Sustainable Agricultural Development Assessment: A Comprehensive Review and Bibliometric Analysis

This study used a bibliometric analysis of 110 scientific papers published between 2002 and 2022 to overview the publication trends and growth potential of sustainable agricultural development assessment studies. The findings showed that the collaboration between authors and institutions was not strong, the journals published were relatively scattered, the coverage of disciplines was wide, more papers were published in higher impact journals, and the authors of the sample articles were mostly from Asian and European countries, the co-citation analysis pointed out more influential authors and journals. The temporal evolution of the keywords identified that researchers focused more on the sustainable operation of agriculture and the methods to assess the degree of sustainability initially, as research progressed and more scientific methods were applied, recent agricultural sustainability research focused on environmental impacts and economic efficiency. According to statistical analysis, the primary level is mostly carried out in three dimensions (economic, social, and environmental), with reference to this principle, this paper summarized the specific indicators appearing in the sample articles and divided them into three subgroups. The results showed that the indicators were selected from a wide range of sources, the entropy weight method and Analytic Hierarchy Process were the most frequent methods of assigning weights to indicators. The present study concludes that the sustainable agricultural development assessment studies are still immature, there is still much room for research on the application of sustainability assessment theory to agrarian systems.

Automated summary

This study used bibliometric analysis to analyze 110 scientific papers published between 2002 and 2022 in order to examine the publication trends and growth potential of sustainable agricultural development assessment studies. The findings indicate that collaboration between authors and institutions in this field is not strong, with publications being scattered across various journals and a wide range of disciplines being covered. Most of the sample articles were authored by individuals from Asian and European countries. Co-citation analysis identified influential authors and journals. The temporal evolution of keywords revealed a shift in focus from sustainable agricultural operation and assessment methods to environmental impacts and economic efficiency. Statistical analysis showed that the primary level assessment primarily involves the economic, social, and environmental dimensions, with a wide range of indicators selected from various sources. The entropy weight method and Analytic Hierarchy Process were the most commonly used methods for assigning weights to indicators. The study concludes that sustainable agricultural development assessment studies are still in their early stages and there is significant room for further research on the application of sustainability assessment theory to agrarian systems.