Role of Circular Economy in Achieving Sustainable Growth in Agriculture and Food Sector

Abstract

AbstractRising population, growing food demand, inefficient resource utilization, and food wastage at different stages of food supply are demanding a paradigm-shifting toward more sustainable practices in the agri-food sector. With the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the scientific community also took their research interest toward the espousal of Circular Economy (CE) in the farming sector. This study has performed a systematic review in order to identify how the past studies applied CE in the agri-food sector and also whether the existing literature evaluated the role of CE in different segments like food production, food consumption, and food supply chain or not? The review identified the shifted research interest of the researchers toward the implementation of CE models in the agri-food sector for the last 5 years. However, most studies focused on the application of CE in food waste and supply chain management, and rare attention was put on the adoption of the CE approach in food production and consumption. This study directs that future investigation may be focused on the efficient integration of the CE approach across all stages, i. e., production, consumption, and distribution of the agri-food supply chain to support the sustainability in the entire food and agrarian system.KeywordsCircular economyAgriculture and food sectorSustainable growthFood production and consumptionSystemic review