Bibliometric Trends and Insights into the Potential of Maize (Zea mays) under the Framework of Conservation Agriculture

Abstract

In spite of the detrimental effects of climate change and decreasing resource efficiency, maize farming is essential to the world’s food and nutritional security. With regard to sustainable maize farming in this environment, conservation agriculture (CA) offers a framework that holds promise in terms of low soil disturbance, perennial soil cover, and sustainable crop rotation. In order to acquire more profound information on the research advancements and publication patterns related to maize under CA scenarios, a bibliometric analysis was conducted. This involved utilizing René Descartes’s Discourse Framework to extract and screen 2587 documents spanning the years 2001 to 2023 from the Dimensions.ai database. The mapping showed that different stakeholders were becoming more interested in maize research under various CA pathways, with a greater emphasis on reaching the second sustainable development target, or “zero hunger”. The most influential journals were “Soil and Tillage Research” and “Field Crops Research”, with 131 and 85 papers with 6861 and 6186 citations, respectively. The performance analysis found “Christian L. Thierfelder” and “Mangi Lal Jat” as the eminent researchers in the areas of maize research under CA. Thus, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) were identified as the important institutions in conducting research pertaining to maize under CA systems, while the United States, India, and Mexico emerged as prominent countries with notable collaboration efforts for imparting research under the given scenarios. Three thematic clusters delineating keywords from three distinct sections—key drivers, objectives, and methodology—were identified through co-word analysis using word clouds, tree maps, and thematic networking of the keywords from the abstract and titles of screened publications. These thematic clusters highlighted the growing emphasis on region-specific studies under CA, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indo-Gangetic plain, to enhance the resilience of the agri-food system. Therefore, mapping maize’s potentialities within the CA framework has revealed the field’s dynamic nature and offers insightful information to researchers and policymakers that could help them plan future studies and cooperative initiatives aimed at boosting the productivity and sustainability of maize-based systems under the CA framework.