Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1484933

Current practices and key challenges associated with the adoption of resilient, circular, and sustainable food supply chain for smallholder farmers to mitigate

Provisionally accepted
Jéssika Milagros Vasquez Neyra Jéssika Milagros Vasquez Neyra 1Mirza Marvel Cequea Mirza Marvel Cequea 2Valentina Gomes Haensel Schmitt Valentina Gomes Haensel Schmitt 3*
  • 1 Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru
  • 2 Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile
  • 3 Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaiso, Chile

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In response to increasing global food insecurity, resilient, circular, and sustainable practices hold significant potential to enhance food supply chain (FSC) performance and reduce food loss. This study examines the current practices and key challenges faced by Peruvian smallholder farmers in managing a resilient, circular, and sustainable FSC, proposing a hybrid model that integrates ancestral agricultural knowledge with modern innovations. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected through in-depth interviews with sixteen smallholder farmers from various regions of Peru. The findings reveal that farmers operate within short supply chains without intermediaries, applying intuitive practices aligned with circular economy principles, including Rethink, Redesign, Reduce, Replace, Reuse, Repurpose, and Recycle, but excluding Recovery. Social and economic dimensions are emphasized, with economic sustainability prioritized over environmental goals. However, these practices alone are insufficient to ensure long-term resilience and sustainability.The study identifies key challenges such as technological limitations, limited market access, and insufficient consumer awareness, which hinder the full potential of current practices. The proposed hybrid model, which balances resource-efficient technologies with culturally rooted practices, addresses these gaps by fostering multistakeholder collaboration. This research fills a critical gap by focusing on the intersection of resilience, circularity, and sustainability in FSCs, offering actionable insights for policymakers and stakeholders to improve food security, promote environmental sustainability, and contribute to the achievement of SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).

    Keywords: resilience, Circular economy, sustainability, Hybrid model, Food loss, Food Supply chain, Smallholder farmers, Peruvian agriculture

    Received: 23 Aug 2024; Accepted: 02 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Vasquez Neyra, Cequea and Schmitt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Valentina Gomes Haensel Schmitt, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaiso, Chile

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.