MAPPING THE GLOBAL RESEARCH LANDSCAPE OF NATURAL FARMING: TRENDS, COLLABORATIONS, CHALLENGES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Abstract

Natural farming has recently attracted more and more interest as an agroecological practice that aims at minimising reliance on external inputs through enhancing ecological functions in agricultural systems. This paper provides an overview of the global research field of natural farming and analyses research trends, cooperation, thematic structure, defining characteristics, institutional support, and main challenges related to it. A systematic review and bibliometric analysis of research papers published in Scopus was carried out based on the PRISMA framework. Systematic screening resulted in 89 research papers being selected for analysis. Bibliometric analysis was carried out with Bibliometrix in RStudio and VOSviewer in order to evaluate publication dynamics, author productivity, source trends, international cooperation, keyword co-occurrence, and theme development. It is shown that there was a significant increase in scientific productivity starting from 2020, with peak activity observed in 2025. India was the leading contributor and an active participant in international cooperation; however, worldwide participation in research was geographically uneven. Author productivity generally obeyed Lotka’s Law, with almost 80 per cent of authors publishing only one article. Thematic analysis showed that agriculture and soil health are well-developed research themes, while natural farming, sustainability, agroecology, and farming systems are the central areas for further development. In the literature, few external inputs, use of local resources, cycling of biological nutrients and ecological management are also mentioned as important features of natural farming. While policy and institutional support is increasing, challenges around productivity, transition, labour, knowledge, economic viability and scaling hamper wider adoption. Future research needs to be focused on long-term, comparative, and interdisciplinary studies in different agro-climatic and socio-economic settings, and should strengthen international cooperation and build more knowledge in relation to institutions, markets, and farmers.