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The trading of natural rubber derivatives in the Indian commodity exchanges was banned several times in the past. Hence, in India, the derivatives on natural rubber are not traded actively and regularly. We have examined the possibility of a forecast model and a cross hedge tool for the natural rubber price by using crude oil futures in India. Results of the Johansen cointegration test proved that there is no cointegration equation in the model; hence, there is no scope to develop long-run models or error correction models. We have developed a vector autoregressive [VAR(2)] model to forecast the rubber price, and we examined the possibility of a cross hedge for natural rubber further by using the Pearson correlation coefficient and Granger causality test. We have extended our research to a structural VAR analysis to examine the effect of crude futures and exchange rate shocks on the natural rubber price. Our results showed that there is a short-term relationship between the crude oil futures price, the exchange rates of the US dollar to the Indian rupee, the Malaysian ringgit to the Indian rupee and the Thai baht to the Indian rupee; and the natural rubber price in India. The effort of policymakers to cause the Indian rupee to appreciate against the Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit may increase the natural rubber price in India. Natural rubber traders, growers and consumers can use crude futures to hedge the price risk. The Indian Rubber Board can suggest the VAR(2) model to predict the short-run price for natural rubber.

Agricultural structures are quite heterogeneous across the European Union (EU), and it is likely that the underlying technology also differs across regions. In this article, we claim that the heterogeneity of agriculture across the EU affects the process of income creation (i.e. the relative importance of the factors of farm income differ for different agricultural models). A panel of farms representative for 125 regions reporting to the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) during the period from 2007 to 2018 is used. In this article, those regions are grouped into three clusters. A system generalised method of moments (GMM) panel estimator is applied to each cluster. The results showed that total factor productivity (TFP), relative prices and agricultural subsidies make different contributions to farm net value added (FNVA). In particular, the income growth of farms in regions dominated by large farms seems to react more to marginal changes of the explanatory variables.

With the advent of the era of big data, data mining methods show their powerful information mining ability in various fields, seeking the association information hidden in the data, which is convenient for people to make scientific decisions. This paper analyses the butterfly effect in the agricultural product industry chain from the perspective of producer and consumer by using multidimensional time and space theory and proposes a new price forecasting method. We consider that the price change of agricultural products is not only affected by the balance of market supply and demand but also by the factors of time and space. Taking the pig industry chain of Sichuan Province as an example, this paper explores and excavates the data from 2010 to 2020 in the time dimension. Interestingly, we found that the price changes in pork in the market are generally highly correlated with the prices of slaughtered pigs, piglets a few weeks ago and the prices of multiple feed a few months ago. Based on the precise time-space factors, we improved the price forecasting model, greatly improved the accuracy of price prediction, and proved the effectiveness of multidimensional spatiotemporal association mining. The research in this paper is helpful to establish a brand-new agricultural product price prediction theory, which is of great significance to the development of the agricultural economy and global poverty alleviation.

On the complex framing of the agricultural fields, related to the corporate social responsibility (CSR), the general objective of this paper is to assess the impacts of environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials of CSR and human capital features on the financial performance of agricultural companies. The data consists of a sample of 412 public companies from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database, with data for 2020, operating in 17 agricultural areas with headquarters allocated around the world. The methodological endeavor embeds two econometric procedures, multifactorial models of robust regression and structural equation modelling (SEM). The research results bring new evidence to underline the risks related to the sustainability of the financial performance of agricultural companies and the decisive role played by the ESG dimensions to counteract these risks, particularly by the environmental pillar, along with CSR specific strategies and human capital characteristics (management board and employees). We propose several strategies for companies operating in agricultural fields in order to enhance profitability by CSR measures.

Within the last three decades commodity markets, including soft commodities markets, have become more and more like financial markets. As a result, prices of commodities may exhibit similar patterns or anomalies as those observed in the behaviour of different financial assets. Their existence may cast doubts on the competitiveness and efficiency of commodity markets. It motivates us to conduct the research presented in this paper, aimed at examining the Halloween effect in the markets of basic soft commodities (cocoa, coffee, cotton, frozen concentrated orange juice, rubber and sugar) from 1999 to 2020. This long-time span ensures the credibility of results. Apart from performing the two-sample t-test and the rank-sum Wilcoxon test, we additionally investigate the autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) effect. Its presence in our data allows us to estimate generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity [GARCH (1, 1)] models with dummies representing the Halloween effect. We also investigate the impact of the January effect on the Halloween effect. Results reveal the significant Halloween effect for cotton (driven by the January effect) and the significant reverse Halloween effect for sugar. It brings implications useful to the main actors in the market. They may apply trading strategies generating satisfactory profits or providing hedging against unfavourable changes in soft commodities prices.

The introduction of the euro is one of the great achievements of the European integration process. We ask whether the creation of the euro led to a significant increase in pig meat trade in the eurozone. The pig meat industry is the most important in the European meat sector, and the EU is the world's second-biggest producer of pork and the leading supplier of pig meat to the global market. No study has yet been conducted in this respect for this sector. Our results suggest that pig meat trade was encouraged between countries sharing the euro, although the impact of EU single market was still greater. Trade creation was also observed, increasing pig meat exports from eurozone to non-eurozone countries. Also, non-eurozone EU exporters suffer from a diversion effect that benefits eurozone exporters.

The promotion of sustainable food productivity through innovative technologies remains a central priority in economic development, attracting increasing attention from scholars, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. With the continuing rise in global food demand, resource-efficient solutions are essential to ensuring long-term agricultural growth and stability in food production. This study examines the impact of green finance, agricultural innovation, digital technology, trade openness, and climate change on food production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) and the generalised method of moments (GMM), it analyses a balanced panel dataset covering 46 SSA countries from 2001 to 2023. The findings highlight the positive influence of green finance, agricultural innovation, and digital technology in enhancing food production, particularly in lower production sectors, suggesting important bidirectional policy implications. Trade openness is found to promote agricultural growth but exhibits diminishing effects at higher levels of productivity, indicating the relevance of a unidirectional policy focus. In contrast, climate change has a negative effect on food production. The study also identifies key mediation pathways, including green finance stimulating research and development, digital technology improving agricultural credit and farmers' education, and trade openness attracting foreign direct investment. These results emphasise the importance of integrated policy frameworks that combine financial support, technological advancement, and trade openness to promote sustainable agricultural growth and strengthen food security across SSA.

This work addresses short-run fluctuations of nominal global meat commodity prices, that is, beef, lamb, pork, and poultry, from January 1980 to October 2023, thus including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. It tries to answer the following questions: how do fluctuations in meat commodity prices behave historically? Are meat commodity prices synchronised? Do their co-movements show specific features during recent global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian war? Using a ‘classical’ framework of cycle analysis, the work provides a series of turning points upon which statistics on phase and cycle durations and amplitudes are generated. Care is put into highlighting the pros and cons of employing algorithms based on turning points instead of harmonic models. Global nominal meat prices feature cycles lasting between 3.8 and 4.6 years on average. Pork prices, contrary to other meat prices, are characterised by a highly volatile and prevalently contractionary behaviour. From a policy perspective, the article provides results on the synchronisation of couples of meat prices and on the existence of a common meat price cycle both historically and during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian war.

The present study, centred on customer online shopping behaviours, aims at analysing the frequency of vegetable acquisition and its main determining factors, while considering different methods of payment, i.e. cash, debit card, and bank transfer on the Romanian market. Using data obtained from a questionnaire applied nationwide, a descriptive analysis and logistic regression were performed. An immature market in terms of digitalisation, characterised by the customers’ mistrust in online bank transfers, but also in products sold online was observed. In addition, the income, education, gender, and size of the household appeared to be significant in relation to the frequency of online orders for vegetables. Moreover, our results indicated that a higher customer readiness for a high price, large quantity, and a monthly delivery subscription comes bundled with a higher frequency of acquisition in the case of bank transfers. Our findings are especially focusing on the vegetable local producers’ promotion process, with its main desideratum of properly responding through adaptation to the continuously changing customers’ requirements, particularly when special contexts like the pandemic appear. Accordingly, our paper intended to offer several concrete responses in this regard, indicating some possible paths for better managing the communication process on the vegetable market.

Despite numerous attempts to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers, the average number of barriers in the agricultural sector, particularly in the palm oil sector, is rising. Non-tariff effects are subjective, which makes them challenging to quantify. A new palm oil trade restrictiveness index that considers each trade barrier imposed on palm oil exports, such as tariff and non-tariff measures, is necessary to facilitate the sector’s exports. Hence, this study aims to calculate the trade restrictiveness index (TRI) of palm oil and analyse its impact on Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s palm oil exports. This study uses a gravity model with Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) estimation to analyse the impact of trade barriers on world palm oil export for a sample of 59 major palm oil importing countries from 2009 to 2019. The study revealed that each importing country imposes different restrictions on Malaysia and Indonesia. The TRI showed a negative and significant relationship influencing palm oil exports in the case of Malaysia, while a positive and significant relationship for Indonesia. The policy implications of this study suggest that policymakers in both Malaysia and Indonesia should take proactive steps to comply with every criterion demanded by the importing country.

Taking China as an example in this study, we aim to reveal the enabling effects of agricultural science and technology advancement on the progress of rural industrial incorporation at a relatively more refined level. The main innovation in this study lies in the decomposition of agricultural science and technology advancement, followed by an analysis of its effect on rural industrial incorporation along both linear and non-linear dimensions. The study results show that, along the linear dimension, agricultural science and technology advancement, agricultural knowledge advancement and agricultural technology advancement play significant driving roles in the progress of rural industrial incorporation. However, although the estimated coefficient of the integration of agricultural knowledge advancement and technology advancement is positive, it is not statistically significant. Along the non-linear dimension, agricultural science and technology advancement, agricultural knowledge advancement and agricultural technology advancement all exhibit significantly positive effects across different intervals. However, although the integration of agricultural knowledge advancement and technology advancement also shows a positive effect, its significance appears only in the second interval, indicating that the effect of this variable in promoting rural industrial incorporation can be realised only under certain conditions

In an era marked by an ageing agricultural workforce and intensifying environmental pressures, agricultural infrastructure plays a crucial role in enhancing green productivity. This study investigates the impact of agricultural infrastructure construction and population ageing on agricultural green total factor productivity (agricultural GTFP), utilising provincial panel data from 2004 to 2022 in China. Our findings reveal that the agricultural infrastructure construction significantly boosts agricultural GTFP and significantly mitigates the negative effects of ageing on agricultural green production at the 0.01 level. Notably, different types of infrastructure exhibit varying impacts, with electricity and irrigation infrastructure demonstrating the most significant positive effects. We further identify a strong mediating effect of farmland transfer and agricultural mechanisation in facilitating infrastructure-driven agricultural GTFP growth. Our analysis reveals a pronounced regional heterogeneity, with non-food producing, central, western regions of China benefiting most from agricultural infrastructure investments. To address the challenges posed by ageing, we recommend giving priority to expanding agricultural infrastructure construction, fostering agricultural socialised services, and tailoring infrastructure programs to regional resource endowments. These strategies aim to compensate for labour shortages, enhance resource utilisation, and ultimately drive improvements in agricultural green productivity.

Air pollution is beyond an environmental or health issue. The impact of air pollution on farmers' decisions on agricultural mechanisation has always been overlooked and debate persists over subjective and objective pollution. Adopting data set from the China Labour Force Dynamics Survey, we investigate the influence of air pollution perceptions on farmers' mechanised farming. The endogeneity problem is addressed through the instrumental variable method. The consequences reveal that air pollution perceptions strengthen farm mechanisation, and reduced farming time is the key intrinsic mechanism through which perceived air pollution affects farmers' decisions on agricultural machinery. Additionally, this impact is more pronounced in male household heads and farmers in the plains. These findings render valuable policy implications for farmers chronically exposed to air pollution and for agricultural modernisation in China, including the necessity of improving air conditions and encouraging agricultural machinery services.

Contract farming is regarded as an effective strategy for smallholder farmers in developing countries to enhance their agricultural competitiveness. However, limited research exists on its potential to promote green, sustainable development. This paper investigates the impact of contract farming participation on farmers' green technology efficiency using data from a sample of 627 vegetable growers in Shandong, China and employs the propensity score matching method. Our findings are as follows: i) Under the counterfactual assumption, participation in contract farming increases green technology efficiency from 0.560 to 0.614. The efficiency of contract production bases, ranked from highest to lowest, is as follows: self-owned base, stock-sharing base, and contractual base. ii) The provision of productive services serves as a significant mediating factor in enhancing green technology efficiency, with a more substantial impact than issuing planned instructions. iii) Increasing purchase prices, as an effective means of providing motivational incentives, significantly amplifies the effect of contract farming on green technology efficiency in self-owned and stock-sharing bases. As organisational models evolve toward greater integration, the enhancing effect of price incentives on green technology efficiency strengthens. This study concludes with several public policy and agricultural management recommendations.

In recent years, China has promoted large-scale hog farming through various approaches. However, this scale-up process may be affected by economic policy uncertainty. This paper empirically examines the impact of policy uncertainty on hog farming scale-up using provincial panel data from 2016–2022 and a fixed-effects model. Our results indicate that economic policy uncertainty significantly inhibits hog farming scale-up, and this effect remains significant even when we increase the criteria for recognising scale-up, alternative estimation methods include two-stage least squares (2SLS), dynamic panel model and panel Poisson model. Mechanism analysis reveals that economic policy uncertainty not only exacerbates the impact of labour and capital factor prices on scale-up hog farming but also exacerbates the volatility of hog prices, which further raises the risks faced by hog farming and inhibits scale-up hog farming. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect of economic policy uncertainty on hog farming scale-up decreases as farm size increases. Higher-level economic policy uncertainty can inhibit scale-up hog farming, while lower-level economic policy uncertainty can instead promote scale-up hog farming. Economic policy uncertainty has a more obvious inhibitory effect on scale-up hog farming in major development areas. These findings have important implications for the promotion of large-scale hog farming and related policy regulation.

In recent pasts, high priority has been placed on encouraging the implementation of various climate change adaptation techniques to adapt to the disastrous effects of climate change. Like in other countries affected by climate change, Nigerian farmers were also encouraged by governmental and non-governmental organisations to implement techniques for adapting to climate change impact. In this study, we use a psychological approach to investigate how a mix of socioeconomic and psycho-cognitive factors affect smallholder farmers' decisions about various climate change adaptation strategies and the consequent impact of the adoption of adaptation strategies on crop yield. Following the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the adoption decision of farmers was modelled using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and the ordered probit model. The impact of adopting adaptation strategies on productivity was evaluated using multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR). The MESR helps to address endogeneity issues that might arise as a result of inconsistencies in the behavioural responses of the farmers. Our result indicates that psycho-cognitive factors like intentions and personal norms significantly predicted the number of climate change adaptation strategies the farmers ultimately embraced and implemented on their farms. We also found that the smallholder farmers' yield and income were most significantly impacted by the adoption of land restoration as a climate change adaptation strategy. The findings will assist in the design of more effective policy instruments to remove adoption hurdles as well as crafting tailored extension services that resonate with the realities of the farmer and thus help foster behavioural change.

Agriculture's stable development is vital to the national economy, and its vulnerability justifies fiscal support. On the basis of data from the China Family Panel Studies from 2012 to 2022, this study examines how fiscal allocation affects agricultural production, particularly rural households' grain-growing enthusiasm and their productive income. Results show that public expenditure significantly boosts agricultural production, supported by ordered probit and ordinary least squares fixed effect models and confirmed in robustness tests. Mechanistic tests indicate that agricultural public expenditure promotes agricultural production by improving agricultural technical levels, enhancing production services, and expanding the agricultural scale. Heterogeneity analysis shows that agricultural public expenditure has a stronger effect on grain-growing enthusiasm among low-educated rural households and on productive income in major grain production areas. It also has a stronger effect on productive income for rural households with emerging and prime-aged farmers, in nonmajor grain production areas, and those with high educational attainment. The research offers empirical insights for exploring ways to achieve the 'dual goals' of food security and poverty alleviation.

The substantial increase in grain production stimulated by traditional agricultural direct subsidies has been accompanied by a concomitant decrease in ecological quality, precipitated by excessive application of chemical fertilisers, which has generated countervailing effects that fundamentally undermine the positive effect of subsidy policies on agricultural output. Consequently, the mitigation of agricultural pollution and the elevation of ecological quality have emerged as pivotal directions for the reform of agricultural subsidies. Using both time-varying difference-in-differences (DID) models and spatial DID models in this study, we examined the effect of agricultural 'three subsidies' reform on agricultural fertiliser nonpoint source pollution (AFNSP), drawing on China's province-sector panel data from 2008 to 2022. The empirical evidence yields several salient findings. First, the three subsidies reform can significantly reduce AFNSP and improve ecological quality. Second, the large-scale operation of agricultural households and the enhancement of agricultural production efficiency serve as effective pathways for the three subsidies reform to reduce AFNSP. Third, the implementation of the three subsidies reform engenders significant spatial spillover effects, which play a crucial role in reducing overall regional AFNSP. Fourth, the efficacy of the three subsidies reform exhibits heterogeneity across diverse agroecological contexts and farming cultures. Last, the reform has resulted in notable improvements in agricultural ecological quality, thereby reinforcing food security capabilities. These findings not only offer valuable reference for refining agricultural subsidy reform but also contribute to the development of a comprehensive framework that simultaneously safeguards agroecological security and food security.

Innovation is the driver of sustainable business development and is essential to promote high quality econo-mic development in the country. Are more bank loans better for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) innovation? Therefore, based on mixed cross-sectional data of county sweet potato processing enterprises, this study applied the econometric model to explore the impact of bank loans on county agrifood SMEs innovation. We find that there is an 'inverted U-shaped' relationship between bank loans and county agrifood SMEs innovation. The analysis of the mechanism shows that bank loans can not only alleviate the problem of innovation financing constraints for agrifood SMEs, but also provide financial support for the innovation activities of agrifood SMEs as a result of trade openness. This study has important practical implications for promoting county agrifood SMEs innovation in China and promoting high-quality county economic development.

Studies on the sustainability assessment of supply chain performance in tropical fruit still have limitations, whereas similar studies are more widespread in the manufacturing sector. This study aims to assess the sustainability performance of the tropical fruit supply chain in Indonesia. Performance evaluations were conducted for three producer organisations of tropical fruit with members ranging from 70 to 200 people in Banyuwangi Regency, the largest production centre in Indonesia. This study proposes a new approach, the best-worst method (BWM), to prioritise supply chain performance criteria derived from the SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) model based on assessments by experts managing producer organisations. In the SCOR model, environmental and social criteria are added, resulting in seven criteria for evaluating supply chain performance, which include reliability, responsiveness, agility, cost, asset management, GreenSCOR, and social. Thus, the integration of BWM and SCOR can ensure higher consistency and reliability than traditional methods for assessing sustainable supply chain performance. The results revealed that reliability is the most important criterion for supply chain performance, which shows how important the maintenance of product quality is. In contrast, agility received the lowest score, indicating that there is a need to improve performance with respect to responding to high demand, managing safety stocks, and overtime in the shipping process. Moreover, this study gives a glimpse into the importance of evaluating sustainability performance for the tropical fruit sector, having perishable characteristics and great contributions to rural development. Hence, this study provides a solid practical guide for decision-makers in assessing the sustainable supply chain of tropical fruits in Indonesia.

Enhancing economic and environmental efficiency is a fundamental objective shared by all European economic sectors, with agriculture being a particular area of focus. In this study, economic and environmental efficiency are considered in parallel and compared in terms of their long-term development. From an economic perspective, the classical production factors of labour, capital and land are compared with economic production output. The environmental perspective of the study focuses on greenhouse gases and acidifying gases, with the investigation based on data from Eurostat from 2009 to 2020. Due to constraints regarding the  availability of data , the study encompassed 22 EU countries.  The findings indicate that Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland demonstrate high levels of economic efficiency, while Ireland and Finland exhibit notable enhancements in this regard. Low economic efficiency scores are evident in Latvia and Austria, where substantial catching-up processes are observable. With respect to ecological efficiency, Greece, Spain and Italy have been found to be dominant, as have Finland, Sweden and Slovakia. Ireland, Luxembourg and Poland have lower ecological efficiency scores, but only Ireland shows signs of convergence. The present study seeks to minimise the impact of volatility and dispersion with a view to providing valid long-term trends for the purpose of benchmarking efforts and r policy decisions.

This study investigates the reciprocal relationship between non-farm employment and mechanisation adoption of smallholders in Vietnam using the longitudinal Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) 2008–2016 dataset. By employing the correlated random effects with the Mundlak approach to address the selection bias from the unobserved heterogeneity of panel data and the instrumental variables regressions to treat the endogeneity issue of non-farm participation and mechanisation adoption, the findings revealed that non-farm employment and mechanisation adoption have a positive interactive relationship. The mechanisation adoption in agricultural production could save farm labour and allow farmers to engage in non-farm activities. Conversely, non-farm earnings could relax financial constraints and provide opportunities for farmers to invest in mechanisation. The agricultural labour shifting to non-farm work was replaced by hiring machinery services rather than machinery investment when the service market was available and cost-effective. Our study implies practical policies and actionable plans to encourage nonfarm employment and facilitate agricultural mechanisation toward sustainable agriculture and inclusive development in rural communities.

This study investigates the effects of digital economy (DE) on agricultural land use (ALU) in seven sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, specifically from 2006 to 2022. Using a moderating mediation model on panel data, the work explores the extent to which the DE, as proxied by fixed telephone subscriptions, internet usage, and mobile penetration, influences the degree and intensity of ALU. The results indicate that ALU is often supported by DE, as technology will lay the groundwork for improved land management and agriculture. Results show that DE has a positive influence on ALU, with a more substantial effect being observed in countries such as Kenya and South Africa, where more developed digital infrastructure and governance are in place. In contrast, Uganda and Zambia exhibit lower impacts due to lower levels of digitalisation and governance barriers. The patent applications (PAs) and water management represent the positive mediators of the efficiency of land-use improvement. The study highlights the need for government-enabling policies and digital infrastructure so that the promise of digital technologies and their uptake for agricultural production in SSA is fully fulfilled. Whenever technology is integrated with an appropriate resource management policy, SSA societies have the potential to achieve sustainable agricultural development and food security.

Global warming has altered regional temperatures and precipitation, potentially leading to deviations from planned biofuel production and emission-reduction targets. This study revisits the market equilibrium of agricultural and biofuel production under climate risk, using updated IPCC projections. It employs a two-stage stochastic programming model to examine the overall effect of climate change on Taiwan's biofuel production. The results indicate that biofuel production depends on the level of climate impact and emission prices. In addition, total input use is generally between 2.79 and 4.72 million tonnes. The higher the gasoline price, the sooner the producer will exhaust its production capacity. While Taiwan could sustain biofuel production when gasoline and emission prices are high, a substantial land-use change would occur. Approximately 74 500–81 900 hectares of idle land will return to production. However, the increase in cropland supply may not lead to biofuel expansion, as it has a limited ability to offset emissions.

This study investigates the extent to which international agricultural price shocks are transmitted to domestic agricultural markets in both developed and developing economies. Using panel data from 13 major agricultural trading countries from 1990 to 2022, we applied cross-sectional dependence tests, fixed-effects panel regressions, and panel Granger causality analyses to examine the degree of interdependence and directionality in price movements. Our results reveal significant cross-sectional dependence, suggesting that global price shocks reverberate across the national markets. The panel regression estimates indicate a statistically significant and positive effect of international prices on domestic prices, with a stronger transmission observed in developed economies. Panel Granger causality tests confirm that global price indices significantly predict domestic price changes in most countries, although reverse causality is limited to large exporters, such as the United States, China, and Brazil. Robustness checks across sub-periods (1990–2005 vs. 2006–2022) and country groupings validate the stability and heterogeneity of the price transmission mechanisms. These findings underscore the increasingly integrated nature of food markets and the evolving dynamics of price volatility. The policy implications highlight the importance of multilateral coordination in food trade, differentiated policy tools tailored to country development levels, and the need for strategic buffering mechanisms to manage the growing global volatility in agricultural prices.

This study examines the factors influencing adherence to the Mediterranean diet from a socioeconomic perspective, focusing on Italy as a representative Mediterranean country. The observed decline in adherence to this diet in favour of Western dietary patterns highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the factors influencing this trend. Specifically, the analysis investigates sociodemographic and economic variables that may influence adherence to the Mediterranean diet. On the other hand, it assesses the role of individual characteristics related to environmental concerns and pro-environmental behaviours, considering that the Mediterranean diet is widely recognised not only as a healthy but also a sustainable dietary model. The study utilises secondary data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics, based on a representative sample of 34 151 individuals, employing an ordinal logistic regression model. The findings reveal that sociodemographic factors – such as gender, age, education, economic status, family structure, and region of residence – significantly and positively affect adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Regarding environmental concerns and behaviours, the study finds a strong association between environmental awareness and higher adherence. Therefore, policy interventions and educational campaigns aimed at promoting the Mediterranean diet should adopt a holistic approach that includes the environmental dimension.

This study investigates whether participation in agricultural global value chains (GVCs) leads to slower growth in manufacturing for the period of 1995–2022 in 44 countries. Our baseline estimations indicate that forward GVC integration in agriculture, crop cultivation and animal production supports manufacturing growth. We further explore whether the income level of countries influences the impact of agricultural GVCs on manufacturing growth. Forward participation in agriculture, crop cultivation, and animal production in developing countries increases growth. However, in developed countries, deeper forward integration in animal production and backward integration in crop cultivation have a substantial negative impact on manufacturing growth. Furthermore, we test if resource reliance in manufacturing matters. Our findings reveal that forward participation in agriculture, crop cultivation, and animal production stimulates growth in resource-based manufacturing. For non-resource-based manufacturing, higher integration into backward participation in animal production drives growth. Overall, our results indicate that exporting agricultural intermediaries might not necessarily be a resource curse, instead, they can serve as a catalyst for industrialisation in developing countries.

Spain is one of the few EU countries that adopted genetically modified maize as a crop (1998) and has continued to harvest it ever since. This article aims to contribute to the history of the adoption of transgenic maize in the EU, where the Mediterranean (Sesamia nonagrioides) and European (Ostrinia nubilalis) corn borers are two of the most destructive pests. Our aim is to identify Spanish farmers' motivations and opinions on adopting this technology. Our model is a binary logistic regression that estimates the probability of adopting Bt maize. Our results reveal that the odds of adopting Bt are at least 44.0 times greater if the farm is in an area with corn borer infestation episodes than if it is not.  The odds of adopting Bt are at least 4.9 times greater if farmers place a high importance on economic outcomes than if they do not. More adopters than non-adopters believe that Bt corn causes less damage to the environment than sulphates against the borer. No other opinion variable was clearly significant. We conclude that the most important reasons for Bt adoption were exposure to corn borer and concerns about the economic losses the borer could cause to the crop.

Enhancing cropland carbon efficiency (CCE) is vital for carbon-neutral and sustainable agricultural development. In this paper, we use the minimum distance to strong efficient frontier with undesirable outputs model and survey data from wheat–maize farmers in the Yellow River Basin of China in 2020 to investigate the effect and mechanism of different tillage practices on CCE. The results show that the average CCE in the study area is 0.592 6, which has large potential for improvement. Among the tillage practices, reduced tillage with straw returning (RTS) achieves the highest mean CCE, followed by no-tillage with straw returning (NTS), and conventional tillage with straw returning performs the worst. Both NTS and RTS are positively associated with higher CCE, with a stronger effect for NTS. Mechanism test results indicate that these practices enhance CCE primarily by increasing yield and net carbon sequestration. NTS improves CCE by reducing energy use and emissions, and RTS tends to increase fertiliser and energy inputs, partially offsetting its efficiency gains. Heterogeneity analysis results further indicate that the positive effects are stronger among small-to-medium-scale, less-educated and elderly farmers. These findings provide micro-level evidence that conservation tillage can promote low-carbon and efficient agricultural production in China.