Skip to main content
Knowledge4Policy
Knowledge for policy

Supporting policy with scientific evidence

We mobilise people and resources to create, curate, make sense of and use knowledge to inform policymaking across Europe.

The quality of meta-analyses in agricultural sustainability has been increasing, but weaknesses persist

  • Publication | 2026
Global Food and Nutrition Security

Meta-analyses (MAs) are needed to inform agricultural policies on sustainable farming practices (FPs). This study assesses the quality against established criteria of 570 MAs published from 2000-2023 and included in the recently published “JRC-Farming Practices Evidence Library”. We find that average MA quality significantly improved (p < 0.001) over time. However, about two-thirds of the assessments showed deficiencies in at least four areas, notably study selection and publication bias reporting. MAs related to animal husbandry, manure management, and those synthesizing modelling-derived outcomes demonstrated particularly low quality. Less than 40% of MAs provided accessible original data, limiting reproducibility and re-use. These shortcomings may hinder the full potential of MAs to support evidence-based policy. We propose recommendations to promote FAIR data sharing, enhance awareness, and encourage greater transparency in reporting, which a needed to strengthen the role of MAs in agricultural sustainability.

Resources
More information and links
Authors
Andrea Schievano, Simona Bosco, Marta Pérez-Soba, Ana Montero-Castaño, Rui Catarino, Mathilde Chen, Giovanni Tamburini, Beatrice Landoni, Otho Mantegazza, Carlo Rega,
Irene Guerrero, Maria Bielza, Marijn Van der Velde, Maria Luisa Paracchini, Linda See, Jean-Michel Terres & David Makowski
Publisher
Nature
Available from

10 Jun 2026

Knowledge service | MetadataGlobal Food and Nutrition Security
Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET)data collectionknowledge managementscientific researchdata processingsustainable agriculture
Related reading
More
Privacy statements, terms and conditions.
You will be directed to the EU Login website where you can login/register as a user. Once connected, your credentials (First name, last name, username, email) will be registered in Knowledge4policy as part of your profile, which will allow you to get involved in all Knowledge4policy communities (help is available).
You are leaving EUROPA

You are about to navigate to an external website. Please note that we are not responsible for its content.