The need for fundamental changes in the way humans interact with nature is now widely
acknowledged in order to achieve sustainable development. Agriculture figures prominently in this
quest, being both a major driver and a major threat to global sustainability. Agricultural systems
typically have co-evolved with other societal structures—retailers, land management, technology,
consumer habits, and environmental and agricultural law—and can therefore well be described as
socio-technical regimes in the sense of the sustainability transitions literature. This paper aims to
give an overview of the emerging field of governing transitions to sustainability agriculture and
the topics and trends covered, focusing on how agricultural transitions are being governed through
a variety of actors and at a variety of levels. We conduct a systematic review of 153 articles published
before the year 2019. We identify two main perspectives: papers that analyse the status quo in
farming practices and reasons for lock-in, and papers that explore potential transition pathways and
their governance. Predominantly, papers study (local) niche developments and discuss governance
options for upscaling, rather than actual regime change. Seven distinct perspectives emerge from
our reading of the selected articles: application of theoretical perspectives from the literature on
socio-technical transitions; governance and regulation; knowledge and learning; concrete approaches
to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural systems; urbanisation, urban agriculture, and
local food networks; the role of agri-food businesses; as well as the role of gender. While a variety of
local case studies shows potential for small-scale changes that might be transferable to other regions
and higher levels of governance, it generally appears that more integrative, comparative work and
perhaps more coherence in conceptual approaches would benefit the currently highly fragmented
field.