Sustainable Agro-Food Productions: Water Economics and Consumers Behaviour

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to contribute to my upcoming Special Issue of Sustainability “Sustainable Agro-Food Productions: Water Economics and Consumers Behavior”.

The economic case for contributing to the SDGs of Agenda 2030 is clear: According to the Business and Sustainable Development Commission, complete fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda would create at least USD 12 trillion in market opportunities and up to 380 million new jobs by 2030.

Within this framework, the number and severity of global water crises will increase, and businesses will thus face increasing water risk. Be it physical, reputational, or regulatory water risk, such as drought, the fact is that water is often a material consideration throughout various stages of the private sector value chain. This is particularly true for sectors that rely heavily on water, such as the food and beverage sector. In fact, corporate water stewardship can be seen as the business contribution to SDG 6 and include SDG 2.4 Sustainable Agriculture, SDG 12.4 Sustainable Production, and SDG 13.1 Climate, although water is indirectly linked to all SDGs. Corporate water stewardship is the framework by which businesses can understand and manage the water risks that threaten their growth and viability as well as identify potential water-related business opportunities. On the other hand, sustainable consumption is associated with production of food that has reduced environmental impact (also in terms of reduced water use). In general, every type of consumer behavior that minimizes the impact on the environment or contributes to socio-economic development can be considered sustainable. However, transforming consolidated habits into sustainable behaviors is not easy, and some consumers not yet ready to change their lifestyle and merely reject radical changes they perceive as unnecessary.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to bring together articles that analyze both water management at farm level and consumers’ considerations and acceptability toward sustainable agro-food products (with low water use) by enriching the existent literature. Moreover, a deeper understanding of both farm behavior and consumer preferences could also provide managerial implications by allowing entrepreneurs to apply effective strategies both to improve water management at farm level and to facilitate sustainable agro-food consumption by people.

Therefore, given the importance of this Special Issue, we invite researchers to contribute original research articles and review articles. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Sustainability of agricultural systems
• Economic valuation of water resources
• Water management
• Water consumption
• Farms behavior
• Decision-making
• Water and food
• Knowledge, beliefs, perceptions and acceptability of consumers toward sustainable agro-food production;
• Consumer behavior

Dr. Nadia Palmieri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• farm behavior
• water economics
• decision-making
• sustainable agro-food production
• consumer behavior