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

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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Improving water productivity in the Australian Grains industry—a nationally coordinated approach

Crop and Pasture Science ◽

10.1071/cp14019 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 65 (7) ◽

pp. 583 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

J. A. Kirkegaard ◽

J. R. Hunt ◽

T. M. McBeath ◽

J. M. Lilley ◽

A. Moore ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Use ◽

Production Systems ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Wheat Yield ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Annual Rainfall ◽

Cost Ratio ◽

Ex Post ◽

Farm Scale

Improving the water-limited yield of dryland crops and farming systems has been an underpinning objective of research within the Australian grains industry since the concept was defined in the 1970s. Recent slowing in productivity growth has stimulated a search for new sources of improvement, but few previous research investments have been targeted on a national scale. In 2008, the Australian grains industry established the 5-year, AU$17.6 million, Water Use Efficiency (WUE) Initiative, which challenged growers and researchers to lift WUE of grain-based production systems by 10%. Sixteen regional grower research teams distributed across southern Australia (300–700 mm annual rainfall) proposed a range of agronomic management strategies to improve water-limited productivity. A coordinating project involving a team of agronomists, plant physiologists, soil scientists and system modellers was funded to provide consistent understanding and benchmarking of water-limited yield, experimental advice and assistance, integrating system science and modelling, and to play an integration and communication role. The 16 diverse regional project activities were organised into four themes related to the type of innovation pursued (integrating break-crops, managing summer fallows, managing in-season water-use, managing variable and constraining soils), and the important interactions between these at the farm-scale were explored and emphasised. At annual meetings, the teams compared the impacts of various management strategies across different regions, and the interactions from management combinations. Simulation studies provided predictions of both a priori outcomes that were tested experimentally and extrapolation of results across sites, seasons and up to the whole-farm scale. We demonstrated experimentally that potential exists to improve water productivity at paddock scale by levels well above the 10% target by better summer weed control (37–140%), inclusion of break crops (16–83%), earlier sowing of appropriate varieties (21–33%) and matching N supply to soil type (91% on deep sands). Capturing synergies from combinations of pre- and in-crop management could increase wheat yield at farm scale by 11–47%, and significant on-farm validation and adoption of some innovations has occurred during the Initiative. An ex post economic analysis of the Initiative estimated a benefit : cost ratio of 3.7 : 1, and an internal return on investment of 18.5%. We briefly review the structure and operation of the initiative and summarise some of the key strategies that emerged to improve WUE at paddock and farm-scale.

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

Resources ◽

10.3390/resources8010039 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 39 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Khalid Butti Al Shamsi ◽

Paolo Guarnaccia ◽

Salvatore Cosentino ◽

Cherubino Leonardi ◽

Paolo Caruso ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United Arab Emirates ◽

Organic Agriculture ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Production Systems ◽

Sustainable Production ◽

Production Model ◽

Organic Farms ◽

Sustainability Performance ◽

Security Issues ◽

Food And Agriculture

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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Economic and social impacts of organic production systems

Canadian Journal of Plant Science ◽

10.4141/cjps07135 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 87 (5) ◽

pp. 1037-1044 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

R. J. MacRae ◽

B. Frick ◽

R. C. Martin

Keyword(s):

Production Systems ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Social Impacts ◽

Organic Production ◽

Weather Extremes ◽

Organic Farms ◽

Goods And Services ◽

The Face ◽

Potential Benefits ◽

Organic Farming Systems

Given relatively low adoption levels to date, the potential benefits of organic farming systems are not yet very visible. However, there is growing evidence in the literature that adoption of such systems produces multiple environmental, social, and financial benefits that can solve pressing agricultural problems in Canada. Compared with their duration as conventional operations, most organic farms in North America perform better under organic management. This outcome is usually a product of lower input costs, more diversified production and marketing channels, resilience in the face of variable market conditions, higher premiums, and a better capacity to adapt to weather extremes. However, the performance of farming systems including some horticultural and animal production systems, for which our ecological understanding is limited, is still frequently inferior. The data on social impacts are less conclusive, but there is some evidence that when a community has many sustainable (including organic) producers , there are positive shifts in community economic development and social interaction. The reasons appear to be related to the need to hire more labour, the increased demand for local goods and services, and a greater commitment to participation in civic in stitutions. Key words: Organic agriculture, economic performance, social benefits

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Sustainability assessment of small dairy farms from the main cattle farming systems in the North of Tunisia

New Medit ◽

10.30682/nm2103m ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Human Population ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Production Systems ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Mixed System ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Animal Products ◽

Major Threat ◽

The North ◽

Cattle Farms

Demand for animal products is expected to increase due to human population growth, resulting in a need for increased production. At the same time, climate change poses a major threat to the viability and sustainability of livestock production systems. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the sus-tainability of dairy cattle farms belonging to three farming systems (rainfed, irrigated, and mixed) at the northeast zone of Tunisia using the IDEA method (version 3). Collected data of 102 farms were subjected to an analysis of variance using the GLM procedure of SAS software (version 9.4). Results showed that the socio-territorial scale was the limiting factor for all systems and that the irrigated sys-tem had the lowest scores of agro-ecological and socio-territorial scales, compared to the other ones, but it recorded the highest score for the economic scale. The best agro-ecological and socio-territorial scores characterized the mixed system. However, it had the lowest score on the economic scale. Finally, the rain-fed system was exhibited medium performances of the three scales. It was concluded a differ-ence between the three farm systems, but there was no disassociation between the three sustainability dimensions; thus, improvements should proceed across all scales simultaneously.

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Ex-ante sustainability assessment of cleaner banana production systems

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.036 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 139 ◽

pp. 15-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Pierre Chopin ◽

Jérôme Tirolien ◽

Jean-Marc Blazy

Keyword(s):

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Production Systems ◽

Banana Production ◽

Ex Ante

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Sustainability Assessment of Organic Vegetable Production Using a Qualitative Multi-Attribute Model

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10103820 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 3820 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ileana Iocola ◽

Gabriele Campanelli ◽

Mariangela Diacono ◽

Fabrizio Leteo ◽

Francesco Montemurro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Production Systems ◽

Organic Production ◽

Vegetable Production ◽

Short Supply ◽

Environmentally Sustainable ◽

Organic Systems ◽

Organic Vegetable Production ◽

Critical Issues ◽

Agriculture Sustainability

Organic agriculture is perceived as environmentally sustainable, but, under its umbrella, different production systems exist ranging from simplified organic productions to well diversified systems with a full implementation of agro-ecological approaches. Among several developed tools for agriculture sustainability assessment, multi-criteria models are increasingly gaining importance. In this study, we evaluated the use of the multi-criteria DEXi-BIOrt tool, coupled with data from long-term experiments, for the sustainability assessment of different organic vegetable production scenarios. These scenarios were applied in two Italian areas: the Adriatic coast of Marche Region and the Metaponto plan of Basilicata Region. Despite the presence of some critical issues, DEXI-BIOrt proved to be a valid tool for the sustainability evaluation of organic vegetable productions. In both areas, the most sustainable scenarios resulted the well diversified organic systems characterized by proper rotations, inclusion of agro-ecological service crops, cultivation of local and different cultivars, and presence of short supply chain mechanisms. Conversely, the implementation of the simplified organic substitution scenarios does not guarantee a suitable level of sustainability. The findings of this study could support decision makers in the implementation of appropriate measures for enhancing organic production sustainability in the framework of post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy.

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