AGRI-01 Observatory – Agricultural and food economics and rural appraisal
07/AGRI-01 — Agricultural and Food Economics and Rural Appraisal

Developing countries

Research topic of the field
210
publications
4,891
citations
123
researchers
33
institutions
69%
in Q1 journals
The topics most often intertwined with this one, year by year

The topic studies farming, food and development in low- and middle-income countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Asia. It asks how rural households and smallholders live and work, where their income comes from, how exposed they are to poverty and food insecurity and which strategies help them. It also covers export chains, such as cashew, and urban agriculture. Recent research looks at the role of women in adopting climate-smart agriculture, the effects of the war in Ukraine on North Africa, the water-energy-food nexus in drylands and human capital as a lever for development.

Description written by AI from the keywords, journals, most-cited works and recent works of the topic.

01
Indicators
Output and impact
120
publications since 2021
57
publications 2016–2020
+111%
compared with 2016–2020
24%
share signed by the most active 5%

The last share tells how far the topic passes through few hands: in the field it ranges from 12% to 39%. 24% means that the topic has some reference groups but remains widespread. Signatures are counted, not papers: an article with four authors on the topic weighs four times, because the question is how much of the work passes through few people.

Trend over time and quality of outlets

Documents and citations per year

documentscitations received
251,00019750135006250002008: 1 documents20082009: 1 documents2010: 2 documents20102011: 2 documents2012: 2 documents20122013: 4 documents2014: 10 documents20142015: 8 documents2016: 8 documents20162017: 17 documents2018: 14 documents20182019: 6 documents2020: 12 documents20202021: 19 documents2022: 20 documents20222023: 18 documents2024: 25 documents20242025: 21 documents20252008: 0 citations received2009: 4 citations received2010: 8 citations received2011: 9 citations received2012: 16 citations received2013: 31 citations received2014: 38 citations received2015: 66 citations received2016: 88 citations received2017: 130 citations received2018: 249 citations received2019: 233 citations received2020: 346 citations received2021: 393 citations received2022: 459 citations received2023: 549 citations received2024: 649 citations received2025: 807 citations received
Citations received each year by papers on the topic.

Journal quartiles (SJR · SCImago)

195with SJR
Q1 134 (69%)
Q2 39 (20%)
Q3 14 (7%)
Q4 8 (4%)

Attention in the last three years

+8%
citations received, relative to the field
+22%
papers published, relative to the field
2,005
citations received 2023–2025

The topic is in line with the field: citations received by its papers went from 1,198 (2020–2022) to 2,005 (2023–2025), while those of the whole field grew 1.55 times. Citations received in those years by all papers on the topic are counted, including older ones.

Who leads the topic in the last three years

  • Alberto Zezza · Enti stranieri · 319 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Hamid El Bilali · Enti stranieri · 201 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Stefano Pascucci · Enti stranieri · 98 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Stefano Corsi · MILANO · 90 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Francesca Galli · PISA · 87 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
02
People
Who works on it

Most active researchers on the topic

By papers on the topic. The last column still shows specialisation, to tell apart those who work on it a lot in absolute terms from those who work on it above all.

NameInstitutionPapers on the topich-indexSpecialisation
Hamid El Bilali Foreign institutions 21 33
5.21
Maria Sassi Università degli Studi di Pavia 14 15
12.83
Alberto Zezza Foreign institutions 9 24
9.98
Rico Ihle Foreign institutions 9 16
9.35
Marco Setti Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna 7 13
9.76
Simone Piras Foreign institutions 7 14
11.22
Maria Bruna Zolin Università Ca' Foscari Venezia 7 7
10.07
Francesco Caracciolo Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II 6 36
2.02
Donato Romano Università degli Studi di Firenze 6 14
11.22
Sabrina Arcuri Università di Pisa 5 8
11.69
Francesca Galli Università di Pisa 5 21
3.74
Domenico Dentoni Foreign institutions 5 27
3.46
Fabio Bartolini Università degli Studi di Ferrara 4 31
2.05
Gianluca Brunori Università di Pisa 4 37
1.31
Armando Maria Corsi Università Telematica Pegaso 4 20
4.16

Who is most specialised in this topic

Not those who published the most on it, but those who devote the largest share of their output to it compared with the field average. Above 1 there is specialisation; the tick marks parity. Researchers with fewer than three papers on the topic are excluded.

NameInstitutionPapers on the topicSpecialisation
Maria Sassi Università degli Studi di Pavia 14
12.83
Sabrina Arcuri Università di Pisa 5
11.69
Simone Piras Foreign institutions 7
11.22
Donato Romano Università degli Studi di Firenze 6
11.22
Maria Bruna Zolin Università Ca' Foscari Venezia 7
10.07
Alberto Zezza Foreign institutions 9
9.98
Marco Setti Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna 7
9.76
Rico Ihle Foreign institutions 9
9.35
Hamid El Bilali Foreign institutions 21
5.21
Armando Maria Corsi Università Telematica Pegaso 4
4.16

Most active institutions

The number tells how much work on the topic comes from each institution; specialisation tells how much the topic weighs within the institution compared with the field average. A small, focused institution can be more specialised than a large one that does everything.

InstitutionPapers on the topicSpecialisation
Foreign institutions 64
2.92
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna 29
0.67
Università degli Studi di Milano 20
1.64
Università di Pisa 18
1.04
Università degli Studi di Padova 16
1.13
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II 15
0.72
Università degli Studi di Firenze 14
1.02
Università degli Studi di Pavia 14
12.83
Università degli Studi di Palermo 9
0.56
CREA – Centro di ricerca Politiche e Bioeconomia 8
0.20
03
Where
In Italy and worldwide

Institutions in Italy

32institutions of the field work on the topic (with at least one paper)
  1. Bologna16
  2. Padova (Legnaro)16
  3. Milano14
  4. Pavia14
  5. Firenze11
  6. Pisa10
  7. Napoli Federico II (Portici)9
  8. Ca' Foscari (Venezia)7
24 more institutions on the map · circles proportional to papers on the topic

International collaboration

    04
    Research
    Topics, journals and publications

    Related topics

    The topics that most often appear in the same papers. The number is the papers in common.

    Food security · 40 Food supply chains · 30 Governance and institutions · 30 International trade · 30 Sustainability assessment · 25 Climate change and adaptation · 23

    Recurring keywords

    food securitychinaafricasmallholder farmerpovertysub saharan africadeveloping countrycovid 19smallholdersustainabilityfood povertyfood wasteindianorth africaagricultureclimate changefood systemlatin americaeuropean unionfood behaviorinternational tradewest africawineasia

    Main journals

    Most cited publications on the topic

    Explore the Observatory → All topics