Transforming Asian Agribusiness for a Sustainable Future: Economics, Entrepreneurship and Innovation

It is with great pleasure that I welcome readers to Vol. 8 (S), October 2026, a special issue of the Horizon Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (Horizon JHSSR), eISSN 2682-9096. JHSSR is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal committed to delivering innovative research to both academia and practicing professionals. Independently owned and published by BP Services, we operate on a not-for-profit basis to benefit the global social science community. Find out more here.

This special issue, developed through the journal’s academic collaboration with Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), India, brings together eighteen peer-reviewed contributions under the theme “Transforming Asian Agribusiness for a Sustainable Future: Economics, Entrepreneurship and Innovation.”

Across approximately 200 pages, the issue presents a rich and deliberately interdisciplinary account of agribusiness as more than an economic activity. The contributions selected by the CUTM Guest Editors collectively reveal agribusiness as a social, institutional, technological, cultural and developmental system in which questions of livelihoods, gender, markets, identity, innovation, climate resilience and human capability are deeply interconnected. The eighteen contributions comprise three Review Articles, ten Original Research Articles, three Conceptual Articles and two Case Studies, with authors and scholarly perspectives represented across India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Viet Nam and the United States of America.

Particular appreciation is due to the Guest Editors of this Special Issue, whose untiring academic engagement, careful scrutiny and rigorous review of the submitted manuscripts have been central to the quality of this collection. From a total of 40 manuscripts received, only 18 were ultimately handpicked for publication in Horizon JHSSR, following detailed academic assessment and editorial consideration. This represents a rejection rate of 55%, with fewer than half of the submissions being selected for publication. The resulting collection therefore reflects not simply the breadth of contributions received, but a deliberate commitment to scholarly merit, relevance, originality and quality. The care exercised by the Guest Editors in undertaking this demanding process exemplifies the standards of academic selectivity and editorial responsibility that underpin the journal’s continuing pursuit of internationally recognised scholarly excellence.

The significance of this collection lies precisely in its refusal to regard agricultural transformation as a purely technical or production-oriented undertaking. Contemporary agribusiness operates at the intersection of economic opportunity and social responsibility. Its future depends not only upon productivity, technology and market efficiency, but also upon whether rural communities can participate meaningfully in the processes of change, whether women and young people can access emerging opportunities, whether indigenous knowledge is respected, whether institutions communicate effectively with communities, and whether technological innovation contributes to resilience rather than deepening existing inequalities.

This broader understanding provides the intellectual thread running through the present issue.

Several contributions place women, rural communities and sustainable livelihoods at the centre of agribusiness transformation. The systematic examination of women-led rural enterprises demonstrates that enterprise development in rural societies cannot be separated from questions of household security, livelihood diversification, access to finance, markets, technology and institutional support. Complementing this perspective, the examination of Self-Help Groups demonstrates that their significance extends well beyond savings and credit. SHGs can strengthen entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, skills, social networks, decision-making and access to markets, thereby positioning collective organisation as an important pathway towards women’s economic empowerment.

Gender inclusion is also evident in the examination of sustainable fisheries in Odisha, where the Mukhyamantri Matsya Jeevi Kalyan Yojana is considered through the experiences of women and Self-Help Groups. Here, livelihood security, technological intervention, institutional support and the emerging Blue Economy converge. The contribution reminds us that sustainability acquires practical meaning only when environmental objectives are accompanied by opportunities for people whose livelihoods depend directly upon natural resources.

A second important strand of the issue concerns institutions, policy communication and the organisation of markets. The comparative study of India and Viet Nam demonstrates that sustainable agribusiness depends not merely on the formulation of sound policy, but on the institutional and communicative architecture through which policy reaches rural communities. Its analysis of policy documents brings attention to an often-neglected dimension of development: communication is not simply an administrative or public-relations function; it can become part of the infrastructure through which policy is translated into action.

The Indonesian contribution on local value-chain integration similarly moves the discussion from policy aspiration towards institutional design. By considering how smallholder farmers might be integrated more directly into the country’s Free Nutritious Meal Programme, it highlights the relationship between procurement structures, rural institutions, food-system resilience and farmer empowerment. The proposed Direct Partnership model offers a useful reminder that sustainable development requires attention to the architecture of value creation, not merely to the volume of production.

Questions of market access and collective economic agency recur elsewhere in the issue. The analysis of Farmer Producer Organisations and their export potential consider how collective organisation, digital platforms, infrastructure, finance, certification and government support can enable small and marginal farmers to participate more effectively in domestic and international markets. The study of digital agribusiness adoption in Odisha provides complementary empirical evidence: access to digital platforms can expand sources of market information, buyer contacts and price realisation while reducing marketing costs. Yet these benefits are not automatic. Education, smartphone ownership, internet access, digital literacy, training and institutional membership remain important conditions of meaningful participation.

This tension between technological opportunity and unequal access is particularly important as artificial intelligence and digital transformation enter agricultural economies. The issue therefore moves beyond the familiar narrative that technology will inevitably solve rural development problems. One contribution examines Digital Performance Anxiety among young agripreneurs, drawing attention to the psychological dimensions of digitally mediated entrepreneurship. Another conceptual contribution considers AI-driven agri-FinTech ecosystems and sustainable career pathways, asking whether emerging forms of technologically enabled agricultural work will create meaningful and durable employment or reproduce new forms of precarity.

Such questions are central to the social sciences because technological transformation is ultimately a human process. Machines, platforms and algorithms do not operate in social vacuums. They interact with education, institutional capacity, financial inclusion, gender relations, labour markets, aspirations and cultural expectations. The contribution on smart agricultural innovation consequently reframes resource-efficient agricultural technology not simply as an engineering problem, but as a question involving entrepreneurship, finance, gender equity, economics and public policy.

The issue also confronts the increasingly urgent relationship between agriculture, environment and climate risk. The examination of climate-risk insurance in India draws attention to the vulnerability of small and marginal farmers to increasingly uncertain climatic conditions. At the same time, it cautions against technological optimism divorced from institutional realities: remote sensing, digital claims processing and advanced data systems can improve insurance delivery, but they cannot substitute for appropriate products, reliable data, affordable coverage, effective institutions and meaningful farmer participation.

The environmental dimension is developed further through contributions that place indigenous knowledge, cultural imagination and rural livelihoods in dialogue with sustainability. The exploration of ecological knowledge in Indian literary imagination demonstrates that environmental resilience cannot be understood solely through technological or institutional frameworks. Literature can provide another way of seeing the relationship between communities and ecosystems, reminding us that forests, rivers and agricultural landscapes are not merely economic resources but also repositories of memory, culture and lived knowledge.

The two case studies provide an especially valuable grounded dimension to these wider debates. The examination of rural and tribal micro-enterprises in Odisha illustrates how production assets alone cannot guarantee sustainable livelihoods: market access, quality, information, aggregation and buyer connectivity are equally important. Similarly, the Odisha Millet Mission in Koraput demonstrates how agricultural production can be connected with nutrition, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, institutional collaboration and the Sustainable Development Goals. Together, these cases show how broad policy ambitions acquire substance through local institutions and community participation.

The geographical breadth of the issue is equally significant. Contributions from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Viet Nam and the United States of America demonstrate the increasingly international character of Horizon JHSSR and reinforce the value of comparative and cross-cultural scholarship. While the empirical settings are predominantly Asian, the questions addressed are global: how should rural economies respond to technological disruption? How can women and young people participate equitably in changing labour markets? How can agricultural communities withstand climate risk? How can digitalisation improve rather than restrict market access? And how can economic development remain compatible with social justice and environmental sustainability?

These are precisely the kinds of questions that define the intellectual mission of Horizon JHSSR. As a peer-reviewed, open-access, broad-scope journal in the Humanities and Social Sciences, we seek to provide a scholarly space in which established disciplinary boundaries can be crossed without compromising methodological or intellectual rigour. Our commitment is to research that is original, ethically conducted, transparently communicated and capable of contributing meaningfully to scholarly debate.

Every contribution published in the journal is subject to rigorous editorial assessment and double-blind peer review, supported by an international editorial and advisory structure. We regard publication ethics, research integrity, originality, responsible authorship and appropriate disclosure of the use of emerging technologies as fundamental scholarly obligations rather than procedural formalities. Our open-access model is intended to extend the reach of credible scholarship beyond institutional and geographical boundaries, enabling researchers, educators, practitioners and policy communities to engage with research without unnecessary barriers to access.

The international collaborations represented in this special issue further reflect our belief that scholarly publishing is strengthened when institutions, researchers and disciplinary communities work across borders. Our continuing academic partnerships, international editorial participation and support for emerging scholars are part of a wider commitment to building a research culture in which knowledge is shared, critically examined and developed collectively.

I therefore record my sincere appreciation to the eighteen author teams, whose scholarship gives this special issue its substance; to the CUTM Guest Editors, whose academic stewardship and selection of contributions helped shape this collection; to the reviewers whose critical assessments strengthened the manuscripts; and to the members of the Editorial Board and Advisory Board for their continued scholarly guidance. I also acknowledge the dedication of the JHSSR Editorial Office and our institutional partners, whose often unseen work makes responsible scholarly communication possible.

The present issue arrives at a moment when agribusiness is undergoing profound transformation. Digitalisation, artificial intelligence, climate uncertainty, changing consumer expectations, new forms of entrepreneurship and evolving rural demographics are simultaneously creating opportunities and exposing vulnerabilities. The challenge for scholarship is therefore not simply to describe transformation, but to understand whose interests it serves, who participates in it, who may be excluded from it, and how it can be directed towards more equitable and sustainable outcomes.

That is the larger conversation to which this special issue seeks to contribute.

I hope that readers will encounter within these pages not merely eighteen individual studies, but a connected body of scholarship that encourages dialogue between economics and society, technology and humanity, enterprise and livelihood, policy and community, and innovation and responsibility. It is through such conversations that interdisciplinary research acquires its greatest value.

As Horizon JHSSR continues its journey towards the highest standards of international scholarly publishing and its continuing pursuit of SCOPUS-quality publishing, our aspiration remains clear: to provide a credible, ethical and intellectually open platform for scholarship that crosses disciplinary and national boundaries while remaining firmly grounded in research integrity and academic excellence.

As we settle into Q2 of the 21st Century, there seem to be many factors at play, from trust in science and research integrity, to consolidation of publishers and service providers and the continual evolution of Journal models. These are playing out alongside major disruptors like artificial intelligence (AI) and vast global policy shifts. Against this backdrop, it has become harder to predict what will happen next or to hypothesise a linear direction of research!

I warmly invite researchers, scholars, practitioners and emerging academics from around the world to continue this conversation with us through future submissions, collaborations and scholarly exchanges.

The horizon of knowledge is never fixed. It expands whenever rigorous scholarship enables us to see familiar challenges from new perspectives. So, watch this space. Our first few posts will address the rise of AI in academic publishing, research security, peer review and more. We hope you will join us!

CITE THIS ARTICLE Kanwal, Nayan D.S. Foreword from the Chief Executive Editor. Horizon J. Hum. Soc. Sci. Res. 8 (S), 1–5 (2026). https://doi.org/10.37534/bp.jhssr.2026.v8.nS.id0020.p1