The COVID-19 pandemic globally impacted economies, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations. Stringent government measures, including lockdowns, significantly hampered agricultural production, threatening long-term food supply and exacerbating existing poverty and hunger. The pandemic disrupted the agricultural sector, leading to labor shortages, reduced production efficiency, and supply chain disruptions. These disruptions caused supply and demand shocks with significant implications for long-term economic performance and food security. Food security, encompassing access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food, was jeopardized both directly through food system instability and indirectly through reduced household incomes and restricted access to food. The existing literature focused primarily on the effect of COVID-19 on either food security or agricultural production separately. This research aims to comprehensively assess the literature on the combined effect of COVID-19 on agricultural production and food security (ECAP-FS) using bibliometric analysis techniques to identify prolific authors, collaborative countries, and research trends.

While a growing body of research exists on the impact of COVID-19 on agriculture and food security, few studies have conducted a comprehensive literature review and mapped the current state of knowledge on ECAP-FS. This study addresses this gap by using bibliometric techniques to analyse the existing literature and visualise the evolution of research in this area.

A scientometric approach was used, employing data from Web of Science and Scopus databases. The search used keywords related to the impact of COVID-19 on agricultural production and food security. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria (detailed in Table 1), a total of 174 articles were selected for analysis. A four-stage process (detailed in Table 3) was used to merge the two databases and remove duplicates using RStudio and the bibliometrix R-package. Data analysis was performed using bibliometrix and net2VOSviewer, embedded in RStudio, to generate visualizations of author co-occurrence networks, keyword co-occurrence networks, and country/university collaboration networks. Lotka's law was applied to assess the scientific output distribution. Various metrics like collaboration index, document/author ratio, and average citations per document were calculated.

Between 2016 and April 2021, 174 papers on ECAP-FS were published, exhibiting an annual growth rate of 56.64%. The research output varied across years, with 2020 (38.5%) and 2021 (37.9%) accounting for the largest share. Gong B was identified as the most prolific author, with six publications. The top 20 most cited articles (Table 7) and the top 20 authors (Table 6) were identified. China was the leading country in terms of publications (28), followed by the USA (19) and the UK (12). (Table 8 shows country-level data on publications). Table 9 shows the total citations per nation, with Italy leading with 112 citations. The most relevant sources (Table 10) were identified, with 'Sustainability' ranking first. Keyword analysis (Table 11) revealed that COVID-19, food security, agriculture, climate change, and sustainable development were the most frequent keywords. Co-citation analysis (Figure 3) identified the top 20 author couplings and highlighted collaborative networks among countries (Figure 4) and universities (Figure 5). The keyword co-occurrence network (Figure 6) revealed three main clusters of research themes related to ECAP-FS. Figure 7 displays a word cloud of the top 70 most used title keywords.

The exponential increase in research publications on ECAP-FS reflects the growing global concern regarding the pandemic's impact on agricultural production and food security. The geographical distribution of publications highlights the involvement of both developed and developing countries in this research. The identified key themes (COVID-19, food security, agriculture, climate change, and sustainable development) emphasize the complex interplay of factors impacting the ECAP-FS nexus. The collaborative networks of authors, countries, and universities demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of this research area and the need for international cooperation in addressing these challenges.

This study provides the first bibliometric analysis of research on the combined effects of COVID-19 on agricultural production and food security. The findings highlight the rapid growth of research in this area, the key research themes, and significant collaborative networks. Future research should consider using a wider range of databases and expanding the scope to include other document types and languages.

This study's limitations include relying on only two databases (Web of Science and Scopus), using strict search keywords and methodologies, and excluding articles not in English or non-journal articles (conference papers, book chapters, etc.). Future studies could address these limitations by incorporating additional databases and expanding the scope of included publications.