Understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on sustainable agri-food system and agroecosystem decarbonization nexus: A review

Bashir Adelodun^{1

2}, Kola Yusuff Kareem², Pankaj Kumar³, Vinod Kumar³, Kyung Sook Choi^{1

4}, Krishna Kumar Yadav⁵, Akanksha Yadav⁶, A El-Denglawey^{7

8}, Marina Cabral-Pinto⁹, Cao Truong Son¹⁰, Santhana Krishnan^{11

12}, Nadeem A Khan¹³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41566, South Korea.
² Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, 240103, Nigeria.
³ Agro-ecology and Pollution Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar, 249404, Uttarakhand, India.
⁴ Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology, Kyungpook, National University, Daegu, 41566, South Korea.
⁵ Faculty of Science and Technology, Madhyanchal Professional University, Ratibad, Bhopal, 462044, India.
⁶ Institute of Science, Department of Home Science, MMV, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India.
⁷ Department of Physics, College of University College at Turabah, Taif University, P.O. box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Nano and thin film laboratory, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena, 83523, Egypt.
⁹ Geobiotec Research Centre, Department of Geoscience, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
¹⁰ Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi, Viet Nam.
¹¹ Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Research Institute of Sustainable Environment (RISE), School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Skudai, Malaysia.
¹² PSU Energy Systems Research Institute, Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, 90110, Thailand.
¹³ Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.

PMID: 36570877
PMCID: PMC9759292
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128451

Understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on sustainable agri-food system and agroecosystem decarbonization nexus: A review

Bashir Adelodun et al. J Clean Prod. 2021.

. 2021 Oct 10:318:128451.

doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128451. Epub 2021 Jul 30.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41566, South Korea.
² Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, 240103, Nigeria.
³ Agro-ecology and Pollution Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar, 249404, Uttarakhand, India.
⁴ Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology, Kyungpook, National University, Daegu, 41566, South Korea.
⁵ Faculty of Science and Technology, Madhyanchal Professional University, Ratibad, Bhopal, 462044, India.
⁶ Institute of Science, Department of Home Science, MMV, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India.
⁷ Department of Physics, College of University College at Turabah, Taif University, P.O. box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Nano and thin film laboratory, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena, 83523, Egypt.
⁹ Geobiotec Research Centre, Department of Geoscience, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
¹⁰ Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi, Viet Nam.
¹¹ Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Research Institute of Sustainable Environment (RISE), School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Skudai, Malaysia.
¹² PSU Energy Systems Research Institute, Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, 90110, Thailand.
¹³ Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.

PMID: 36570877
PMCID: PMC9759292
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128451

Abstract

The existing finite natural resources have witnessed unsustainable usage in the past few years, especially for food production, with accompanying environmental devastation and ecosystem damage. Regrettably, the global population and consumption demands are increasing ceaselessly, leading to the need for more resources for food production, which could potentially aggravate the sustainability and ecosystem degradation issues, while stimulating drastic climate change. Meanwhile, the unexpected emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and some implemented measures to combat its spread disrupted agricultural activities and the food supply chain, which also led to a reduction in ecosystem carbonization. This study sets out to explore policy framework and selected feasible actions that are being adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could potentially reduce the emissions even after the pandemic to promote a resilient and sustainable agri-food system. In this study, we reviewed 27 articles that focus on the current state of the agri-food system in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the decarbonization of the agroecosystem. This review has taken the form of a systematic methodology in analyzing the adoption and implementation of various measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on the impact of the agri-food system and reduction in ecosystem degradation. Up to 0.3 Mt of CO₂ reduction from the agri-food system alone was reportedly achieved during the first 6 months of the pandemic in 23 European countries. The various adopted measures indicate that the circular economy approach is a panacea to achieve the needed sustainability in the agri-food system. Also, it dictates a need for a paradigm change towards improvement on localized food production that promotes sustainable production and consumption.

Keywords: COVID-19; Circular economy; Production and consumption; Supply chain; Sustainable agri-food system.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
PRISMA flow diagram of twenty-seven (27) reviewed papers.

**Fig. 2**
Spatial distribution of reviewed articles and the spread of COVID-19 cases (NA: Not applicable for other countries except with legends).

**Fig. 3**
Nutrient and material flow within subsystems of an agri-food system.

**Fig. 4**
Model for valorization and recycling of the agri-food sector during COVID-19 pandemic (Modified after FAO, 2020b).

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on sustainable agri-food system and agroecosystem decarbonization nexus: A review

Affiliations

Understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on sustainable agri-food system and agroecosystem decarbonization nexus: A review

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Miscellaneous