Identifying barriers to sustainable apple production: A stakeholder perspective

Abstract

Apple is one of the most important cash crops in China. However, negative economic, environmental and social impacts are associated with its production. This study aims to apply a holistic systems perspective to understand existing problems associated with apple production in China and use this information to improve its sustainability. A structured survey was administered to farmers (n = 245) in Shandong and Shanxi provinces, combined with semi-structured interviews with apple supply chain stakeholders (n = 25). Themes, dimensions and relationships were identified based on an inductive thematic analysis of interview data, and then triangulated against the survey data. Interpretive Structural Modelling and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification methods were applied to investigate interrelationships and effects of the elicited elements within the system. The results indicated that various environmental, economic and social problems are associated with apple production in China, including environmental and health risks associated with synthetic input applications, yield instability, deterioration of apple quality, farmers' uncertainty about accessing routes to market, and the ageing farming workforce. The interaction of socio-economic and supply chain issues has contributed to the system "lock-in" to unsustainable practices within the apple production system. Existing agricultural policies were ineffective as they did not include policy leverage to mitigate the multiple factors driving lock-in to unsustainable practices within the system. The research has provided evidence to enable policymakers to develop effective and targeted strategies to facilitate sustainable production within the apple production system. In particular, the future policy mix should consider the entirety of the food system including perspectives and requirements of different stakeholders. The three-stage approach applied has demonstrated its feasibility of investigating sustainability issues facing a particular industry within a specific cultural and policy context.

Sustainable supply chain management and green technologies: a bibliometric review of literature

“…In recent years, literature review confirmed that plenty of research articles had been published by researchers on SSCM corresponding to the green technological innovations (Wangsa et al 2022 ). Some researchers included it but not restricted to establishing the green technological innovations indicators for SSCM (Hussain and Malik 2020 ), examined and explored sustainable supply chain barriers and drivers and practices (Govindan and Hasanagic 2018 ), classified and filed the barriers hierarchy index to SSCM in the Chinese and Pakistani manufacturing industry (Jin et al 2022 ; Waqas et al 2018 ) and enabler of sustainable supply chain operations in Pakistani manufacturing industry (Hussain et al 2021 ). The bibliometric analysis has provided directions to scholars, who are managing plenty of research publications in the field of SSCM considering technological innovation.…”

Regional differences and threshold effects of labor transfer affecting the technical efficiency of China’s agricultural industry: A case study of the apple industry

“…This study investigated eight major apple-producing areas in China from 2007 to 2020. The production and supply capacity of these major apple-producing areas are key to maintaining the security of China’s apple industry [ 15 , 24 ]. Regional differences among China’s provinces are related to their geographical environments.…”

“…In 2021, the planting area and scale of apple production in China accounted for more than 50% of the global total [ 14 , 15 ]. However, as a result of labor shifts, the overall quality of apple farmers in China, as well as the gender ratio, has changed dramatically.…”

“…Studying the effects of changing production modes on apple growers’ economic benefits, Zhang, Shi et al [ 14 ] found significant differences in return on investment between labor-intensive and labor-saving technologies; further, labor-intensive technologies had more significant effects on low-income growers. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), Jin, Li et al [ 15 ] found that the degree of aging in the agricultural labor force negatively affected apple production efficiency. Su et al [ 21 ], meanwhile, found that although rural labor-force transfer significantly inhibited agricultural production efficiency, the higher the average number of members of farmers’ professional cooperatives, the more they can promote the improvement of agricultural production efficiency and alleviate the negative impact of agricultural labor transfer on agricultural production.…”

Analisis Keberlanjutan Rantai Pasok Apel Di Kabupaten Malang Menggunakan Dinamika Sistem

“…Petani memiliki pengetahuan baru dan muncul keinginan untuk menanam apel kembali (Kuntari dan Madiyanto, 2019). Menurut Jin et al (2022), upaya pemberian fasilitas budidaya apel yang berkelanjutan memerlukan kebijakan yang mendorong petani dapat mengadopsi inovasi dan teknologi baru yang menghasilkan manfaat sosial dan lingkungan, serta membantu petani mengurangi risiko kerugian finansial dalam produksi. .…”