Citation: El Chami, D.; El Moujabber,
M. Sustainable Agriculture and
Climate Resilience. Sustainability 2024,
16, 113. https://doi.org/10.3390/
su16010113
Received: 13 December 2023
Accepted: 14 December 2023
Published: 21 December 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
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4.0/).
sustainability
Editorial
Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Resilience
Daniel El Chami
1
and Maroun El Moujabber
2,
*
1
TIMAC AGRO Italia S.p.A., S.P.13, Località Ca’ Nova, I-26010 Ripalta Arpina, Italy;
daniel.elchami@roullier.com
2
International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM Bari), Via Ceglie 9,
I-70010 Valenzano, Italy
* Correspondence: elmoujabber@iamb.it; Tel.: +39-080-4606-341; Fax: +39-080-4606-206
For decades, human-induced climate change has been scientifically predicted and
observed to cause devastating global phenomena globally. It has also been assessed and
reported under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) umbrella. Since
the beginning, adaptation, resilience, and mitigation have repeatedly been considered to be
the main pillars of the response to climate change [1]. Even before anthropogenic climate
change, adaptation was the central concept of evolution [2,3] since the publication of The
Origin of Species by Charles Darwin because it includes all the physical, chemical, and
biological mechanisms or behavioural changes by which organisms reduce their vulner-
ability to their environment [4]. Yet, to manage socioeconomic aspects and behaviours
and sustainable development under climate change, resilience must be combined with
adaptation [5] for organisms to self-organise and adapt quickly and efficiently [4].
Agriculture, which is fundamental for human survival, integrates biology, chemistry,
and physics for food and feed supplies, and agrosystems largely depend on natural and
climatic processes. This dependence increases their vulnerability to climate-related risks
and uncertainties, be they biotic (i.e., pests, diseases, etc.), abiotic (i.e., temperature, hu-
midity, radiation, etc.), or socio-economic conditions with different impact frequencies and
intensities. Nevertheless, agriculture contributes a significant share of the GHG emissions
that cause climate change, drastically threatening our existence.
The literature suggests that sustainable agriculture can preserve natural ecosystems and
mitigate climate change. Yet, sustainable agriculture is, on one side, a transdisciplinary model
that integrates adaptation practices and tools to make agrosystems more resilient [6,7]; however,
on the another side, sustainable agriculture is still intensively debated in the scientific community,
and there is no agreed definition. The concept is misused and misinterpreted [7].
Therefore, this Special Issue comprises a group of reviews and research papers
analysing one or different aspects of agricultural resilience to climate change. The contribu-
tions include:
On one side, methodological reviews, such as systematic reviews and bibliometric
analyses, are evidence-based and robust approaches with several applications in agrosystem
and climate change science used to draw scientific conclusions for decision makers and
identify the research gaps and opportunities. Thus, this book includes a systematic review
assessing the tools for climate adaptation in coffee agrosystems worldwide (contribution 1)
and a bibliometric network analysis determining the adaptation of global water systems to
climate change (contribution 2).
Conversely, these research articles explore the interconnections and trade-offs between
different agriculture and agrifood practices and their adaptation and resilience capability
under climate change conditions.
In agrifood practices, Zahidi et al. (contribution 3) analysed the logic of proximity and
its impacts on the resilience of the rose agrifood system in Kalâat M’gouna (Morocco). In
addition, Alobid et al. (contribution 4) used a linear model to estimate the food shortage
in Egypt and suggest the redistribution of crops in terms of production, food demand,
Sustainability 2024, 16, 113. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010113 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability