Digitalization for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems: Potential, Status, and Risks for the MENA Region

Bahn, Rachel A.; Yehya, Abed Al Kareem; Zurayk, Rami

doi:10.3390/su13063223

Cited by 92 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Hence, accelerators and digital technology can be useful tools for developing these pathways. Digital technologies can provide an innovative solution to enhance the performance and sustainability of agricultural production systems [85,86], described as having economic, social, and ecological aspects [87,88]. Digital technologies can make the food sector more effective, inclusive, and ecologically sustainable, thereby increasing the interests of growers, customers, and society [89].…”

Section: Emerging Transition Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Digital technologies can make the food sector more effective, inclusive, and ecologically sustainable, thereby increasing the interests of growers, customers, and society [89]. Moreover, digital technologies can help increase farm productivity, advance resource utilization efficiency, and support environment resilience [86,90]. If digital technologies are implemented/adopted, the improvement in main production, supply chain, and logistics performance and reductions in food loss and waste will be particularly sig-nificant.…”

Section: Emerging Transition Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance and application of digital technologies in the food industry [91] and has promoted the introduction and adoption of digital technologies for sustainable agriculture and food systems [92]. Despite the numerous benefits promised, such as other major innovation breakthroughs, digital agriculture is not without challenges or risks [33,86,89,93,94]. As reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), digital technologies can significantly address the challenges faced by the global agro-food systems at every level of the supply chain [95,96].…”

Section: Emerging Transition Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Potential Role of Technology Innovation in Transformation of Sustainable Food Systems: A Review

et al. 2021

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Advanced technologies and innovation are essential for promoting sustainable food systems (SFSs) because these technologies can be used to answer some of the critical questions needed to transform SFSs and help us better understand global food security and nutrition. The main objective of this study is to address the question of whether technological innovations have an impact on the transformation of SFSs. There are certain innovations including agricultural land utilization, food processing, production systems, improvement in diets according to people’s needs, and management of waste products. This study provides an overview of new technologies and innovations being used with potential to transform SFSs. Applications of emerging technologies in digital agriculture, including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and machine learning, drones, use of new physical systems (e.g., advanced robotics, autonomous vehicles, advanced materials), and gene technology (e.g., biofortified crops, genome-wide selection, genome editing), are discussed in this study. Additionally, we suggest eight action initiatives, which are transforming mindsets, enabling social licensing, changing policies and regulations, designing market incentives, safeguarding against undesirable effects, ensuring stable finance, building trust, and developing transition pathways that can hasten the transition to more SFSs. We conclude that appropriate incentives, regulations, and social permits play a critical role in enhancing the adoption of modern technologies to promote SFSs.

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Section: Emerging Transition Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emerging Transition Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emerging Transition Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Potential Role of Technology Innovation in Transformation of Sustainable Food Systems: A Review

et al. 2021

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“…Examining the relation between BCT and various industries may aid in understanding the significance of these technologies, particularly in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. According to our findings, the food and agricultural sector has the most commonly utilized BCT, with 19 articles addressing COVID-19 conditions [5,56,57,66,71,79,82,83,85,87,89,94,100,101,103,106,109,110,114]. With 12 research papers since the outbreak, the healthcare industry has made a significant contribution to the reviewed articles.…”

Section: Industry Sectorsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…We split this category into different BCT combinations for further analysis. Table 2 The findings indicate that, of all the BCT categories, digitalization had the highest frequency in the reviewed studies, with 22 articles out of 72 [3,13,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76]. With ten articles, visibility was also one of the most common BCT [5,20,[77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84].…”

Section: Blockchain Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

On Deploying Blockchain Technologies in Supply Chain Strategies and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Outlook

Nabipour

Ülkü

2021

Sustainability

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The emergence of a new pandemic, known as COVID-19, has touched various sections of the supply chain (SC). Since then, numerous studies have been conducted on the issue, but the need for a holistic review study that highlights the gaps and limits of previous research, as well as opportunities and agendas for future studies, is palpable. Through a systematic literature review on blockchain technology (BCT) deployment in supply-chain management (SCM) concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, this research seeks to add to the content of previous studies and to enlighten the path for future studies. Relevant papers were found using a variety of resources (Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and ProQuest). Seventy-two articles were systematically selected, considering the PRISMA procedure, and were thoroughly analyzed based on BCT, methodologies, industrial sectors, geographical, and sustainability context. According to our findings, there is a significant lack of empirical and quantitative methodologies in the literature. The majority of studies did not take specific industries into account. Furthermore, the articles focusing on the sustainability context are few, particularly regarding social and environmental issues. In addition, most of the reviewed papers did not consider the geographical context. The results indicate that the deployment of BCT in several sectors is not uniform, and this utilization is reliant on their services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the concentration of research on the impacts of the BCT on SCM differs according to the conditions of various countries in terms of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also show that there is a direct relationship between the deployment of BCT and sustainability factors, such as economic and waste issues, under the circumstances surrounding COVID-19. Finally, this study offers research opportunities and agendas to help academics and other stakeholders to gain a better knowledge of the present literature, recognize aspects that necessitate more exploration, and drive prospective studies.

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Traditional Food Plants in the Face of Global Change: Past, Present, and Future

Anju

Kumar

2022

Annual Plant Reviews Online

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Traditional food plant s ( TFP s) are highly nutritious and contain health beneficial metabolites, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Various communities across the globe, especially in the rural areas, rely on the locally available TFPs for their nutritional and health‐related needs. The TFPs are considered important because they are locally available alternative sources of food and nutrition. However, they remain largely neglected to date despite their huge nutritional importance and potential. Interest in TFPs has recently increased especially because of the disruptions of the food supply chains caused by recurrent lockdowns during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Interruptions to long‐distance food supply chains expose the vulnerabilities associated with the globalised interconnected food systems. Recent literature suggests that localised food systems are more resilient, sustainable, and adaptive especially during times of pandemics, civil unrest, and conflicts. Since TFPs offer several benefits over the globalised mainstream food systems, it is important to explore their roles and develop research strategies to provide insights and to support their more widespread use in future. Scientists and food and nutrition experts also suggest that the post‐pandemic situation will compel food scientists, breeders, and crop bioengineers to realign their approach towards food production and consumption systems that are more locally suited. Significant knowledge has been gained through basic research on the diversity and availability of a plethora of TFPs in various parts of the world, including India, Africa, and South America. Limited genetic and genomic studies have also been performed with TFPs, and they provide very important insights into important genes and other regulators governing nutritional and stress‐resilient traits in neglected crops. Some crops are shown to have better traits than the currently available mainstream crops. Many studies have pointed towards cultivation, domestication, and improvement of regionally important TFPs for better climate resilience, sustainability, and adaptability. While very few TFPs have been genetically edited successfully, and gene‐edited TFPs are not commercially available yet, there is increasing evidence that there is a huge potential for the revitalisation and introduction of these ancient crops to the mainstream food baskets of the public. In this review article, we critically examine the TFPs and their regional importance in the local traditional food systems. The richness of TFPs during the ancient period and various reasons for their disappearance from the food basket, the re‐emergence of TFPs by recognising their importance in the present scenario, and the criteria for utilisation of TFPs to attain food security in the future are discussed comprehensively in the review. We provide a futuristic outlook on the importance, scope, and progress on the improvement of TFPs for valuable traits for ensuring food security of the burgeoning global population.

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Digitalization for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems: Potential, Status, and Risks for the MENA Region

Cited by 92 publications

References 46 publications

Potential Role of Technology Innovation in Transformation of Sustainable Food Systems: A Review

Potential Role of Technology Innovation in Transformation of Sustainable Food Systems: A Review

On Deploying Blockchain Technologies in Supply Chain Strategies and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Outlook

Traditional Food Plants in the Face of Global Change: Past, Present, and Future

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