Sustainable agriculture toward carbon neutrality: A quantitative and qualitative assessment

Sustainable agriculture is widely promoted as a cornerstone of climate change mitigation, yet the extent to which this research domain explicitly engages with carbon-neutrality and net-zero objectives remains unclear. This study presents the first global bibliometric and integrated qualitative synthesis of sustainable agriculture research explicitly framed within the context of carbon neutrality, based on 1422 peer-reviewed journal articles indexed in Scopus published between 2010 and 2024. Using Bibliometrix (R) and VOSviewer, we analyze publication trends, leading journals, country-level contributions, collaboration patterns, keyword co-occurrence networks, thematic evolution, and conceptual structures. Results reveal a rapid transition from a niche research area to a consolidated interdisciplinary field, with annual publications rising from fewer than 20 articles before 2014 to 364 articles in 2024 (average growth rate: 31.35 publications year−1), and research output concentrated in China (940 articles), the United States (688 articles), and India (515 articles). To quantify alignment with net-zero agendas, we introduce a Carbon-Neutrality Orientation Score (CNOS), derived from weighted frequencies of 20 carbon-related terms in titles, abstracts, and keywords. Mean normalized CNOS values increase from 0.07 to 0.09 to 0.086-0.088, indicating strengthening but still partial integration of carbon-neutrality into sustainable agriculture research. Despite growth in mitigation-focused studies, persistent gaps remain in long-term carbon permanence, whole-farm greenhouse gas accounting, standardized monitoring–reporting–verification frameworks, and carbon-market integration. Overall, this study identifies where sustainable agriculture research is converging with carbon-neutral transitions and highlights priorities for future research and climate-aligned agri-food policy.