Greening in Farming Value Chains and Networks: An Explorative Case Study

Abstract

An interesting conundrum arises regarding how to transform the value chains and networks of various categories of human activities to cope with climate change effects. Ideally, in terms of sustainable development goal number 2, there is the need to concurrently deal with the effects of climate change whilst shifting agrifood value chains and networks towards nature-positive trajectories. The word ‘green’ and associated terminology ‘greening’ have taken on new significance as evidenced from extant discourse on how to mitigate and/or tackle the increasing adverse effects of climate change with concurrent shift to a nature-positive direction. In this regard, the concept of ‘greening’ embraces contexts such as circularity, decarbonization, vegetation greening, sustainable land use, and the preservation of biodiversity across many sectors of human endeavour. Thus, ‘greening’ is regarded as a principle in green growth economic policies and nature-positive strategies. Discourse on greening tends to be dominated by academic and policy/governance pundits, sometimes vitiating the opinions of ‘not-so-formal’ practitioners. This article discusses what ‘greening’ means to practitioners within a particular agrifood value chain and network. The narratives reiterate that, even within urban settings, greening practices such as sustainable land use and preservation of biodiversity are intrinsic knowledge areas for artisanal, subsistence, and small-scale entrepreneurial farmers.

Introduction

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a framework for humanity’s future survival by promoting sustainability and a nature-positive development path. We are currently in the Anthropocene epoch, marked by significant human-driven changes to Earth’s systems, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem stability. Scientists warn that humanity has crossed critical planetary boundaries, necessitating urgent nature-positive transitions to minimize environmental damage and restore natural capital.

The discourse on climate change and sustainability is widespread across academic, policy, and business sectors, emphasizing the need to operationalize sustainability beyond rhetoric into practical strategies. Early efforts focused on corporate social responsibility have evolved into broader approaches like ESG and triple-bottom line reporting, highlighting the integration of environmental concerns into economic activities.

This article specifically investigates how ‘greening’—defined as adopting environmentally responsible knowledge and practices—can be operationalized by artisanal, subsistence, and small-scale farmers within agricultural value chains. The concept of ‘greening’ spans multiple sectors and is linked to biodiversity, circularity, and sustainable land use, with particular emphasis on the agrifood sector’s role in food security and ecosystem preservation.

Green growth policies aim to efficiently use resources, reduce pollution, and build resilience, but face challenges such as balancing economic development with biodiversity conservation, especially in developing countries where indigenous knowledge and land rights are often marginalized. Urbanization and industrial expansion further threaten arable and natural lands, though urban agriculture and vegetation greening offer promising sustainability pathways.

Finally, the article proposes a conceptual model to understand greening practices across agricultural value chains and networks, considering the multiple stakeholders involved from production to consumption.

Conclusion

This article contributes to discourse regarding ‘greening’ concepts and practice. Although the participants in the exploratory snap study were drawn from an area where coconut tree is autochthonous, nonetheless, the farmers’ narratives reinforce the view that ‘greening’ is better understood in the contexts of efficiency of land use, preservation of biodiversity, carbon capture and circularity in the upstream stages of the agrifood value chain and network. The farmers’ narratives also showed that they were conversant with the chitter-chatter about effects of climate change and food security challenges. The study provides some evidence leaning towards the development of strategies and implementation of green growth policies that promote and include sustainable urban farming practices in the agrifoods value chain and networks. Taking into consideration that the scope of the exploratory study is very limited, it is remarkable that the opinions expressed in the narratives not only point to the broader issue regarding the infusion of existential indigenous knowledge and practices in green growth technological innovations and economic policies, especially for countries of the Global South that are having to deal with high rates of unemployment of younger people, inter alia, the twin challenges of rapid urban densification and sprawling. The authors plan to proceed to the next phase of the exploratory study with the formation of a number of focus groups comprising the initial and other participants so as to address more contexts of ‘greening’, especially carbon capture and decarbonization, over the full scope of the coconut value chain. It is anticipated that future studies will delve into inclusivity issues as they pertain to the reframing of future policies that inherently involve and rely on sustainable ‘greening’ practices

References

[1] Rockström, J., & Einhorn, G. (2024). Risks to Earth systems are rising. The good news? Businesses are taking action. World Economic Forum Climate Action Jun 11, 2024 [2] Dellasala, D.A., and Goldstein, M.I., eds (2018). Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene. Elsevier Inc. ISBN 978-0-12-813576-1 [3] Richardson et al (2023) Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries. Science Advances 13 Sep 2023 Vol 9, Issue 37 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh2458 [4] Locke, H., Rockström, J., Bakker, P., Bapna, M., Gough, M., Hilty, J., Lambertini, M., Morris, J., Polman, P., Rodriguez, C.M., Samper, C., Sanjayan, M., Zabey, E., Zurita, P. (2020). A Nature-Positive World: The Global Goal for Nature. https://library.wcs.org/doi/ctl/view/mid/33065/pubid/DMX3974900000.aspx [5] Jessen, J. (2024). WEF: How to Finance the Nature-Positive Transition. Sustainability Magazine, 29 Aug 2024 [6] Letcher, T.M., (2021). The Impacts of Climate Change: A Comprehensive Study of Physical, Biophysical, Social and Political Issues. Elsevier Inc. ISBN 978-0-12-822373-4 [7] Abbass, K., Qasim, M.Z., Song, H. et al. A review of the global climate change impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures. Environ SciPollut Res 29, 42539–42559 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19718-6 [8] Pulse Survey|Emerging Strategies for Operationalizing Sustainability Efforts. Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. hbr.org/hbr-analytic-services. [9] TomásHák, SvatavaJanousková, and BedrichMoldan (2015). Sustainable Development Goals: A need for relevant indicators. Ecological Indicators 60 (2016) 565–573 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.08.003 1470-160X/© 2015 [10] Piao, S., Wang, X., Park, T. et al. Characteristics, drivers and feedbacks of global greening. Nat Rev Earth Environ 1, 14–27 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-019-0001-x [11] Kölbel, J. F., Heeb, F., Paetzold, F., & Busch, T. (2020). Can Sustainable Investing Save the World? Reviewing the Mechanisms of Investor Impact. Organization & Environment, 33(4), 554–574. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27001596 [12] Yucel, O.; Celik, G.; Yilmaz, Z. Sustainable Investment Attitudes Based on Sustainable Finance Literacy and Perceived Environmental Impact. Sustainability 2023, 15, 16026. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152216026 [13] Manaswi, K., Singh, A., & Gupta, V. (2023). Building a Better Future with Sustainable Investments: Insights from Recent Research. Indian Journal of Human Development, 17(2), 320-343. https://doi.org/10.1177/09737030231194836 [14] Grand, M. C., and D’Elia, V., (2018). Sustainable Development and “Green” Concepts. Prob. Des vol.49 no.192 Ciudad de México ene./mar. 2018. ISSN 0301-7036 [15] Yildirim, S. (2023), \"Greenwashing: a rapid escape from sustainability or a slow transition?\", LBS Journal of Management & Research, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 53-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/LBSJMR-11-2022-0077 [16] Sajeewanie, Liyanaarachchige&Shukri, Mohd&Yajid, Ab&Khatibi, Ali &Azam, S. M. & Tham, Jacquline. (2019). CONCEPT OF GREEN: A REVIEW ON RELATED CONCEPTS AND EMPERICAL IMPLICATIONS. 4. 146-169. 10.5281/zenodo.3360880. [17] Jing Li, Guangxin Song, MengshanCai, Jiao Bian, BadamasiSani Mohammed, Green environment and circular economy: A state-of-the-art analysis, Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, Volume 52, Part B, 2022,102106, ISSN 2213-1388, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2022.102106. [18] UNESCO-UNEVOC, Greening TVET: A practical guide for TVET institutions, 2017 [19] FAO@RIC’20. Concept note: Greening the Economy with Agriculture – Taking stock of potential, options and prospective challenges. www.fao.org [20] Pretty, J., & Bharucha, Z.P. (2018). Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture: Greening the World\'s Food Economy (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781138638044 [21] Jacobs, M. (2013) ‘Green Growth’, in R Falkner (ed), Handbook of Global Climate and Environmental Policy, Oxford: Wiley Blackwell 2013 [22] The World Bank (2012). Inclusive Green Growth – The pathway to sustainable development. ISBN (paper): 978-0-8213-9551-6. DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-9551-6 [23] Kyle S. Herman (2023) Green growth and innovation in the Global South: a systematic literature review, Innovation and Development, 13:1, 43-69, DOI:10.1080/2157930X.2021.1909821 [24] Bellard C, Bertelsmeier C, Leadley P, Thuiller W, Courchamp F. Impacts of climate change on the future of biodiversity. EcolLett. 2012 Apr;15(4):365-377. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01736.x. Epub 2012 Jan 18. PMID: 22257223; PMCID: PMC3880584. [25] International LabourOrganisation. Sustainable Development Goals – Indigenous Peoples in Focus. www.ilo.org/wcms_503715 [26] Ackerman, K., Conard, M., Culligan, P., Plunz, R., Sutto, M-A., and Whittinghill, L., (2014). Sustainable Food Systems for Future Cities: The Potential of Urban Agriculture.The Economic and Social Review, Vol. 45, No. 2, Summer, 2014, pp. 189–206 [27] Xun, Q., An, S., and Lu, M., (2024). Climate change and topographic differences influence grassland vegetation greening across environmental gradients. Front. Environ. Sci., 09 January 2024 Sec. Environmental Informatics and Remote Sensing Volume 11 – 2023. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1324742 [28] H. Royer, J.L. Yengue, N. Bech, Urban agriculture and its biodiversity: What is it and what lives in it? Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Volume 346, 2023, 108342, ISSN 0167-8809, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2023.108342. [29] FAO and UNIDO. 2024. Developing sustainable food value chains – Practical guidance for systems-based analysis and design. SFVC Methodological Brief. Rome, FAO and Vienna, UNIDO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc9291en [30] Report GFVC-FAO – FAO-FiBL Workshop: A Knowledge Exchange Forum for the Development of Green Food Value Chains, 27-28 Nov, 2014 [31] Narula, S., (2022). Confronting State Violence: Lessons from India’s Farmer Protests. Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Issue 54.1 pp91 – 169 [32] Why the global farmers’ protests matter. War on Want News and Analysis 15 April 2024. https://waronwant.org/news-analysis/why-global-farmers-protests-matter#:~:text=The%20farmers%27%20protests%20across%20the,significantly%20influenced%20the%20agricultural%20policies [33] APRSCP (2022). Summary Report. Building Sustainability into Agri-Food Value Chains. 16th Asia-Pacific Round-Table on Sustainable Consumption and Production, 21-23 Nov 2022. Bangkok Thailand [34] Arifin, Z. A. (2022). The Analysis of Coconut Market Value Chain. International Journal of Law Policy and Governance, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.54099/ijlpg.v1i1.255 [35] George, G. P., and Kuruvila, A. (2022). Coconut Sector in Kerala-Trends and Challenges. Journal of Agricultural Development and Policy, 2022 Volume 32, No. 1, 133-139 [36] Aguilar, E.A., Montesur, J., and Lacsina, J. C., (2023). Capacitating Strategies to Promote Climate Resilient Coconut-based Farming Systems (CRCBFS) in Vulnerable Coconut Communities of the Philippines. IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 1235 012002 [37] Savin-Baden, M., and Van Niekerk, L. (2007). Narrative Inquiry: Theory and Practice. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, Vol. 31, No. 3, 459–472, September 2007. DOI: 10.1080/03098260601071324 [38] Daiute, C. (2014). Narrative Enquiry: A Dynamic Approach. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4833-1304-7 [39] Agro10-Hack Farming Concepts. www.youtube.com [40] Kumakoshi, Y., Chan, S.Y., Koizumi, H., Li, X., and Yoshimura, Y. (2021). Standardized Green View Index and Quantification of Different Metrics of Urban Green Vegetation. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7434. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187434 [41] Mani, S. (2024). https://thebetterindia.com/371223/anushka-jaiswal-progressive-farmer-horticulture-hydroponics-polyhouse-farming-lucknow-exotic-vegetables/

Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Dr Joe Amadi-Echendu, Dr Arun Babu Zachariah . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.