strategic crops, affecting the national economy and compromising the food security. The realization of self-sufficiency can be fulfilled only by achieving the highest [...] Read more.
Nowadays, even with the growth and progress of the agricultural sector, the food gap (FG) is still wide, particularly for strategic crops, affecting the national economy and compromising the food security. The realization of self-sufficiency can be fulfilled only by achieving the highest production efficiency along with preserving the natural resources currently available, especially arable land and irrigation water. In this analysis, the FG in Egypt was modeled for 13 crops between the years 2000 and 2018. The linear model applied suggested a redistribution of crops in terms of production, food demand and land reallocation, in order to find the best solution to minimize the FG on the basis of crop value and under a set of constraints. It was found that the value of the modelled FG increased steadily from 2005 to 2017, then it started to decline slightly, probably due to the steady increase in the population growth rate which is a crucial factor in enlarging the FG. Furthermore, important water loss was noticed through the analysis period. In fact, there was a huge difference, reaching around 25 billion m3 between the water consumed for the studied crops and the total amount of renewable water. The main reason for this loss can be linked to the traditional irrigation methods used, such as surface irrigation. Moreover, the calculation of food demand with the estimated production and the redistribution of crop land reallocations were performed to achieve the best model fit between the crops in terms of minimizing the FG in Egypt. So far, the current agricultural policy has reaped limited gains and a steep decline of food economic balance. Hence, significant interest on rising productivity should be given by the government to achieve the food self-sufficiency in Egypt. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Resilience)
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