About this Research Topic

Background

Agronomy, as the science and practice of crop production, is the thread that ties and underpins the SDGs of Hunger, Health, Water, Work, Consumption, Climate and Land – in short seven of the SDGs and, thus more than any other sector. As a science, agronomy is defined as the study of the interactions between genotype, environment and management (GxExM) and, as a practice, as the implementation of agronomic knowledge into growing food. Knowledge can come from theories, experience and experiment, but best following the interaction of these elements. Agronomy is concerned with both producing food but also its nutritional quality. The social aspect of agronomy is evidenced in the gender balance between agronomic scientists, advisors and practitioners and farmers.

Agronomists work at scales ranging from square metres to the hectares of a field; agronomy’s biological scales go from individual plant organs to plant populations via the individual plant. Complex agronomy covers crop communities; the temporal scale ranges from a day to a year. Fields are the meaningful sites for integrating reductionist plant sciences.

Agronomists need to have a broad and integrated scientific knowledge; this includes soil and earth sciences chemistry, biology, crop genetics and ecology and social sciences, reflecting GxExM. Understanding the myriad of interrelationships between biotic and abiotic ecosystem components means that agronomy needs to focus on ways to predict and project the GxExM of food production by using simulation models and other tools, such as statistical analyses. Many of these tools and techniques originated in crop science and agronomy. In summary, agronomy tries to improve the systems that humans use to produce food, feed, fuel, and fibre by understanding the interactions, and thus integration, of crop genotype, environment and management.

In the context of the UN SDGs, agronomy and hunger have a clear interaction; health includes the provision of nutritious food, agronomy uses large quantities of water; work in agronomy highlights gender differences; food consumption and waste are as important in food security as food production; climate and weather have huge effects on food production and land is the essential planetary resource for producing food.

As part of an innovative collection showcasing agronomy in the context of the SDGs, this Research Topic will focus on Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality.

We welcome contributions on the following subtopics, but not limited to:
• Gender-sensitive approaches to agronomical research and farming for more efficient, productive, and sustainable systems
• Gender-sensitive systems for climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Gender-based perspectives on pest management
• Gender-based barriers and opportunities to the adoption of precision agronomic technologies
• Gendered implications of agroecological approaches to soil health and water conservation
• Gender-responsive participatory research and participatory approaches in extension
• Factors that influence women’s education and promotion in agronomy-related fields and institutions
• Gendered implications of agricultural trade policies for small-scale producers
• Factors that influence women's participation and leadership in cooperatives and farmer organizations
• Factors that influence women’s participation and leadership in International Organizations
• Factors that influence women’s leadership in agricultural companies (agrochemicals, seed, …)
• Impact of women's entrepreneurship and microfinance programs on agriculture and rural livelihoods
• Assessment of labor, work-family balance, and gender sensitization in agriculture
• Impact of changes in land tenure and inheritance laws on women's access and control over land.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Sustainable Development Goal, Gender Equality

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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