In 2020, between 720 million and 811 million people worldwide were suffering from hunger, roughly 161 million more than in 2019. Also in 2020, a staggering 2.4 billion people, or above 30 percent of the world’s population, were moderately or severely food-insecure, lacking regular access to adequate food.

The challenges towards achieving zero hunger globally are many, and the Sustainable Development Goal 2 is aiming to achieve this goal by 2030 with support from different actors around the world.

We at ScienceOpen want to do our part, so in this blog post, part of the #ExploreSDGs campaign, we will highlight all of the important developments, research, and innovations in scholarly publishing that are assisting in the acceleration of SDG 02: Zero Hunger.

Accelerating progress under SDG2

ScienceOpen’s network of over 88 million publications provides context and content on all aspects of SDG2. The Goal aims to end hunger by ensuring food security, access to safe and nutritious foods, eradicating all forms of malnutrition, doubling agricultural productivity globally, and ensuring sustainable and resilient food production practices.

Many of the targets mentioned above are addressed in the various books and book chapters published by Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, which scholars can access on ScienceOpen.

The collection features over 300 titles, aiming to bridge the knowledge gap between science and its application, enabling and empowering scholars to make a positive impact on sustainable agriculture, climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

For topics related to the SDG2, we invite you to have a look at the following book and book chapter titles:

• Promoting pollination and pollinators in farming
• Understanding and fostering soil carbon sequestration
• The evolution of trait selection in breeding: from seeing to remote sensing
• The contribution of agroforestry systems to improving soil carbon sequestration
• Biotic sources of seed losses influencing germination and emergence success in crop plants and agricultural weeds
• Adoption and spread of Conservation Agriculture in North Africa

The Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research is a peer reviewed open access scientific journal published by Teagasc (Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Ireland), featuring articles on any aspect of research of direct relevance to agriculture and food production, including plant and animal sciences, food science, agri-environmental science, soils, engineering, buildings, economics, and sociology.

Its publications on food science and technology, agriculture, and resource management are of high relevance to the topics and targets covered by SDG2: Zero Hunger.

Explore just a few titles of relevance and the full collection for more similar content:

• Benchmarking a decade of holistic agro-environmental studies within the Agricultural Catchments Programme
• Factors and conditions influencing the willingness of Irish consumers to try insects: a pilot study
• ‘Come aboard’ the systems-based approach: the role of social science in agri-food research and innovation
• Embedding animal welfare in sustainability assessment: an indicator approach

Emerald Publishing features hand-picked, curated collections on four themes aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals on ScienceOpen. Aiming to promote and support leadership that promotes decent work and sustainability, the Emerald: Responsible Management provides scholars on our  network with quality research linking to various SDGs, among which SDG2.

Explore SDG2 research by Emeral Publishing:

• Food waste in tourist households: a perspective article
• Alternative food networks: sustainable business models for anti-consumption food cultures
• Exploring local and organic food consumption in a holistic sustainability view
• US consumers’ perceptions of imperfect “ugly” produce

EDP Sciences is a member of the SDG Publishers Compact and benefits from ScienceOpen’s infrastructure for highlighting all the impactful and important scholarship published by EDP Sciences that supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The EDP Sciences SDG Collection features interdisciplinary research from seven EDP Sciences journals, as well as proceedings from BIO Web of Conferences, the E3S Web of Conferences series, and a large number of open access books, all of which support Agenda 2030 goals.

In this collection, there is plenty of research published which covers various SDG2 targets and topics, like in the case of the titles highlighted below:

• Promoting oil palm-based agroforestry systems: an asset for the sustainability of the sector
• Development of a food waste prevention strategy: a case study in a hotel in Eastern Morocco
• Research on the Application of Vacuum Freeze-drying Technology for Food
• Directed transformation of food raw materials – as a key factor in the transition to “personalized nutrition”
• Role of livestock in sustainable agriculture for food security

For all the authors interested in publishing their SDG research with EDP Sciences, we invite you to learn more about their publishing program by clicking here.

Peter Lang Group has over 50 years of expertise in publishing high quality, peer-reviewed scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences. Core subject areas of Peter Lang Group include the Arts, Cultural Studies, Economics & Law, Education, Media, Communication, History & politics, etc., and many of the books reach out across disciplines, covering issues of hunger and food security, like in the titles provided below:

• From Potentials to Reality: Transforming Africa’s Food Production : Investment and policy priorities for sufficient, nutritious and sustainable food supplies
  • Land use change, sustainable land management and climate resilience
  • Reducing food losses
  • Development assistance for agriculture
  • Animal husbandry
• Measuring the Effectivity of Environmental Law : Legal Indicators for Sustainable Development

SGD2 collections on ScienceOpen

As part of its Global Challenges program, UCL Press has collections dedicated to each SDG on ScienceOpen, featuring UCL published research supporting the goals. The SDG2 collection features thousands of articles, books, book chapter titles, and conference proceedings and aims to accelerate progress towards the full achievement of the goal of zero hunger by 2030.

A collection spanning various disciplines and publishers, below you can take a glimpse at the scholarship offered by UCL Press on SDG2 topics:

• Climate change, hunger and rural health through the lens of farming styles: An agent-based model to assess the potential role of peasant farming
• Multi-criteria suitability analysis for neglected and underutilised crop species in South Africa
• Groundwater recharge estimation using in-situ and GRACE observations in the eastern region of the United Arab Emirates
• “Fish Rescue us from Hunger”: the Contribution of Aquatic Resources to Household Food Security on the Rufiji River Floodplain, Tanzania, East Africa

ScienceOpen too, remains committed to advancing progress in all the Sustainable Development Goals and has created collections addressing every SDG on its network. The SDG2 collection showcases a curated selection of publications featured in our network that cover all issues related to SDG2 and all the targets of the goal.

Explore the SDG2 research collection on ScienceOpen, and don’t forget to follow and stay up-to-date with new publications from all publishers in our network addressing topics under Sustainable Development Goal no.2.

• Food Security in Pakistan and Need for Public Policy Adjustments
• Mapping the potential for offshore aquaculture of salmonids in the Yellow Sea
• Reorienting India’s Agricultural Policy : Millets and Institutional Change for Sustainability
• Food Security Challenges and Options in the Caribbean: Insights from a Scoping Review

Supporting discussion on SDG2 topics

Not only books and journal articles, but our network offers access to over 2.5 million preprints covering a wide range of issues and disciplines, many of which are also related to SDG #2 with topics such as food security, agricultural and aquaculture innovations, climate change responses, and so on.

On preprint collections, scholars can openly share research results with the scientific community at an early stage in their research and speed up the research process by taking advantage of our scholarly networks and tools supporting reviewing and publishing.  

Explore the preprints in the AfricArxiv collection and contribute to the exchange of information and discussion on SDG2-related topics:

• Effects of Fish Cage Aquaculture on Water Quality in Lake Victoria, Kenya
• Factors Affecting Adoption of Improved Crops by Rural Farmers in Niger
• Genotype by environment interaction and yield stability of hybrid maize varieties evaluated in three locations of mid altitudes of Rwanda
• RUGA SETTLEMENT INITIATIVE: A Panacea for Conflict between Herdsmen and Farmers in Nigeria

Have you heard of our Open Peer Review Competition? Submit an Open Peer Review on ScienceOpen until September 29th and get a chance to be one of our three lucky winners. Learn more about the competition by clicking here.

SDG2 is also represented in many preprints currently published on the ScienceOpen Preprint Server and waiting for peer review. Have a look at:

• Desertification And Sudano-Sahelian Peoles Perception Of Its Process
• Evaluation of Soybean Varieties for Oxalate, Phytate and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Content
• Review on Toxicity of Food Additives
• Influence of nano edible coating & films combined with zinc oxide and active phenol compounds from pomegranate peel to prolong shelf life of minimally processed pomegranate
• Interdisciplinary tools to advance agro-food processing research and projects implementation in Egypt
• The Impact of COVID-19 on Child Malnutrition in Nigeria: Special Focus on Strategic Solutions

Join the challenge!

Are you an author or publisher on ScienceOpen that publishes scholarly work covering disciplines related to the Sustainable Development Goals? Get your research featured in our SDG-collections and enhance your work in the wider context of SDGs on ScienceOpen.

Get in touch with us to learn more about our publishing offer and how we can enhance the impact of your research on our network and beyond.