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Agricultural Mechanization as the Driver of Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Developing Countries: Evidence from Iran

  • MECHANIZATION, ELECTRIFI CATION, AUTOMATION AND DIGITALIZATION
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Russian Agricultural Sciences Aims and scope

Abstract

The growth of world population will increase the demand for food in the future. Meeting this demand will require more food supply, and given the declining trend in the production resources, this will be one of the future challenges in the field of global food security. Reducing the agricultural waste can be a good way to strengthen food security and prevent the wastage of resources. Agricultural mechanization has been introduced as a tool to increase production and reduce agricultural waste. In this study, the role of agricultural mechanization in reducing food waste is investigated. The evidence was collected from Iran, based on which the effect of increasing the level of mechanization on reducing waste is researched. The results of this study indicated that if the mechanization level is distributed homogeneously in accordance with the cultivation pattern, an increase in this level will lead to a reduction in waste. This issue exhibited a major and strong relationship in crops such as wheat, rice, and corn. Accordingly, developing countries, such as Iran, were advised to make the necessary investments for increasing the level of mechanization and modernization of their fleet. This investment should be made by both the government and the private sector. Moreover, agricultural and food policies in these countries should be based on their current and future food demands. Policymakers were also advised to design a dynamic cultivation model based on the mechanization situation in the country to establish food security in it and set macro policies in agricultural production and food imports based on the agricultural mechanization potential.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article. No financial relationships exist with any entities that could be perceived to influence the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Mechanization, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Emami, Morteza Almassi & Hossein Bakhoda

  2. Department of Environment, Tehran, Iran

    Issa Kalantari

Authors
  1. Mohammad Emami
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  2. Morteza Almassi
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  3. Hossein Bakhoda
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  4. Issa Kalantari
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Contributions

The authors collaboratively designed the study, performed the literature review and analysis, and wrote and edited the manuscript. They read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Morteza Almassi.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to the publication of this article. There are no patents or copyrights relevant to this work. There are no relationships or activities to disclose that could be perceived to have influence the submitted work.

ETHICS APPROVAL AND CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE

This study does not involve any human, animal or plant subjects, and materials. The authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies and this project has been considered by the Ethics Committee and ethical approval is granted.

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The authors hereby consent that the Publisher publishes the Work in “Russian Agricultural Sciences”.

AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIAL

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Mohammad Emami, Almassi, M., Bakhoda, H. et al. Agricultural Mechanization as the Driver of Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Developing Countries: Evidence from Iran. Russ. Agricult. Sci. 47, 530–535 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1068367421050049

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S1068367421050049

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