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. 2025 Jun 4;20(6):e0314175.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314175. eCollection 2025.

The work of farmers in short food supply chains: Systematic literature review and research agenda

Philippine Dupé  1   2 , Benoît Dedieu  1 , Pierre Gasselin  2 , Guillaume Ollivier  3
Affiliations

The work of farmers in short food supply chains: Systematic literature review and research agenda

Philippine Dupé et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Over the last 20 years or so, farmers the world over have been expressing renewed interest in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs). Since these marketing channels bring consumers and producers closer together, they are being promoted as a means for producers to recover more of the added value. They are also seen as a part of the solution to the problems associated with long supply chains. However, marketing via SFSCs means that farmers have to take on new tasks, which are likely to disrupt their existing work routines. We propose here to review the scientific knowledge available on the work of farmers in SFSCs.

Methods: We carry out a systematic analysis of the English-language literature using a multidisciplinary analytical framework of work. We consider five dimensions of work: 1) structural elements of work; 2) economic performance of work; 3) organization of work; 4) working conditions; and 5) occupation.

Results: The theme of work is not prominent in the existing literature on SFSCs. While there is ongoing debate whether a switch to SFSCs results in increased farm incomes, it is clear that marketing through SFSCs relies on a large amount of poorly remunerated work. New tasks have to be added to work schedules, and new skills are required, making the organization of both productive and marketing work more complex. Various categories of workers are involved in undertaking these tasks, having to bear a heavy workload that is a source of stress and fatigue. However, the economic aspect aside, SFSCs appear to be conducive to farmers' self-fulfillment at work. Farmers derive particular satisfaction from their involvement in SFSCs since they are more in touch with consumers and because they are participating in the transition of food systems, despite the intellectually and physically demanding work they have to do.

Conclusion: We call for the study of farmers' work in SFSCs to be strengthened, by diversifying both the methodologies adopted and the case studies. Such knowledge should enable us to better integrate work-related issues into future public policies to support SFSCs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) diagram showing our approach and the number of publications selected.
Reasons for exclusion are detailed in S2 Table.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Share of publications about SFSCs including the “Work” and “Agriculture” thesauri.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Left: evolution of the number of SFSC-related publications in the Scopus database, and of the proportion including the “work” and “agriculture” thesauri in their abstract titles and keywords.
Right: number of publications per year in our final corpus of 79 articles.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Left: percentage of authors’ contribution to our corpus per continent.
Right: Comparison of the countries of origin of authors working on SFSCs in Web of Science with those studying work in SFSCs (our reference corpus).
Fig 5
Fig 5. Number of publications by country studied.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Co-authorship network (graph generated using the force-directed Fruchterman-Reingold algorithm).
Fig 7
Fig 7. Disciplinary composition of the corpus (a), and proportion of each discipline in the corpus as a function of time (b) (data on disciplines collected from the authors’ self-declarations on their CVs or personal websites).
Fig 8
Fig 8. Main journals publishing articles on work in SFSCs.
Fig 9
Fig 9. On the left, number of publications in the corpus by type of marketing channel.
On the right, number of publications by type of product sold (a publication may focus on several products).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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