Agricultural transformation barriers in emerging and developing economies: a systematic review pre and post COVID evidence

Following the economic recovery after the pandemic, the dynamics of agricultural production and marketing have changed significantly, particularly in emerging and developing economies. This study therefore analyses the main barriers that limited the processing of agricultural products during production, before and after the pandemic, considering economic, technological, institutional and socio-cultural factors. The PRISMA 2020 methodology was employed to enable a systematic review of the scientific literature via academic databases such as Scopus, Web of Science and ScienceDirect. After identifying, selecting and including articles, 79 were organised into a matrix to facilitate synthesising the main barriers to agricultural processing. The study concludes that technological, financial and knowledge gaps are the most common barriers to modernisation in emerging and developing economies during the post-pandemic recovery period. The results also suggest the need to strengthen infrastructure, expand access to finance, and promote public policies that drive innovation and technical training. Finally, future studies are encouraged to conduct more in-depth regional comparisons and develop practical applications that contribute to improving agricultural transformation in the context of each territory.