Global agriculture faces the dual challenges of resource constraints and international competition, making the transition from quantitative expansion to quality upgrading a central imperative. While trade competitiveness is widely considered a key driver of agricultural transformation, the pathways and mechanisms through which it influences agricultural quality upgrading are far more complex than conventionally understood. Against this backdrop, this study constructs a moderated nonlinear mediation theoretical framework. Empirical analysis based on China’s provincial panel data (2014–2023) yields three key findings: (1) Trade competitiveness exerts a significant inverted U-shaped effect on high-quality agricultural development, revealing a dynamic trade-off between “competitive escape” and “competitive suppression.” (2) Optimization of the Agricultural Sectoral Structure serves as a mediating pathway, and this mediation itself exhibits nonlinear characteristics, further underscoring the nuanced nature of “structural dividends.” (3) Regional innovation capacity significantly moderates the latter stage of this pathway (from Optimization of the Agricultural Sectoral Structure to quality development). Viewed through the lens of appropriate technology theory, a robust regional innovation system can deploy context-appropriate technologies and knowledge, thereby mitigating the potential adverse impacts of agricultural structural transformation on quality-related outcomes. This research thus provides a new strategic framework for achieving sustainable, high-quality agricultural growth.

On the other hand, road infrastructure has been recognized as a fundamental aspect of development, especially in developing economies where roads have been identified as a major mode of transport. Therefore, this paper seeks to discuss how effective road infrastructure contributes to the development of a country’s socio-economics, using Kenya as a case study. More specifically, this paper seeks to discuss how effective road infrastructure contributes to the development of a country’s socioeconomics in Kirinyaga County. This has been done using existing empirical evidence on the contribution of road infrastructure to economic activities, employment, agriculture, education, healthcare, and security. The findings illustrate that the development of infrastructures in the region has helped to reduce costs of transport, improve access to markets by farmers, enhance business growth, and increase household incomes. It has helped in the development of agriculture from a subsistent to a commercial sector by enhancing access to farm inputs, markets, cooperatives, and agroprocessing facilities. Additionally, it has helped in enhancing access to education and healthcare services by reducing travel time and absenteeism. Aside from the social and economic advantages, the study also emphasizes the importance of road infrastructure in relation to security concerns. Roads that are well-developed have helped to facilitate the mobility of law enforcement officers, community policing efforts, emergencies, fewer road accidents, and the protection of goods and lives. Nevertheless, the sustainability of these achievements faces challenges from concerns such as road maintenance issues, financial constraints, environmental concerns, community involvement, and the integration of security concerns. The paper reveals that road infrastructure is not just a physical entity but rather a catalyst for socio-economic growth, social development, transformation of agriculture, and security. In this respect, there is a need to plan strategically, finance adequately, and involve people while ensuring that road infrastructure is sustainable and secure to remain a catalyst for socioeconomic growth and development of regions such as Kirinyaga.

From smart farming to wise agricultural systems: A conceptual framework for systems-oriented sustainable digital transformation in agriculture

The transformation of sustainable agriculture in small-scale farming systems is becoming increasingly important as farmers' vulnerability to climate change, market pressures, and limited access to resources increases. This study aims to identify community resilience pathways in smallholder communities and explain how adaptive capacity, livelihood strategies, and institutional support contribute to the direction of sustainable agriculture transformation. The case study was conducted in Poncokusumo District, Malang Regency, with a qualitative approach and data collection techniques in the form of in-depth interviews with 12 informants, accompanied by field observations and documentation of local agricultural programs. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis techniques to trace patterns of community resilience and social-ecological dynamics formed at the local level. The results show that the path of community resilience develops through diversification of farming businesses, strengthening social capital in farmer groups, and increasing access to information, innovation, and institutional facilitation, which strengthens farmers' ability to manage agricultural risks. In addition, the role of extension workers and village institutions serves as a strategic link in accelerating the adoption of sustainable cultivation practices. This study concludes that community resilience is a fundamental foundation for accelerating the transformation of sustainable agriculture in smallholder systems and makes a conceptual and practical contribution to the formulation of agricultural development strategies based on community resilience.

Environmental disturbances of trophic interactions and their impacts on a multi-host sapronotic pathogen.

Global food security challenges necessitate transformative approaches to enhance agricultural productivity, particularly in highland regions facing multiple production constraints. This systematic literature review examines the potential of Internet of Things (IoT) technology integration to enhance productivity of highland vegetables (potato, cabbage, and carrot) in Aceh Tengah District, Indonesia. A critical agricultural region at 1,000-2,600 m.a.s.l. Following PRISMA guidelines, we analyzed peer-reviewed publications (2020-2025) on IoT applications in vegetable production, synthesizing evidence from successful implementations across diverse geographical contexts. Empirical evidence demonstrates that precision agriculture systems incorporating soil moisture sensors, nutrient monitoring, weather stations, and disease detection algorithms achieve productivity increases of 10-20% while reducing water consumption by 20-30% and input costs by 13%. However, IoT adoption in Indonesian highland agriculture remains below 5%, constrained by infrastructure limitations, digital literacy gaps, and economic barriers. This review identifies six critical research gaps and proposes a contextualized framework for IoT implementation adapted to smallholder farming systems in highland Indonesia. The framework addresses technological, socioeconomic, and institutional dimensions essential for sustainable digital transformation of highland agriculture. A pilot project framework is proposed targeting productivity enhancement, resource efficiency, and capacity building for sustainable implementation in Aceh Tengah's unique agroecological context

Training represents a crucial pathway for enhancing farmers' human capital. China currently invests over 2 billion CNY (310 million USD) annually to train nearly a million professional farmers. While previous studies have primarily focused on the direct effects of training on production and income, there is no consensus on how training specifically contributes to farmers' human capital accumulation. This study employs panel survey data from 753 farmers across four Chinese provinces collected in 2016 and 2019, utilizing Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) methodology to examine the impact of farmer training on participants' human capital. The empirical analysis reveals that farmers who participated in professional training programs experienced significant improvements in their explicit human capital, demonstrated by increases of 6.76% and 13.30% in obtaining national vocational qualification certificates and farmer technical staff titles, respectively. Additionally, their internalized human capital showed marked enhancement, with increases of 21.03% and 11.29% in utilizing digital platforms such as WeChat groups and Douyin (or Kuaishou) for agricultural knowledge and skill acquisition. These findings suggest that China should continue prioritizing farmers' human capital development, particularly through professional training programs, as a key strategy for promoting agricultural transformation and rural revitalization.

Abstract The study examines the agricultural transformation of Almería (1950-1989), emphasizing its emergence as Europe’s “market garden.” Key factors include state-driven irrigation projects, innovations like soil mulching, greenhouses, and drip irrigation, which boosted productivity and reduced farm sizes. While state intervention was modest, private initiatives and credit institutions accelerated the expansion of intensive, export-oriented agriculture. This shift reshaped land tenure, increasing smallholdings and diminishing traditional large estates, fundamentally altering the region’s agrarian structure.

The increasing momentum of agricultural digital transformation and green development necessitates investigations into how farmers’ digital literacy influences their engagement in green production behaviours, which is critical for achieving the high-quality development of modern agriculture. Utilising primary survey data collected from farmers in rural areas of Guizhou Province, China, this study investigated how digital literacy affects farmers’ green production behaviours. The findings are as follows: (1) Digital literacy exerts a significant positive impact on farmers’ adoption of green production behaviours. Regarding the hierarchical effect, the order of influence is as follows: digital security awareness > basic digital skills > digital application and innovation. (2) The facilitating effect of digital literacy is primarily achieved through two pathways: the peer effect and the guidance effect. (3) Farmers with higher education levels are more impacted by digital literacy than farmers with lower education levels. (4) The impact of digital literacy is more positively significant for young and older farmers than for middle-aged groups. Based on these research findings, it is recommended that future policy formulation and technology extension efforts should prioritise support for specific regions and groups, such as mountainous areas, small-scale operations, low-education backgrounds, and the elderly. Such targeted approaches are crucial for encouraging wider adoption of green production behaviours among farmers.

The development of agricultural new productive forces (ANPFs) represents a vital pathway to overcoming the bottlenecks of agricultural modernization and reshaping agricultural competitiveness. As sustainable development and green transformation have become global priorities, the formation of ANPFs is increasingly viewed as a key engine for promoting resource-efficient agriculture, low-carbon production, ecological protection, and resilient food systems. Using panel data from 16 prefecture-level cities in Anhui Province, China, spanning the period 2010–2023, this study employs the entropy-weighted TOPSIS method to measure the levels of ANPFs and sustainable agricultural development (SAD). A panel data model is then applied to examine the impact of ANPFs on SAD, while a mediation-effect model is used to test the underlying transmission mechanisms. Finally, a spatial econometric model is employed to assess the spatial spillover effects between ANPFs and SAD. The results reveal that ANPFs exert a significant and robust positive impact on Anhui’s SAD, with the strength of this effect decreasing gradually from central to southern and northern regions. Further analysis indicates that the driving influence of ANPFs operates through three key mediating pathways: the improvement of new-type infrastructure, the enhancement of agricultural scientific and technological innovation, and the advancement of agricultural digital transformation. Moreover, ANPFs demonstrate a positive spatial spillover effect, suggesting that the development of new productive forces in one region promotes agricultural modernization in neighboring areas. These findings demonstrate that ANPFs not only enhance productivity but also contribute to sustainable agricultural development. Accordingly, strengthening ANPFs development can serve as an effective strategy for promoting long-term agricultural sustainability, indicating that central Anhui should be prioritized as a core hub for fostering ANPFs, enabling the gradient diffusion of infrastructure, innovation capacity, and digital services toward southern and northern Anhui. Strengthening regional coordination mechanisms will further amplify the spatial spillover of ANPFs, thereby advancing high-quality agricultural development across the province. This study provides new evidence for how ANPFs can support sustainable agricultural transformation, offering policy insights for green growth, food security, and rural revitalization.

ABSTRACT New Breeding Technologies (NBTs), particularly gene editing, are reshaping the global competitive landscape of the seed industry and providing technological support for ensuring food security and advancing the green transformation of agriculture. This study aims to assess China’s distinctive position within the global regulatory spectrum of NBTs, an intermediary status between the European Union’s process-based model and the product-based model adopted by countries such as the United States and Argentina. Building on this, the article constructs an institutional analysis framework centered on the agricultural industry chain, encompassing four critical stages: research and development collaboration; biosafety assessment and administrative licensing; intellectual property and plant breeders’ rights protection; and consumer perception and labeling governance. Through comparative legal analysis and an examination of the entire chain, the study systematically reveals the institutional challenges confronting China’s commercialization of NBTs. These challenges include: weak mechanisms for linking the interests of industry, academia, and research institutions; path dependence on approval procedures rooted in traditional genetic modification logic; plant variety protection and relief mechanisms that fail to respond promptly to the technical attributes of NBTs; and consumer distrust driven by the interplay between qualitative labeling and risk narratives. In response, four key areas of reform are proposed: strengthening benefit-sharing and collaborative innovation mechanisms; introducing differentiated, risk-proportionate review pathways for low-risk gene-edited crops; improving breeders’ rights and substantive derived variety rules, complemented by punitive damages and insurance mechanisms; and reforming risk communication and labeling systems by adopting quantitative thresholds and tiered information disclosure as the core principles.

This study aims to develop a web-based information system as a digital showcase for agricultural products by farmer groups under the Social Forestry Program in Garut Regency. The primary issue addressed is the limited market access and visibility of local agricultural products. The system was developed using the Agile methodology, enabling rapid iteration and user-driven adaptation. System design was modeled using Unified Modeling Language (UML), including use case, activity, class, and sequence diagrams. The platform was built with the CodeIgniter framework due to its efficiency and scalability in PHP-based applications. Key features include farmer group profiles, a product catalog, and an admin dashboard for data management. Data collection was conducted through field observation, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. The results indicate that the system significantly enhances information accessibility, expands promotional reach, and strengthens the digital identity of farmer groups. These findings affirm that the application of information and communication technologies supports sustainable community-based digital agricultural transformation.

ABSTRACT Using China’s annual agricultural data (1949–2024), this study applies the GSADF test to identify nonlinear leaps in agricultural TFP and bootstrap rolling-window causality tests to examine its relationship with institutional reforms. The results show two productivity leaps in 1985 and 1988–1996, corresponding to the Household Responsibility System and township enterprises, confirming that institutional reforms drive productivity leaps. This provides empirical evidence on institutional drivers of China’s agricultural transformation and insights for developing countries pursuing agricultural development through institutional innovation.

Armed actors are entrenched in the agrifood systems of several low- and middle-income countries, often with implications for agricultural transformation and democratic transitions. This paper focuses on the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan’s agrifood system. Through over 50 semi-structured stakeholder interviews, the paper traces how these actors gained their foothold in the agrifood system and how they interact with the private sector across diverse value chains. We argue that their investments in certain value chains depend on whether the formal private sector is already involved and the degree of technical complexity required for more profitable product upgrading. Based on these considerations, we uncover four strategies used in different value chains: exclusive capture and rent-extraction, biased competition through licencing and quota allocations, acquiescence to private competitors when value-addition is too complex, and innovation when profit potential is high and the private sector is absent. We demonstrate these strategies with respect to livestock, wheat, gum Arabic, and horticulture, with secondary applications to other commodities. Since economic competition between SAF and RSF was a major factor in the outbreak of the 2023-armed conflict, identifying these strategies expands insights about the political economy antecedents of large-scale conflict.

This study provides a comprehensive examination of the environmental consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI) within Vietnam's agri-food sector, focusing on the tension between agricultural expansion and carbon emission control. In the context of rising global climate concerns, the analysis examines how FDI inflows affect CO2 emissions, while considering agricultural structural transformation, economic development, and trade openness. The results indicate that FDI significantly increases CO2 emissions, primarily through scale expansion and structural shifts toward emission-intensive agricultural activities. The findings underscore agricultural industrial restructuring as a crucial transmission channel. The study contributes both theoretically and practically by offering policy recommendations aimed at steering FDI toward cleaner agricultural development pathways and supporting Vietnam's transition toward a low-carbon and climate-resilient agri-food system.

Designing with non-humans for agricultural systems transformation: An interdisciplinary review and framework for reflection

The article is devoted to the study of issues of political and economic development in Kazakhstan in 1925-1930 using the example of the Karakalpak Autonomous Region. Based on the materials of the archives of Kazakhstan and Karakalpakstan, the process of transformation of agriculture and land use in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya is traced. The analysis of events is carried out on the basis of the principles of historicism and objectivity, which are considered in the relationship and dynamics of historical events, taking into account specific historical circumstances. The article shows that the process of implementation of land and water reforms by the Soviet authorities in Karakalpakstan in the mid-1920s had a stable character, which was violated by the policy of F. Goloshchekin to force events in this area. In the second half of the 1920s, land and water reform began to be accompanied by repressive measures against large and medium-sized landowners, which provoked popular reports against Soviet power. After the suppression of the foci of resistance, mass collectivization of peasant farms began, not taking into account the specifics of the region, which led to the migration of part of the population. The political course "little Kazan", based on the suppression of local national elites and strengthening the administrative and economic control of the center, became one of the reasons for the withdrawal of the Karakalpak autonomous region from the composition of Kazakhstan.

The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and tools in all agricultural sectors can ensure the transformation of agriculture into a smarter, more efficient and more sustainable sector, ready to face the challenges of the future. The paper provides a review of recent applications of AI, focused on crop monitoring, precision agriculture, robotics, animal management and supply chain optimization, with examples of research, studies and applications carried out in this regard in the last 5 years. The general conclusion is that, in the current conditions of the need to develop the agricultural sector on a sustainable basis and for economic efficiency, the use of emerging technologies (AI) and their implementation in all activities and processes related to agriculture must be accelerated.

In the context of modern agricultural transformation, the integration of robotic systems into plant care is emerging as a vital solution to address challenges such as labour shortages, increased production demands, and the need for sustainable farming practices. This research focuses on the mechanical design and fabrication of a compact, modular robotic platform specifically tailored for agricultural plant care applications. The robot is designed to operate in greenhouses or open fields and is equipped with a four-wheel differential drive system, a chain transmission mechanism, and a load-distributing aluminium top plate to support essential components such as a water tank. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was conducted to validate the structural reliability of the chassis and loadbearing elements, showing low stress and strain well below material limits, thereby ensuring operational stability and safety. A prototype was manufactured using accessible materials and methods, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed design in terms of assembly, mobility, and structural integrity. This study contributes a mechanically robust and scalable foundation for future integration with sensors and control systems, advancing the development of smart, automated agricultural robotics.

Biodiversity is a fundamental component of ecosystem structural integrity, functionality, and sustainability. However, increasing agricultural intensification, habitat loss, and the spread of invasive weed species threaten biodiversity on a global scale. This study aims to reveal general trends, conceptual structures, and international collaboration networks in the field by examining the scientific literature on the impacts of weeds on biodiversity using a bibliometric method. A total of 479 publications published in the Web of Science (WoS) database between 2011 and 2025 were analyzed. VOSviewer and Bibliometrix (R software) were used for data processing and visualization. The findings show that the annual growth rate of studies in this research area is -4.28%, with an average of 25.46 citations per publication. France, Germany, and the United States stand out among the countries with the highest number of publications. Author network analyses revealed that Colbach, N., Fried, G., Petit, S., and Bohan, D.A. are leading researchers in the field. Keyword and thematic analyses indicate that studies are concentrated around the concepts of "biodiversity," "weed management," "agroecology," and "ecosystem services." The journals with the most publications are Agriculture Ecosystems/Environment, Agronomy for Sustainable Development, and Weed Research. Overall, the results demonstrate that the research field is evolving toward a focus on ecosystem services, sustainable agriculture, and agroecological transformation, providing a guiding scientific framework for future research.