Editorial for the special issue: Innovation for sustainable agri-food systems in the Mediterranean region: Drivers and challenges

The Mediterranean agri-food system is currently facing a critical juncture, characterised by a profound and structural paradox. On the one hand, the area is a cradle of biodiversity, a repository of millennia-old traditional knowledge and the source of the famous Mediterranean diet, globally recognised for its health benefits and intangible cultural value. On the other hand, the Mediterranean basin is a climate change hotspot, subject to accelerated warming, endemic water scarcity and extreme weather events that threaten the very stability of agricultural production [1]. This environmental fragility is compounded by historical structural challenges, including land fragmentation, an ageing agricultural population and a persistent digital divide between rural and urban areas [2]. The convergence of these pressures calls for transformative innovation aimed at changing current sociotechnical regimes [3], which renders linear production models obsolete, requiring a radical transformation towards circular, knowledge-based and resilient systems. In this context, European policies, in particular the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, outline a necessary but ambitious path: drastically reducing the use of chemical inputs, increasing the area dedicated to organic farming and ensuring food security. This Special Issue lays the foundations for a debate on this issue, bringing together multidisciplinary contributions that integrate technical, economic and social aspects, always with an eye on the political implications. The five articles published in this collection offer a varied perspective and address both the supply and demand sides. As far as the supply side is concerned, the three papers offer insights from precision agriculture, robotics, blockchain to rural development strategies. As far as the demand side is concerned, the focus is on the consumer’s acceptance of products embracing circular economy (CE) principles, and on the role of blockchain technologies in securing consumers on the quality of the products.