Journal Article

Bridging the Gap: Mapping Global Research on Trade Policies and Empowerment of Resource-Poor Farmers in Developing Nations

Roy, Pritam

2025

Overview

\"Understanding global research on trade policies and the empowerment of resource-poor farmers in developing nations is essential for guiding equitable agricultural development. This research employs Biblioshiny and VOSviewer to quantitatively map publication trends, co-authorship communities, institutional research output, and thematic development in 246 peer-reviewed documents indexed in Scopus from 2000 to 2025. To determine patterns of collaboration as well as key research areas of focus, the approach entailed partitioning and analyzing bibliographic data through elaborate search queries, data cleansing, and advanced visualisation. The results shows a remarkable rise in research productivity in the midst of global shocks like the 2008 food crisis and COVID-19, with theme concepts centered on sustainable development, international trade, and food security. Although South Asian, sub-Saharan African, and marginal smallholder views are underrepresented, the discipline remains dominated by Global North authors and organizations. Also, thematic gaps remain in the regions of digital agriculture, grassroots empowerment, gender equity, and cooperative strategies. The analysis points toward the need for further research that is South-South oriented, multidisciplinary, and context-sensitive. In further developing more extensive and effective trade policies, subsequent research must prioritize integrative approaches that actually enable resilience and empowerment for vulnerable farming groups across developing nations.