Mapping sustainability research, education and training in agriculture and horticulture

Agriculture and horticulture education are increasingly recognised as essential for promoting sustainable farming practices, climate resilience, and environmental stewardship. Despite growing scholarly interest, the literature remains fragmented, limiting a comprehensive understanding of its intellectual development, emerging research priorities, and contributions to sustainable agricultural systems. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of 1476 publications (articles, reviews, book chapters, books, and short surveys) indexed in the Scopus database between 2000 and 2024. Publications were retrieved using a structured search strategy, and bibliometric mapping was conducted using VOSviewer to analyse citation, co-authorship, co-citation, and keyword co-occurrence networks, complemented by thematic synthesis to develop a conceptual framework. The analysis identified van der Hoek [ 76 ] and Jallow [ 27 ] as the most influential authors within the co-citation network, while Sustainability (Switzerland) emerged as the leading publication outlet and Science of the Total Environment demonstrated the highest citation impact. Keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed five dominant thematic clusters: (i) sustainability, (ii) climate change and adaptation, (iii) education and capacity building, (iv) farmers’ behaviour and technology adoption, and (v) pesticides, food safety, and agricultural policy. The findings demonstrate a marked shift towards interdisciplinary, sustainability-oriented research integrating environmental stewardship, climate resilience, technology adoption, and educational innovation. By mapping influential contributors, thematic developments, and emerging research directions, this study advances understanding of the intellectual structure of agriculture and horticulture education and provides a theoretical and evidence-based foundation for future research, educational practice, and policy development.