Agriculture Policy and Tools for Global Dairy Sector in the Future

Dear Colleagues,

Increasing societal pressure on natural resources due to global changes are driving the need for efficient production chains to avoid an increase in livestock numbers and limit the demand for land and natural resources. The livestock sector is named as one of the main co-responsible parties in climate change particularly for the emission of greenhouse gases. In addition, the use of raw materials for animal feed puts the sector in competition with human nutrition. However, the livestock sector provides valuable energy and nutritional foods, including milk and dairy products, which, in some parts of the world and for some segments of the population, are the only source of protein.

Future challenges will therefore focus on how to promote sustainable livestock farming while continuing to meet the food needs of the world's population.

Making agri-food supply chains more high-performing, through the efficient use of inputs at all levels has become a need that can no longer be postponed. Thanks to precision agriculture, genetic selection and the use of digital technology with a view to ecological transition, but also through policy choices that ensure food security and respect the environment, aims these objectives could be possible.

By way of example but not exhaustive, this issues collects contributions related to: more efficient and sustainable production methods able to limit the use of inputs both in the production phase of foodstuffs for animal feed and in the breeding phase through, for example, the use of innovative technological solutions as a tool for the development of sustainable production systems; favoring the use of alternative livestock feeding systems to improve the sustainability of productions; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis or the use of artificial intelligence. But also, concerning analyses of the social and political context that stimulate and guide the sector and the policies that have already been implemented and/or can be implemented to safeguard and sustain the production environment. Including best practices from which policy makers can draw ideas to take on board to improve the policies themselves.

Prof. Dr. Jorgelina Di Pasquale
Prof. Dr. Isa Fusaro
Dr. Yari Vecchio
Guest Editors
Andrea Beatriz Damico
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• dairy sector
• agriculture policy
• sustainability
• sustainable production
• ecological transition
• efficient use of inputs