Cited by 91Food Security and Socioeconomic Dynamicsscientometrics and bibliometrics researchAgricultural and Food Production Studies

Global Trends on Food Security Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Open access
Xie, Hualin, Wen, Yuyang, Choi, Yongrok, Zhang, Xinmin·2021·Land

Abstract

The issue of food security has been widely studied by the international community. To reveal the research situation as it pertains to food security objectively, this paper comprehensively utilizes bibliometrics techniques (i.e., Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace) to explore the research status and development trends in the area of food security. The results show that: (1) food security research has shown an increasing trend during the past 30 years. The 2013–2019 period was shown to be an active period with a high yield of articles, which were published mainly in the developed regions of Europe and America. Particularly, the number of articles published in the United States was far ahead of other countries in the world. (2) Food security research involved agriculture, environmental science and ecology, food science and technology, and business economics. The research topic is an interdisciplinary subject with a good momentum of development and a large space remaining for research. (3) Climate change, poverty, gender, nutrition, and diet structure have been the focuses of food security research in recent years. Food security in China, India, and sub-Saharan Africa has attracted wide attention. (4) Food security research is becoming more and more mature. The research scope extended from food security to food security and water and land resource security. Research topics range from decentralized to systematic. (5) Food security research is likely to gain much attention in the future based on three pillars: food supply, food access, and food use. Sustainability and diversity of food supply, along with dietary restructuring and food conservation initiatives, are expected to be new trends in future research on land management.

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Crossref · 10.3390/land10020119

Cites

101 of 101 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Over the past 30 years, 95% of all food-related research focused on increasing crop production, while less than 5% was dedicated to reducing post-harvest loss.

    “according to the United Nations, 95% of all food-related researches over the past 30 years focused on increasing crop production whereas only less than 5% was dedicated to reducing post-harvest loss (Xie et al., 2021).”

    From Effects of Post-harvest Losses on Smallholder Farmers' Profitability: The Case of Fruit and Vegetable Farmers in the Ashanti Region of Ghana (2025) · cites this paper as Xie et al., 2021

    Section 3.1.2 says food-security research from an agricultural perspective mainly focuses on improving production technology. It does not support the claimed United Nations figures, the 30-year scope, or the comparison with research on post-harvest loss; searches for those terms found no matching passage. (LLM, conf=0.78)

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Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 104 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 16

  1. Cheng, G.Q.; Zhu, M.D. The impact of the COVID-19 on food security: Trend, impact and countermeasures. China's Rural Econ. 2020, 425, 16-23. (In Chinese)
  2. Ma, E.P.; Cai, J.M.; Lin, J.; Guo, H.; Han, Y.; Liao, L.W. Spatio-temporal evolution and influencing factors of global food security pattern from 2000 to 2014. Acta Geogr. Sin. 2020, 75, 332-347. (In Chinese)
  3. Maxwell, S.; Smith, M. Household Food Security: A Conceptual Review; UNICEF and IFAD: New York, NY, USA; Rome, Italy, 1992; pp. 1-6.
  4. Jiang, L.; Xu, F.B. Review on climate change and food security. Int. Inf. 2011, 5, 37-42. (In Chinese)
  5. Ma, J.J.; Zhang, X.S.; Gu, H.B. Study on the index system of food security measurement and early warning. Manag. World 2001, 2, 154-162. (In Chinese)
  6. Zhang, S.J.; Yang, X.L. Construction of China's food security evaluation system based on sustainable development. Theory Reform 2010, 2, 82-84. (In Chinese)
  7. Cui, M.M.; Nie, C.H. Research on evolution of China's food security based on index evaluation system. Bull. Chin. Acad. Sci. 2019, 8, 910-919. (In Chinese)
  8. Zhang, Y.H.; Liu, C.Q.; Guo, L.L. Evaluation and strategic thinking of China's food security situation. China Rural Surv. 2015, 1, 2-13. (In Chinese)
  9. Gao, G.W.; Liu, T. Global warming and food security in China. Ecol. Econ. 2014, 30, 120-122. (In Chinese)
  10. Xu, L.L.Y. Food security in the process of urbanization: A review. Res. Agric. Mod. 2020, 41, 557-567. (In Chinese)
  11. Li, H.; Pan, Y.G.; Wang, L. Biblimetrix: Introduction and evaluation of a new bibliometrics software based on R language. J. Acad. Libr. Inf. Sci. 2018, 36, 93-104.
  12. Zong, Q.J.; Yuan, Q.J.; Shen, H.Z. Analysis of hot spots of library science research in China in 2010 based on VOSviewer. Library 2012, 4, 88-90. (In Chinese)
  13. Cheng, H.L. Knowledge atlas and hotspot evolution of food safety research in China: A visual analysis based on CiteSpace. World Agric. 2020, 4, 102-111. (In Chinese)
  14. Zhu, K.; Han, G.M.; Su, C.M. Tracing analysis of the research situation of domestic land finance from the perspective of Knowledge Atlas. China Land Sci. 2018, 242, 88-94. (In Chinese)
  15. Wang, X.J.; He, Y.P.; Jiang, H.P. Food security in china during the period of the 14th five-year plan: Situation, problems and countermeasures. Reform 2020, 9, 27-39. (In Chinese) 119.
  16. Wu, Y.Z.; Sun, X.F. Retrospect and prospect of China's land policy on the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up: From the perspective of urbanization. China Land Sci. 2018, 7, 7-14. (In Chinese)

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Authors
Xie, H., Wen, Y., Choi, Y., & Zhang, X.
Affiliations
  • Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics (CN)
  • Inha University (KR)
Corresponding author
Choi, Yongrok
Venue
Land
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2021-01-27
Volume
10
Issue
2
Pages
119
ISSN
2073-445X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3123584251
Cited by
90
References
104
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1
FWCI
20.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Land (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971243 & 41930757)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Security and Socioeconomic Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Agricultural and Food Production Studies
Keywords
food security, research trends, interdisciplinary research, climate change, poverty, gender, nutrition, dietary structure, food supply, food access, food applications, food preservation, China, India, sub-Saharan Africa

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