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The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on some outstanding patterns of change observed in Spanish agriculture over the last decades, and to discuss the ways in which the productivist rationale is reproduced in them. We start by providing an overall picture of the structural transformations of agriculture revealed by the national statistics, calling attention to the increasing importance of a “hard core” of farms progressing under a rationale of growth and modernization. Later, drawing on the literature, we comment some meaningful trajectories of farm change observed in three selected Mediterranean farming systems, namely horticulture (as an example of a long-consolidated intensive agriculture), vine growing (an orientation which has undergone stunning changes in Spain in recent times), and small ruminant production (an extensive farming system with a high conservation value). The three farming systems are advancing, to a greater or a lesser degree, along intensification, concentration, and specialization pathways. However, the introduction of new elements in the most expansionary farm strategies (such as the participation in quality schemes) will provide interesting elements of discussion of the adaptable nature of productivism and its capacity to accommodate to external opportunities and constrains.

This paper aims to raise awareness on current shifting of R&D activities from agricultural-based Agriculture and agriculture-related Natural Sciences (ANS) to industrial-based Engineering, Computer, and Industry-related Sciences (ECI) in Southeast Asian (SEA) economies. This trend might cause stiffer challenges on effort to sustain food security in the region.

Five SEA countries were selected, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. R&D data were collected over the years 2001-2014. Collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and correlation.

Malaysia has been in the process of shifting from ANS to ECI cluster, whereas Vietnam and Indonesia followed the trend but about a decade behind; meanwhile, the Philippines and Thailand kept their focus on ANS clusters. Within the ANS cluster, Malaysia and Thailand leaned towards Modern Biosciences and Modelling (MBM) sub-clusters. The Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia were more focused on Agriculture and Conventional Biosciences (ACB) sub-cluster. ACB is more relevant and affordable to smallholder farmers. Shifting of R&D priority correlated with GDP per capita of SEA countries. Within ANS cluster, R&D activity in MBM increased but ACB decreased as GDP per capita increased.

Data used in this study were limited to accessible 2001-2014 data in five selected SEA economies. Therefore, there is an open possibility for future research on extended timeline using more sophisticated data analysis.

Agricultural technology development should be relevant to needs of and affordable to smallholder farmers, as they are the primary food producers in developing economies.

If the R&D activities continue to drift away from farmer’s needs, there will be a possible drawback of widening gap between developed agricultural technologies and absorptive capacity of smallholder farmers. Government institutions should revisit their R&D priority as the current trend could cause a serious obstacle in maintaining food security in the SEA region.

This frontier study provides an early warning for government in SEA economies and other developing countries for balancing between R&D for supporting smallholder farmers in food production and for enhancing national economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting the adoption of agricultural technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically the role of credit market inefficiency in adoption of agricultural technologies in the region.

Most importantly, the paper applies a 2SLS model on a unique data set on nine agrarian countries from Sub-Saharan Africa’s intensification of food crops agriculture (Afrint) to provide evidence on how credit market inefficiency affects adoption of technologies in the sub region.

The study finds that the relationship between credit and technology adoption is one-way causal relation (i.e. credit access leads to technology adoption) as opposed to a two-way relation (i.e. mutual dependent relation). Further, the results indicate that credit market inefficiency can be a major barrier to the adoption of yield enhancing technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further, the study showed mixed results for household variables. The results give credence to studies that highlight the importance of infrastructure and risk control in the adoption of new technologies.

The study is limited to only nine countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the findings and interpretations should be considered as such. Further, there is the need for further research that considers all the region so as to establish whether or not there is a relationship between credit market inefficiencies and technology adoption in the region.

The policy implication is that microfinance institutions should consider scaling up their credit services to ensure that more households benefit from it, and in so doing technology adoption will be enhanced.

The main contribution of the study lies in its use of a unique data set from Sub-Saharan Africa’s intensification of food crops agriculture (Afrint) to investigation relationship between credit market inefficiency and technology adoption.

The purpose of this paper evaluates the effects of the Great Western Development (GWD) policy on agricultural intensification, land use, agricultural production and rural poverty in western China.

The authors collect county-level data on land use, input application, grain crop production, income, poverty and geophysical characteristics for 1996–2005 and use a quasi-natural experimental design of difference-in-differences (DD) in the empirical analysis.

Results suggest that the GWD policy significantly increased the grain crop production in western China. This increase resulted from higher yield, with increased fertilizer use and agricultural electricity consumption per hectare, and more land allocated to grow grain crops. The policy also increased land-use concentration, reduced crop diversity and alleviated rural poverty in western China.

This paper makes three contributions. First, the authors add to the growing literature on the GWD policy by evaluating its effects on farm household decisions and exploring the mechanisms and broad socioeconomic impacts in western China. Second, the authors take advantage of a quasi-natural experimental design to improve the identification strategy where input use, land allocation, production and off-farm labor participation are all endogenous in a farm household. Third, the authors explore a long list of variables within one integrated dataset to present a comprehensive picture of the impact of the GWD policy.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the critical factors associated with growing fertilizer usage culminating in contamination of soil/water in agriculturally intensive regions of Uttar Pradesh, India. The agriculture sector is seen as one of the major contributors in ensuring food security, however adoption of sustainable agriculture to protect water resources from contamination due to fertilizers and pesticides is becoming pressing to achieve long term environmental security.

A two staged study aimed at monitoring the soil quality status followed by stakeholder survey has been attempted. Attitude-behavior framework based on the theory of reasoned action has been tried to explain the fertilizer use behavior in the study. The results are analyzed through Analysis of variance.

Soil monitoring data showed nitrate and total nitrogen loadings beyond the permissible limit in the identified regions. A questionnaire aimed at determining farmer’s attitude toward fertilizer usage showed a significant influence of factors like net farm income, overall farm yield, extension services, farmer characteristics on one hand and risks associated with changing farming practices, costs of substitutes available, market-based instruments like subsidies and loans on the other. Divergent responses were observed with respect to farmer’s perceived risks from adopting to organic substitutes, linkages of fertilizer application with environmental degradation and the level of adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.

The study can be scaled up to study the inter-regional differences by benchmarking regional responses. It would be interesting to extend the work to find solutions from the farmers as alternative fertility management strategies. The items used in questionnaire are self-made; hence there is still a possibility of enhancing the robustness of scale by applying advanced statistical techniques.

Results of the study indicate excessive nitrogen loadings in farm soils which is an indicator of potential future nitrate contaminated zones or vulnerable zones emerging in agricultural intensive regions. Findings reinforce the role of education, knowledge transfer and awareness for long-term agricultural sustainability. The paper highlights the urgency for reorientation of the support system by the government and policymakers.

The paper attempts to understand the linkage between the agricultural productivity and the environmental implications followed by the reasons culminating in the agri-environmental imbalance. On-site monitoring study followed by assessment of reasons culminating in this scenario has not been attempted earlier and this paper contributes to understanding at dual level. This paper emphasizes on the insights of stakeholder which is instrumental in ensuring agricultural sustainability or otherwise. It takes the position that the farmer’s farm management behavior is strongly influenced by factors like food security and income, keeping environmental quality at second place. It also identifies the barriers for organic farming and other alternative systems as well as explores the economic, social, and philosophical aspects of sustainable agriculture.

Fertilizer overuse is regarded as one of the main contributors to agricultural pollution and environmental problems in China. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate technical efficiency (TE) and fertilizer overuse index (FOI) with respect to China’s arable agricultural production and examine regional variations in terms of fertilizer overuse.

The maximum likelihood random effects–time varying inefficiency effects model was applied to estimate TE, fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) and FOI.

Over the study period (2011–2015), TE steadily increased for each individual province. Overall, mean annual TE was 0.811, implying that, on average, Chinese provinces could increase output by 18.9 per cent given unchanged levels of inputs and technology. Mean annual FOI ranged from 0.008 to 3.139, with a mean of 0.685, suggesting that there is fertilizer overuse in almost all provinces, and that large regional variation exists. Coastal provinces were found to have the highest TE scores, while the central region showed the highest degree of fertilizer overuse.

The results indicate that fertilizer use has had a significant positive impact on production in the China’s arable agricultural sector. High TE was not necessarily associated with low FUE.

Agricultural and food systems in the Mekong Region are undergoing transformations because of increasing engagement in international trade, alongside economic growth, dietary change and urbanisation. Food systems approaches are often used to understand these kinds of transformation processes, with particular strengths in linking social, economic and environmental dimensions of food at multiple scales. We argue that while the food systems approach strives to provide a comprehensive understanding of food production, consumption and environmental drivers, it is less well equipped to shed light on the role of actors, knowledge and power in transformation processes and on the divergent impacts and outcomes of these processes for different actors. We suggest that an approach that uses food systems as heuristics but complements it with attention to actors, knowledge and power improves our understanding of transformations such as those underway in the Mekong Region. The key transformations in the region include the emergence of regional food markets and vertically integrated supply chains that control increasing share of the market, increase in contract farming particularly in the peripheries of the region, replacement of crops cultivated for human consumption with corn grown for animal feed. These transformations are increasingly marginalising small-scale farmers, while at the same time, many other farmers increasingly pursue non-agricultural livelihoods. Food consumption is also changing, with integrated supply chains controlling substantial part of the mass market. Our analysis highlights that theoretical innovations grounded in political economy, agrarian change, development studies and rural livelihoods can help to increase theoretical depth of inquiries to accommodate the increasingly global dimensions of food. As a result, we map out a future research agenda to unpack the dynamic food system interactions and to unveil the social, economic and environmental impacts of these rapid transformations. We identify policy and managerial implications coupled with sustainable pathways for change.

Our global food system today is characterised by an unprecedented scale of centralisation, intensification and concentration. The record‐high food supplies are supposed to suffice the mouths of seven billion and famines become something in history, which is ironically not the case today. The purpose of this paper is to study whether the globalised food system in the current form is sustainable for all and whether the alternatives are available.

The paper will discuss the benefits of, as well as challenges facing, a localised food system. It will also analyse how the “Food Empire” undermines universal “food security” and “food sovereignty”, especially the way the underprivileged in the south are being exploited.

Created by several transnational corporations, the “Food Empire” dominates the global agri‐food industry, from agricultural inputs to food retails, under intensive globalisation of agri‐production and liberalisation of international trade. Instead of a globalised food system, this paper argues that it is better to have localised food systems as they can offer people an equitable access to food and ensure long‐term productivity of our farmlands as part of the agenda for sustainable development.

We have to review trade rules and stop the food war against nature, the poor and justice. “Free market” and “green revolution” in which many believe are not whole of the answers to achieve a sustainable food system, but only the “political will” to change the way food is produced and consumed from now on.

A research and development project disseminated ecological technologies to approximately 3,250 vegetable farmers through farmer field schools (FFS) in four districts of Bali and East Java provinces of Indonesia. This article aims to assess the economic sustainability of vegetable production after FFS participation.

A survey randomly sampled 500 farmers, comprised of FFS participants (50%) and non-FFS participants (50%). Based on 1,000 farm operations, this analysis employed input-saving technology as the fundamental model examined using the double-difference method. Simultaneous reduction of agrochemicals and improvement of productivity represent indicators of economic sustainability.

Results indicate that pesticide use decreased without jeopardising farm productivity; moreover, vegetable production increased. These findings indicate that the ecological technologies transferred through FFS significantly improved economic sustainability performance.

This study purposively selected farmers who grew tomato and chilli. Thus, the outcomes are not generalisable to other crops.

FFS continues to be an effective method for transferring agricultural technologies to farmer communities. Policymakers are recommended to use FFS for disseminating beneficial and sustainable technologies to broader agricultural communities.

The adoption of ecological technologies provides positive economic and ecological milieus.

This study employs a double-differences approach to verify input-saving technological progress. Therefore, the performance of economic sustainability attributable to the project intervention is theoretically justified.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of indigenous agricultural knowledge for sustainable development.

Drawing upon fieldwork on the natural resource management practices of diversified farming systems in a mountainous community in southern Greece, the paper explores the potential of the traditional system for a sustainable food security system.

Small‐scale mountainous farmers possess a range of ideas and concepts from experience related to land degradation. At another level the findings of the study suggest that farmers place over‐riding emphasis on the physical characteristics of their environment in judging the various stages of degradation. Until in a direct interview situation they were forced to confront the part played by human‐related factors.

A major implication is that mountain farming communities need to be educated on the human aspects of degradation and in fact the interrelatedness of cultural activities and the physical world. Furthermore, sustainability in mountain communities depends on more than ecological factors; it requires sensitivity to socio‐economic parameters such as labour demands and food security policies.

The current paper presents useful information on indigenous resource management practices and environmental degradation in mountain communities in Greece. The approach, fieldwork data and interpretation of data can be of value to social researchers in Greece and southern Europe who study issues of sustainability in mountain farming communities.