Agricultural Economics & Rural Development

Farm economics, markets, policy, land, food security and rural livelihoods.

Agricultural economics applies economic methods to farming and food: farm management and profitability, agricultural markets and prices, risk and insurance, technology adoption, and the effects of agricultural and trade policy.

Rural development and food security research looks at land tenure and land reform, smallholder livelihoods, rural poverty and the bioeconomy - often with a strong regional focus, since institutions and farm structures differ widely between countries.

Typical research questions

  • How do agricultural policies and subsidies affect farm incomes, production and the environment?
  • What determines whether farmers adopt new technologies?
  • How can farms and rural households manage price and weather risk?
  • How do land rights and tenure systems affect investment and productivity?

Publications per year

Papers whose main topic belongs to this field, 2010–2025.

0 20k 40k2010: 19,80620102011: 20,6842012: 22,3322013: 23,7242014: 25,7072015: 26,06320152016: 27,1302017: 28,4242018: 29,2502019: 29,9682020: 30,01520202021: 26,4792022: 24,2802023: 25,8272024: 27,4252025: 31,2892025

Research fronts: fastest-growing topics

Papers 2024–2025 compared with 2021–2022, topics with at least 500 recent papers.

Topic2021–20222024–2025Change
Food Security and Socioeconomic DynamicsFood Security · Agriculture · Biodiversity · Gender Perspective1,4313,436+140%
Agricultural risk and resilienceRisk Management · Vulnerability · Agriculture · Insurance3,8085,731+50%
Agriculture, Land Use, Rural DevelopmentAgroecology · Food Sovereignty · Land Grabbing · Sustainable Agriculture4,2055,767+37%
Agricultural Economics and PracticesAgriculture · Development · Policy · Production7,39010,024+36%
Bioeconomy and Sustainability DevelopmentBioeconomy · Biomass · Bioenergy · Circular Economy3,2114,040+26%
Agricultural economics and policiesAgricultural Economics · Rural Development · Sustainable Agriculture · Farm Management646796+23%

Largest topics

By number of papers 2024–2025.

  1. Agricultural Economics and PracticesAgriculture · Development · Policy · Production 10,024
  2. Rural Development and AgricultureAgriculture · Family Farming · Rural Policy · Food Security 8,797
  3. Agriculture, Land Use, Rural DevelopmentAgroecology · Food Sovereignty · Land Grabbing · Sustainable Agriculture 5,767
  4. Agricultural risk and resilienceRisk Management · Vulnerability · Agriculture · Insurance 5,731
  5. Bioeconomy and Sustainability DevelopmentBioeconomy · Biomass · Bioenergy · Circular Economy 4,040
  6. Rural development and sustainabilityRural Development · Agricultural Change · Social Innovation · Neo-Endogenous Development 3,751

Highly cited recent papers

Most-cited articles and reviews published 2024–2025. Citation counts favor reviews and papers published early in the window.

  1. GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL LOSSES AND THEIR CAUSES MD JUNAID, AF GOKCE · Bulletin of Biological and Allied Sciences Research · 2024 · 191 citations · Open access
  2. Valorisation of agro-industrial wastes: Circular bioeconomy and biorefinery process – A sustainable symphony Mrunal S. Wagh, S. Sowjanya, Pinku Chandra Nath et al. · Process Safety and Environmental Protection · 2024 · 189 citations
  3. Global spatially explicit yield gap time trends reveal regions at risk of future crop yield stagnation James Gerber, Deepak K. Ray, David Makowski et al. · Nature Food · 2024 · 135 citations · Open access
  4. The political ecologies of "green" extractivism(s): An introduction Alexander Dunlap, Judith Verweijen, Carlos Tornel · Journal of Political Ecology · 2024 · 121 citations · Open access
  5. Path2Green : introducing 12 green extraction principles and a novel metric for assessing sustainability in biomass valorization Leonardo M. de Souza Mesquita, Leticia Sanches Contieri, Francisca A. e Silva et al. · Green Chemistry · 2024 · 120 citations · Open access
  6. Digital transformation in SMEs: Understanding its determinants and size heterogeneity José Antonio Clemente‐Almendros, Dorina Nicoara-Popescu, Iván Pastor‐Sanz · Technology in Society · 2024 · 113 citations

Study programs in this field

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