Climate change adaptation in agriculture food supply chains: a bibliometric and content analysis

Abstract This study explores the intellectual development and research landscape surrounding climate change adaptation in agricultural food supply chains through a combined bibliometric and content analysis. The primary objective is to map publication trends, identify key contributors, including countries, institutions, and journals, highlight the most influential documents, and uncover major thematic clusters and gaps in the existing literature. A hybrid methodology was employed, utilizing bibliometric tools such as Biblioshiny and VOSviewer to analyze 4113 peer-reviewed articles and conference papers retrieved from the Scopus database, covering the period from 2015 to 2025. The findings reveal a growing scholarly interest in climate change adaptation, with peak publication activity observed in 2023. The United States, China, and India emerged as the most active publishing countries, while institutions like China Agricultural University and Wageningen University were leading contributors. Core journals included Science of the Total Environment and Sustainability. The most frequently occurring keywords were climate change, agriculture, and adaptive management, with clusters focusing on climate-smart agriculture, water efficiency, greenhouse gas mitigation, and socio-economic resilience. The co-authorship network emphasized strong international collaborations, particularly among the USA, China, and Europe. A content analysis of the most cited documents stressed the effectiveness of conservation agriculture, nitrogen management, traditional farming practices, and remote sensing technologies as critical strategies for climate adaptation. Based on the results, practical recommendations are offered for business managers to adopt digital and resilient supply chain technologies, for policymakers to promote inclusive climate policies, for governments to invest in infrastructure and research, and for farmers to implement adaptive practices such as crop diversification and water-saving techniques. This study has several limitations that future studies will consider.