Smart farming (SF) is a relatively new concept referring to the use of information and communication technology in farm management, focusing simultaneously on productivity, profitability, and conservation of natural resources. However, despite the benefits, the adoption rate of some SF technologies has not been uniform in some countries. The aim of this paper was to identify the barriers and determining factors influencing the decisions of grain farmers regarding adopting SF technologies. A sample of farmers in southern Brazil (n=119) was analyzed through descriptive analysis, Logit and Poisson models. The results showed there was no strict pattern in farmers’ profile, especially in terms of socioeconomic characteristics, to explain the adoption of SF technologies as a package. Adoption of some technologies requires more years of education and knowledge about how technology works, other technologies demand more scale. Broadly speaking, SF requires farmers to be open and receptive to this concept of agriculture.

Brazil is one of the world’s biggest beef producers and its largest exporter. However, beef cattle ranching is a leading cause of deforestation and habitat conversion in the Brazilian Amazon, which challenges sustainable development. We adopted the triple bottom line (TBL) as a guiding theory of sustainability and assumed the necessity of a production system-specific approach. Based on an integrative literature analysis, we aimed to assess sustainability pillars in beef cattle production. The Web of Science, Scopus and Science Direct databases were searched for studies on mitigating the adverse impacts of beef cattle production before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. We found 108 references in these databases, 46 of which met the criteria for eligibility assessment, and ten studies were selected for textual cluster analysis and thematic synthesis. The review shows emergent research themes on sustainability in beef cattle production. It also elaborates a conceptual model of the sustainability pillars in the technique, science, and social aspects of the beef cattle sector that may guide the managerial and political strategies for the beef cattle supply chain in Brazil and other emerging markets. This study indicates that sustainable beef cattle development requires new digital technologies and ideas about sustainable supply chain management, which provides human, environmental, and animal welfare.

Brazil is among the world’s leading food producers and exporters. The opportunity arose to examine and analyse dynamics of spatiotemporal of major agricultural crop and animal commodities within Brazil. An investigation was carried out on shifts in distribution density across Brazil’s different agricultural production regions between 1990 and 2015. This focused mainly on the midwest region, Brazil’s main agricultural frontier in the 21st century. This process enabled an analysis of the potential areas for maintenance and expansion of food supply chains and confirmed an increase in agricultural production in country’s central region. Geographical transformations were noted in the midwest region’s interior and its frontier with the Amazon biome. Over the study period, geographical midpoints of some key agricultural commodities (e.g., soybean, maize) and beef cattle production shifted towards the midwest’s interior, whereas milk, poultry, and pork production shifted southward. A vital issue in discussing contemporary rural areas, agricultural food production is tied to the quality of life, food supply, distribution, and consumption, as well as social, economic, and spatial inequalities. The development of science and technology applied to agriculture has implications regarding production growth and innovation targeted toward guaranteeing sustainable long-term production.

Based on the analysis of the characteristics for fresh agricultural produce supply chain, disruption risks in fresh agricultural produce supply chain are divided into three categories: farmers’ production risk, operating risk and demand risk. This paper proposes two main risk managing strategies: horizontal alliance strategy and vertical alliance strategy. Horizontal alliance strategies contain farmers’ alliance and operators’ alliance, and vertical alliance strategies have four models: farmers’ alliance-supermarket, farmers’ alliance-wholesale market, base-supermarket and base-operators’ alliance. This study is instructional for all members in fresh agricultural produce supply chain in China, and is helpful to improve the ability of defending disruption risks and dealing with disruptions.