Analysis of Relationships and Sustainability Performance in Organic Agriculture in the United Arab Emirates and Sicily (Italy)

Climate change, recurrent economic and financial crises and food security issues are forcing society to look at the increasingly widespread use of “sustainable” production practices. These are often translated into innovations for businesses that are not always easily achievable other than through specific investments. This work sets out to assess the sustainability performance of organic farms, which represent a sustainable production model in terms of values, standards, practices and knowledge on the ground. The research was carried out in two geographical contexts (the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Sicily, Italy) which have certain environmental and socio-economic issues in common, particularly in productive sectors representative of organic agriculture. This was done with the help of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA, in the rest of the text) framework and social network analysis to study the sustainability performance of organic farms within non-structured local production systems in the form of formal enterprise networks that, on the contrary, operate with a recognized and common aim. The results demonstrate both their attainment of excellence and the existence of criticalities, thus, identifying routes to possible improvement.

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Tackling Concentrated Animal Agriculture in the Middle East through Standards of Investment, Export Credits, and Trade

Middle East Law and Governance ◽

10.1163/18763375-01001005 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 141-159 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Charlotte E. Blattner

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

United Arab Emirates ◽

Production Systems ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

Investment Strategy ◽

International Investment ◽

Export Credit ◽

Responsible Investment ◽

Animal Feeding Operations ◽

Food And Agriculture

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar are the main investors in farm animal production outside their territory, prompting a mass-adoption of concentrated animal feeding operations in investment-importing states like Iran and Pakistan. Global actors like the International Finance Corporation and the Food and Agriculture Organization espouse the Middle Eastern states’ investment strategy by generously supporting it with direct payments and feed. Because intensified animal agricultural production systems are known to cause environmental pollution, threaten public health and food security, and pose a moral hazard for animals, this article makes use of existing cross-border relationships to the Middle East to counter the growing agricultural trend towards intensification. Specifically, the article examines whether and how international investment standards, export credit standards, bilateral investment treaties, and bilateral free trade agreements can be used to encourage responsible investment and trade flows that factor in the interests of animals.

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Stakeholder engagement in prioritizing sustainability assessment themes for smallholder coffee production in Uganda

Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems ◽

10.1017/s1742170516000363 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 32 (5) ◽

pp. 428-445 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Brian Robert Ssebunya ◽

Erwin Schmid ◽

Piet van Asten ◽

Christian Schader ◽

Christine Altenbuchner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Production Systems ◽

Group Structure ◽

Structural Heterogeneity ◽

Assessment Criteria ◽

Stakeholder Groups ◽

Food And Agriculture ◽

The Social ◽

Sustainability Assessments ◽

Agriculture Systems

AbstractMany sustainability assessment frameworks have been developed in recent years, but translating them into practical tools to guide decision making remains challenging. By engaging coffee stakeholders in Uganda, we demonstrate a process of translating the widely-accepted framework for Sustainability Assessments of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA), developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), to smallholder production systems. Stakeholders prioritized the sustainability themes in terms of relevance and feasibility, and subsequently identified relevant sub-themes. We find that the structure and scope of some generally accepted themes need appropriate modifications in order to address the social and structural heterogeneity of smallholder production systems. Although importance and feasibility rankings significantly vary within and between stakeholder groups, governance and economic themes are commonly perceived as very important though equally the least feasible for smallholders. Thus, the inclusion of the ‘farmer-group’ structure as part of the sustainability assessment criteria is perceived as necessary especially toward achieving governance-related goals. These findings emphasize the need of engaging stakeholders in defining locally adapted sustainability assessment criteria.

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A multi-criteria qualitative tool for the sustainability assessment of organic durum wheat-based farming systems designed through a participative process

Italian Journal of Agronomy ◽

10.4081/ija.2021.1785 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ileana Iocola ◽

Luca Colombo ◽

Giovanni Dara Guccione ◽

Pasquale De Vita ◽

Massimo Palumbo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Durum Wheat ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Production Systems ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Organic Farms ◽

Short Supply ◽

Ex Post ◽

Conflicting Objectives ◽

Hierarchic Structure ◽

Ex Ante

The agriculture sustainability assessment is a difficult issue for the coexistence of conflicting objectives and the multidimensionality of the performances. The environmental, economic and social pillars need to be simultaneously considered in an assessment to evaluate potential synergies and trade-offs of the agricultural processes within and among the attributes of the dimensions in both implemented systems (ex-post analysis) and potential options (ex-ante analysis). Among several sustainability assessment methods, tools based on multi-criteria analysis (MCA) are increasingly adopted in evaluating sustainability in agriculture. The aim of this work was to present the MCA tool developed in the framework of the BioDurum project for the sustainability assessment of organic farms located in southern Italy and characterised by durum wheat-based crop rotations. The tool was entirely designed through a participatory process and it was realised using the open-source DEXi software that have demonstrated to be particularly suitable for creating qualitative multi-criterial hierarchic models with the engage of stakeholders. The hierarchic structure of BioDurum_MCA tool was resulted composed by 64 indicators and 45 aggregated attributes articulated in three branches representing the agro-environment, economic, and social sustainability pillars. The articulated structure of the tool reflected the complexity and the sustainability issues and priorities expressed by the involved stakeholders. The tool was tested in four Italian organic farms presenting different agro-environmental and socio-economic patterns for their ex-post evaluations and in three different ex-ante production systems identified in compliance with the Italian regulation concerning the requirements of the rotations to be implemented in organic farming. The results highlighted the well discriminatory power of the tool. The best overall sustainability scores were reached in both ex-post and ex-ante analysis by the well diversified cereal farming systems with processed products sold through short supply chain mechanisms. BioDurum_MCA has proved to be a feasible tool to identify strengths and weaknesses of organic durum wheat-based production systems. Its adoption can support the definition of specific interventions for the sector in the Italian Strategic National Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy. Further improvements in the threshold classes of some indicators by using the tool in a wider number of Italian durum wheat based organic farms will increase model sensitivity and reliability of the results. Highlights - BioDurum_MCA is an effective tool for sustainability assessment of durum wheat organic Italian production systems. - Hierarchic structure of the tool reflects the sustainability issues and priorities expressed by involved stakeholders. - MCA tools can support a holistic evaluation of farm sustainability performances in the frame of post-2020 CAP.

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Sustainability Assessment of Public Transport, Part I—A Multi-Criteria Assessment Method to Compare Different Bus Technologies

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13020825 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 825

Author(s):

Jonas Ammenberg ◽

Sofia Dahlgren

Keyword(s):

Fossil Fuels ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Public Procurement ◽

Assessment Method ◽

County Level ◽

Participatory Process ◽

Problem Context ◽

The Public ◽

Sustainability Performance ◽

Sustainability Assessments

This article departs from the perspective of Swedish regional transport authorities and focuses on the public procurement of bus transports. Many of these public organizations on the county level have the ambition to contribute to a transition involving the continued marginalization of fossil fuels and improved sustainability performance. However, there are several renewable bus technologies to choose between and it can be difficult to know what alternative (or combination) is preferable. Prior research and the authors’ experiences indicate a need for improved knowledge and supportive methods on how sustainability assessments can support public procurement processes. The purpose of this article is to develop a multi-criteria assessment (MCA) method to support assessments of public bus technologies’ sustainability. The method, which was established in an iterative and participatory process, consists of four key areas and 12 indicators. The article introduces the problem context and reviews selected prior research of relevance dealing with green or sustainable public procurement and sustainability assessments. Further on, the process and MCA method are presented and discussed based on advice for effective and efficient sustainability assessments. In the companion article (Part II), the MCA method is applied to assess several bus technologies involving biodiesel, biomethane, diesel, electricity, ethanol and natural gas.

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Sustainability Performance Assessment Using Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Classification and Ensembles of Regression Trees (CART)

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13073870 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 3870

Author(s):

Mehrbakhsh Nilashi ◽

Shahla Asadi ◽

Rabab Ali Abumalloh ◽

Sarminah Samad ◽

Fahad Ghabban ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Performance Assessment ◽

Prediction Accuracy ◽

Prediction Models ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Regression Trees ◽

Machine Learning Techniques ◽

Coefficient Of Determination ◽

Sustainability Performance ◽

Learning Techniques ◽

Self Organizing

This study aims to develop a new approach based on machine learning techniques to assess sustainability performance. Two main dimensions of sustainability, ecological sustainability, and human sustainability, were considered in this study. A set of sustainability indicators was used, and the research method in this study was developed using cluster analysis and prediction learning techniques. A Self-Organizing Map (SOM) was applied for data clustering, while Classification and Regression Trees (CART) were applied to assess sustainability performance. The proposed method was evaluated through Sustainability Assessment by Fuzzy Evaluation (SAFE) dataset, which comprises various indicators of sustainability performance in 128 countries. Eight clusters from the data were found through the SOM clustering technique. A prediction model was found in each cluster through the CART technique. In addition, an ensemble of CART was constructed in each cluster of SOM to increase the prediction accuracy of CART. All prediction models were assessed through the adjusted coefficient of determination approach. The results demonstrated that the prediction accuracy values were high in all CART models. The results indicated that the method developed by ensembles of CART and clustering provide higher prediction accuracy than individual CART models. The main advantage of integrating the proposed method is its ability to automate decision rules from big data for prediction models. The method proposed in this study could be implemented as an effective tool for sustainability performance assessment.

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An integrated fuzzy intuitionistic sustainability assessment framework for manufacturing supply chain: a study of UK based firms

Annals of Operations Research ◽

10.1007/s10479-019-03452-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alok Choudhary ◽

Arijit De ◽

Karim Ahmed ◽

Ravi Shankar

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Supply Chain ◽

Mixed Method ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Assessment Framework ◽

Mixed Method Approach ◽

Sustainability Performance ◽

Intuitionistic Fuzzy ◽

Intuitionistic Fuzzy Topsis ◽

Method Approach

AbstractThe increasing importance of sustainability has put pressure on organisations to assess their supply chain sustainability performance, which requires a holistic set of key performance indicators (KPIs) related to strategic, tactical and operational decision making of firms. This paper presents a comprehensive set of KPIs for sustainable supply chain management using a mixed method approach including analysing data from the literature survey, content analysis of sustainability reports of manufacturing firms and expert interviews. A 3-level hierarchical model is developed by classifying the identified KPIs into key sustainability dimensions as well as key supply chain decision-making areas including strategic, tactical and operational. A novel multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) based sustainability assessment framework is proposed. The proposed framework integrates value focussed thinking (VFT), intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and IF Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods. The novelty of the research lies in (1) using a rigorous mixed method approach for KPIs identification and industrial validation (2) the development of a novel integrated intuitionistic sustainability assessment framework for decision making and (3) the innovative application of the proposed framework and associated methodologies in the context not explored before. The practical data on the performance ratings of various KPIs were obtained from the experts and a novel intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS was applied to benchmark the organisations for their sustainability performance. Furthermore, the case study shows the applicability of the proposed framework to evaluate and identify the problem areas of the organisations and yield guidance on KPIs by recognising the most significant areas requiring improvement. This research contributes to the practical implication by providing an innovative sustainability assessment framework for supply chain managers to evaluate and manage sustainability performance by making informed decisions related to KPIs.

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Corporate sustainability assessment through fuzzy TOPSIS

Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Simulation for Energy, Sustainable Development & Environment (SESDE 2018) ◽

10.46354/i3m.2018.sesde.008 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Eleonora Bottani ◽

Marta Rinaldi ◽

Federico Solari

Keyword(s):

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Reference Value ◽

Fuzzy Topsis ◽

Analysis And Evaluation ◽

Sustainability Performance ◽

Order Preference ◽

Pros And Cons ◽

Topsis Approach ◽

Corporate Level

"The aim of this paper is to propose a decisionmaking methodology that enables the analysis and evaluation of sustainability at the corporate level. The proposed methodology grounds on two tools, namely the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) approach and fuzzy logic. The integration of these tools offers an effective way to deal with two typical issues of sustainability assessment, i.e.: 1) the fact that the company’s performance should be frequently evaluated against qualitative key performance indicators; and 2) the fact that to be meaningful, the company’s sustainability performance needs to be compared to a reference value, e.g. a threshold or benchmark, to evaluating how the company is distant from a target. The proposed approach has been applied to a real firm, operating in the food machinery industry, for testing purpose. The main pros and cons of the approach are described."

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