About this Research Topic

Background

There is increased pressure on agri-food sectors globally to transition to more sustainable food systems. This is a response to ongoing challenges associated with environmental impacts, food security, workplace attractiveness, changing knowledge and advisory systems, farmer well-being, and technological change. Transformative technology and practices advocated by scholars and policy makers include digitalization and automation, agroecological systems, diversification, de-intensification, local food systems, circularity, transformative value chains and land-use change. These changed practices ultimately need to be implemented at a farm scale, but the implications will ripple through regional and global food systems.

The potential role of transformative agricultural technologies and practices in sustainability transitions is widely researched. However, greater focus is required on the ‘real-world’ implications at a farm-system level, and the positive and negative effects of change in the livelihoods of those being urged to change (i.e. farmers, farm businesses and supply chains). At the farm level, transformation can be a complex process that intersects land, livelihoods, and security of the wider food supply system. As a consequence, theoretical concepts of transformation to achieve more sustainable food systems can be difficult to implement for farmers due to unforeseen interactions and implications. Better understanding of these experiences is needed for effective and viable transformation options to progress environmental, social and economic sustainability.

The goal of this Research Topic is therefore to identify the impact of transformative technologies and practices applied at the farm scale, implications for supply chains, and the linkages with improved sustainability. The Research Topic welcomes manuscripts that address implications for transformative change at a farm scale, including aspects of change within deep uncertainty, responsible research and innovation, value chain impacts, workplace design and future of work, achievement of sustainability outcomes, and farmer-advisor interactions. Research focused on the development and testing of improved methodologies aimed at assessment socio-economic and sustainability impacts of farm system transformation and on-farm digitalization is also welcome.

Articles addressing the following questions are of particular interest:
• What are the benefits or costs experienced by farmers when implementing transformative technologies and practices for sustainability transitions, and how can these be effectively measured?
• What are the day to day implications for transformation on farm?
• What are the linkages between transformational practices and positive environmental and sustainability outcomes?
• How is transformation addressed in a context of deep uncertainty?
• How is responsible research and innovation enacted in farm-level transformations to more sustainable systems?
• What is the nature of support, and the role of advisory networks, that farmers or supply chains require during transformative change?
• How can we improve our methodologies for assessing socioeconomic and sustainability impacts of farm system transformation and on-farm digitalization?

We welcome submissions of the following article types: Methods, Original Research, and Perspective.

Keywords: agroecology, diversification, uncertainty, innovation, Sustainability, digitalization

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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