Assessing a farm's sustainability: insights from resilience thinking

Research on sustainability in agriculture often focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of production systems. However, environmentally friendly production methods may not be sufficient to ensure the long-term economic and social sustainability of a farm. Taking a systems approach to sustainable farming, we turn to resilience thinking with its focus on the interdependence of social and ecological systems. We apply this approach to farming by conceptualizing a farm as being part of a set of systems spanning several spatial scales and including agro-ecological, economic and political-social domains. These subsystems interact and are subjected to their own complex dynamics. Within such a complex adaptive system, farm sustainability can only be achieved through adaptability and change. To be ready for the inevitable periods of turbulent change, a farmer needs to retain diversity and redundancy to ensure adaptability. Resilience is thus more likely to emerge when farmers hone the capacity to transform the farm, when farm production is attuned to the local ecological carrying capacity, and when learning and innovation are targeted outcomes. This article shows how resilience theory applied to farming may provide a more comprehensive route to achieving sustainability and offers rules of thumb as guides to building farm resilience.     

A novel approach for assessing the contribution of agricultural systems to the sustainable development of regions with multi-scale indicators: Application to Guadeloupe

The assessment of agriculture at a regional scale is necessary to better guide regional agricultural planning. To improve the contribution of agriculture to sustainable regional development, assessments must take account of the locations and diversity of cropping systems. We have therefore developed a method based on a set of multi-scale indicators to assess the contribution of agriculture to the sustainable development of regions, and its evolution over time. This method can identify: i) sustainability issues, ii) relevant indicators that will provide information on impacts at the field scale, iii) a method to aggregate indicators, iv) data on cropping systems, and v) a database containing spatial units to analyse the whole region. Application of this method to Guadeloupe (2004–2010) enabled the definition of ten issues and 16 indicators, with three procedures to aggregate information from 36 cropping systems allocated to 11,908 fields between 2004 and 2010. Economic, social and environmental sustainability was poor in 2004, with high dependency on subsidies (47.3 M€ yr⁻¹), low agricultural added value (48.5 M€ yr⁻¹), low employment (only 1799 workers), significant risks of crop contamination and pressure on water quality. The total value of subsidies and the risks of river pollution tended to decrease between 2004 and 2010 because of a reduction in intensive banana cropping systems. In parallel, we were able to see that sugar cane, the most widespread crop in Guadeloupe, made only a small contribution to employment and food self-sufficiency during the studied period. The spatial representation revealed that improvements have been seen in southern Guadeloupe due to reductions in banana cultivation. This method was therefore helpful in identifying the most critical agricultural development issues and helping to highlight areas where relevant agricultural land use policies could be formulated.     

Defining and delivering ‘sustainable’ agriculture in the UK after Brexit: interdisciplinary lessons from experiences of agricultural reform

Defining and achieving sustainability in the context of complex, multi-scale, and constantly changing agricultural systems is a challenge for research and policy. In UK agriculture, the European Union and its Common Agricultural Policy has been a key source of funding for and approaches to sustainability in the agriculture and rural development sectors. The decision to leave the European Union represents a significant moment in UK agriculture and rural development policy, and both an opportunity and responsibility for the UK government to set out and commit towards achieving sustainability goals for the sector. In this study, a combination of ethnographic case study research, focusing on the case of upland farmers in the Yorkshire Dales, policy analysis and national agricultural sector data is referred to in describing experiences of agricultural policy reform over recent decades. From these experiences, lessons for the design and delivery of future agriculture and rural development are drawn out. It is argued that the integrated assessment of multiple sources of knowledge can provide a means to critically reflecting on evidence about sustainability in complex systems, better understanding trade-offs, and creating a more complete and inclusive knowledge base from which to define sustainable agriculture.     

Can technology help achieve sustainable intensification? Evidence from milk recording on Irish dairy farms

This article explores the potential of a farm technology to simultaneously improve farm efficiency and provide wider environmental and social benefits. Identifying these ‘win-win-win’ strategies and encouraging their widespread adoption is critical to achieve sustainable intensification. Using a nationally representative sample of 296 Irish dairy farms from 2015, propensity score matching is applied to measure the impact of milk recording on a broad set of farm sustainability indicators. The findings reveal that the technology enhances economic sustainability by increasing dairy gross margin and milk yield per cow. Furthermore, social sustainability is improved through a reduction in milk bulk tank somatic cell count (an indicator of animal health and welfare status). Conversely, milk recording (as it is currently implemented) does not impact farm environmental sustainability, represented by greenhouse gas emission efficiency. While the study shows that milk recording is a ‘win-win’ strategy, ways of improving current levels of utilisation are discussed so that milk recording achieves its ‘win-win-win’ potential in the future.     

新常态下生态农业的发展前景与对策———以河南省为例

农业是我国国民经济的基础,农业可持续发展直接关系到作为国家战略核心的粮食与食品安全问题。在经济社会发展步入新常态形势下,河南省作为我国农业大省在产业发展与结构调整方面坚持以增量带动结构优化、以创新促进产业升级,增量调整与存量优化并举。文章从新常态下生态农业问题入手,分析了人口压力、农业人口素质、劳动力转移风险及科技水平等方面所面临的挑战;并结合河南省当前农业发展的整体态势与发展生态农业的前景,指出在经济发展放缓与农业改革转型压力增强情况下河南省应通过发展生态农业来进一步加快农业现代化步伐,将发展生态农业作为农业工作的重要指标来全盘考虑;提出培育资源节约与环境友好型农业、培育高素质的职业农民、培育贯穿农业生产全过程的社会化服务体系、推进产业融合及发展特色农产品等建议。     

Adoption of conservation agriculture in Europe: Lessons of the KASSA project

According to KASSA findings, conservation agriculture is less adopted in Europe compared to other adopting regions and, reduced tillage is more common than no-tillage and cover crops. Currently, it is not popularised and it is less researched. The lack of knowledge on conservation agriculture systems and their management and, the absence of dynamic and effective innovation systems make it difficult and socio-economically risky for European farmers to give up ploughing which is a paradigm rooted in their cultural backgrounds. In Norway and Germany the adoption of conservation agriculture has been encouraged and subsidised in order to mitigate soil erosion. In the other European countries the adoption process seems mainly driven by farmers and, the major driving force has been the cost reduction in machinery, fuel and labour saving. Soil and water conservation concerns did not appear as main drivers in the European farmers’ decision to shift or not to conservation agriculture.The shift of European farmers to conservation agriculture is being achieved through a step-by-step attitude, large scale farms are the most adopters. This adoption trend may grow in the future. Indeed, the need to improve farms’ competitiveness, the market globalization and the steady increase of fuel cost will likely contribute to arouse European farmers’ interest in conservation agriculture as it slashes significantly the production costs.Conservation agriculture is not equally suitable for all the European agroecosystems. The need of soil and water conservation in Europe requires anticipating the ongoing process in order to improve its ecological and socio-economic sustainability. Priority would be to define which regions in Europe are the most suitable for conservation agriculture taking into account climate and soil constraints, length of growing period, water availability and quality, erosion hazards and farming conditions. Policy favouring the use of soil cover and profitable crop rotations as management strategies for weed, pest and diseases control will certainly allow developing and disseminating efficient and acceptable conservation agriculture systems.     

Exploring farmers’ orientation towards multifunctional agriculture: Insights from northern Iran

The multifunctional agriculture (MFA) concept, namely, the fact that agricultural activity may also have several other functions beyond its role of producing food and fiber, has emerged as a key notion in scientific and policy debates regarding the future of agriculture and rural development. However, the relationship between undertaking multifunctional activities and farmers’ perceptions of farming is to a great extent unknown. A survey of 209 randomly selected farmers was conducted in Masal County of Guilan province, Iran to describe farmers’ perceptions of MFA and provide a better understanding of factors shaping these perceptions. Several factors were considered in the study, including traditional farming practices of small-scale farmers in the area (e.g. manual soil tillage, use of livestock manure and by-products for soil improvement, multiple cropping, family livestock), good agricultural practices at farm level related to environmental protection (e.g. low use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides), and also local traditions and heritage. Exploratory factor analysis was used to categorize agricultural functions based on the collected data and cluster analysis was used for sorting out farmers regarding six extracted factors. These factors were: multiple cropping, social acceptability, environmental health, stability and continuity, food security, and local traditions and heritage. About half of the respondents (48.3%) showed highly positive perceptions of MFA, putting emphasis on social acceptability and environmental health for food security, including also preservation of local traditions (named: guardians of culture and traditions). Almost a third (31.1%) showed moderately positive perceptions of MFA, with mainly a socio-environmental orientation, whereas a sizeable proportion (20.6%) was indifferent to MFA. Data offer useful insights to decision makers regarding the design and implementation of territorial planning strategies. Food production remains a key element in farming systems, but besides mainstream agriculture, the positive perceptions of MFA support that alternative farming systems could be implemented. However, the most successful farming systems adapted to specific contexts and needs should be promoted, taking into account existing facilities and sufficiency for appropriate rural management.     

Agricultural Sustainability and Open-Field Farming in England,c.1650–1830

Recent debates about modern farming have come to be couched in the terminology of sustainable agriculture, a concept originally developed in respect of international post-World War Two farming, and especially in developing countries. In this paper we ask whether there is a historical dimension to the sustainability question and, in particular, whether by recasting the approach to the long-term development of agriculture it is possible to develop a new view of the manner in which farming has changed through time. We look at open-field farming where it dominated the agriculture of 17th and 18th century England. We show how collective community action had developed over many centuries to protect scarce land resources, and how pressures upon these resources through changing economic and demographic conditions inspired communities to develop and promote sustainable methods of husbandry and management. We demonstrate this world of sustainability through its maintenance of the ecological integrity of the land resource, the economic climate in which it operated, and the equitable ownership and decision-making processes that kept it in place. We also show that eventually the ecological integrity was put under mounting economic pressure arising from demographic forces, and also the external pressures arising from war. In particular we show how such pressures compromised the equitable ownership and access to land resources.     

基于能值分析的黑土农业可持续发展探讨--以哈尔滨市呼兰区康金镇为例

本文运用能值分析理论对以康金镇为代表的黑龙江省耕作黑土生态系统进行研究。结果表明：2005年~2009年康金镇耕作黑土生态系统的总能值投入呈上升的趋势,工业辅助能值占总能值投入的61.8%,其中,自然资源能值占总投入的37.8%,可更新有机能的投入仅占总能值的1.6%。耕作生态系统对于购买能值的依赖使得系统的环境压力增大,环境负载率持续增长。黑龙江黑土耕作系统的净能值产出率低于全国平均水平,并呈逐年下降的趋势。生态系统能值可持续发展指数（ESI）为1.41,可持续发展潜力较大,也呈逐年下降的趋势。这些能值指标表明,农业生态系统处于传统农业向现代农业的过渡阶段,有待于进一步发展。     

Urban agriculture and land use in cities: An approach with the multi-functionality and sustainability concepts in the case of Antananarivo (Madagascar)

Urban planners are increasingly interested in agriculture around cities and have to decide whether to maintain or not areas of agricultural land use within and close to growing cities. There is therefore a need for researchers to design tools to guide public decision-making on land use. Various approaches, originating from different disciplines, may be adopted in this respect. We designed an interdisciplinary research program in order to test two related concepts: the “sustainability” and the “multi-functionality” of agriculture. We show that these concepts provide a useful framework for obtaining appropriate knowledge about urban agriculture, which urban planners could apply in real situations. In close collaboration with urban planners, we applied an interdisciplinary research methodology, based on common farm surveys and territorial approaches, to the Antananarivo area (Madagascar). The main functions analyzed were the food production and environmental roles of urban agriculture. Two aspects of sustainability were assessed: the farm sustainability and the territorial sustainability, with expert scores. This approach identified a wide diversity of farming systems that performed differently, depending on their intra- or suburban location. The food supply function appeared to be important not only for fresh produce but also for rice consumption. The function of protection against flooding is now important and this importance will increase with climate change. A diagnosis of sustainability was made and discussed with urban planners: several farming systems and zones were identified in which agriculture was considered important as a means of maintaining or developing the food supply, employment and incomes, and even landscape or environmental quality. We also identified other areas in which poor production conditions and/or the negative effects of urbanization on agriculture jeopardized its sustainability. This methodology appeared to be useful for determining the most appropriate role of urban agriculture in the land-use planning of this city. Our study raises new questions on the subject and should lead to more focused research programmes. We discuss several points of interest and the limitations and possible extension of this method.     

A systems approach to forecast agricultural land transformation and soil environmental risk from economic,policy, and cultural scenarios in the north central United States (2012–2062)

Grassland conversion to row-crop production in the north central United States has been a growing threat to socio-economic and environmental sustainability for producers, conservationists, and policy-makers alike. We used a system dynamics model of the region to forecast agriculturally driven land transformation through mid-twenty-first century. The base-case scenario projection showed that farmland area continued to increase, from under 200,000?km² to over 230,000?km². Unmitigated, the soil environmental risk (SER) of such changes reached conservative estimates of Dust Bowl-era externalities. Systems analyses show that reducing livestock production costs, doubling conservation compliance requirements, and livestock–cropping integration had the largest impact on grassland conservation and mitigating SER. The largest SER effects came from eliminating conservation incentives or raising cultivation incentives, despite improvements in reduced tillage and enhanced agronomy. Several system archetypes were identified within the policy scenarios: ‘fixes that backfire’ and ‘success-to-the-successful’. For scenarios creating favourable impacts, time delays caused some behaviours to worsen before positive gains were realized. If implemented, patience and persistence to ensure that these scenarios reach their full potential will be necessary. Our scenarios provide quantitative forecasts around measures for sustainable intensification. These projections can aid regional stakeholders in enhancing discussions currently taking place about sustainable agriculture in the region.     

Dial “A” for agriculture: a review of information and communication technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries

Agriculture can serve as an important engine for economic growth in developing countries, yet yields in these countries have lagged far behind those in developed countries for decades. One potential mechanism for increasing yields is the use of improved agricultural technologies, such as fertilizers, seeds, and cropping techniques. Public sector programs have attempted to overcome information‐related barriers to technological adoption by providing agricultural extension services. While such programs have been widely criticized for their limited scale, sustainability, and impact, the rapid spread of mobile phone coverage in developing countries provides a unique opportunity to facilitate technological adoption via information and communication technology (ICT)‐based extension programs. This article outlines the potential mechanisms through which ICT could facilitate agricultural adoption and the provision of extension services in developing countries. It then reviews existing programs using ICT for agriculture, categorized by the mechanism (voice, text, internet, and mobile money transfers) and the type of services provided. Finally, we identify potential constraints to such programs in terms of design and implementation, and conclude with some recommendations for implementing field‐based research on the impact of these programs on farmers’ knowledge, technological adoption, and welfare.     

Ranking farms with a composite indicator of sustainability

The assessment of sustainability at farm level has been growing in popularity over the last few years. This article contributes to this line of research by building up composite indicators for different facets—social, economic, environmental, and global—of farm sustainability using a methodological approach that combines data envelopment analysis (DEA) and multicriteria decision making (MCDM) methods, and assigns common weights to each individual sustainability indicator. This approach is applied to a database of 163 farms located in the Campos County, a region belonging to the dry lands of the Spanish Northern Plateau, using 12 individual indicators of sustainability. Our findings show that both economic and environmental composite sustainability indicators are positively correlated, but that this is not the case for the social indicator. We also check the influence of a set of variables on farm sustainability using bootstrapping statistical techniques, and showing that increasing farm size, membership in agricultural cooperatives and farmers’ medium and upper agricultural‐specific technical education, all exert a significant positive influence on sustainability. These results provide clues for policy makers that intend to design sustainability‐increasing structural agricultural policies.     

Agricultural modernization and sustainable agriculture: contradictions and complementarities

This paper explores the relations between agricultural modernization and sustainable agriculture. The point of departure is the observable decrease in the sustainability and social–ecological resilience of agricultural and food systems. We ask where, precisely, the notions of agricultural modernization and agricultural sustainability contradict each other. In more concrete terms we ask what forms of modernization makes agriculture more (or less) sustainable. Our literature review shows that while the term ‘sustainable agriculture’, has been extensively debated, the term ‘agricultural modernization’, while carrying a positive and forward-looking connotation, remains poorly defined. To address this gap, we draw on evidence from real-life cases in fourteen countries in an attempt to interpret how the two concepts are perceived in very different contexts. These case studies show that different understandings of modern and sustainable agriculture coexist and that agricultural development follows diverse pathways. We conclude that the growing demands for an agricultural and food system that is more resilient, equitable and inclusive can be met by providing more support for the many divergent trajectories of agricultural modernization that practitioners are actually pursuing: trajectories that are often more attuned to the imperatives of ecology and to changing socio–economic preferences than the classical modernization trajectory.     

Sustainability dimensions related to agricultural-based development: the experience of 50 years of intensive farming in Almería (Spain)

In the context of the current agri-food market, several factors have made it increasingly difficult to balance the components of sustainability in agricultural-based development. These factors include increasing internationalization, tighter control of distribution and frequent changes in agricultural policies. Indeed, in the framework of European rural policy there has been considerable debate in recent years concerning the role of the agricultural sector and how it should face the following challenges: productivity-competitiveness, environmental protection and socio-economic development. There is, therefore, a growing need for practical analyses that adopt a holistic approach. This paper analyses how this sector in the province of Almería (Spain), based on horticultural family farms, has risen to the above issues over recent decades. This case study provides some insights into the different trade-offs and synergies between sustainability dimensions. In particular, the integration of ecological, social and economic components may prove useful in helping other regions to adapt their agricultural systems, especially where these are characterized by small-scale farming.     

Sustainability assessment methodology of urban mobility projects

In Brazil, the introduction of a national urban mobility policy occurred only in 2012. In this context, the federal government has provided hundreds of millions in investment to improve mobility conditions in urban areas. The main financial institution responsible for analyzing and monitoring developments of this nature considers the following criteria for project assessment: cost, environmental licensing, compatibility, and functionality. However, a project’s contribution to sustainable urban mobility is not taken into account. Thus, the work reported herein aimed to develop a method to assess the sustainability of urban mobility projects. This involved indicator selection, and the development of a tool based on sustainability indicators for project assessment. In addition, an Urban Mobility Project Sustainability Index (UMPSI) was proposed to summarize the assessment, which was tested in five urban mobility projects funded in the Curitiba Metropolitan Region (RMC), presented in a companion paper. Environmental, social, and economic aspects of project design and implementation are considered in the assessment. The proposed method consists of 17 sustainability indicators, grouped according to their connection with environmental, social, and economic aspects. Addition of the proposed method to the contracting and monitoring processes of future urban mobility projects supports the sustainable development of the urban landscape.     

黑龙江打造国家级现代农业示范基地的模式与途径

黑龙江作为中国第一耕地大省、第一商品粮基地和有机食品基地,农业的自然和基础优势应为黑龙江第一优势。在全球金融危机和对食品需求不断升级换代的大背景之下,黑龙江打造国家级现代农业示范基地具有在自然资源、组织资源、科技实力、生态环境和产业基础等方面的巨大优势,对于进一步加快由农业大省向农业强省转变,促进加快全国农业现代化进程,保障国家粮食安全,具有巨大潜力;对于构建黑龙江现代农业产业体系,促进农业增效和农民增收也都具有十分重要的意义。该文在分析黑龙江打造国家级现代农业示范基地的突出优势和巨大潜力的基础上,提出了相应的模式与途径。     

Integrated assessment of cropping patterns under different policy scenarios in Quzhou County,North China Plain

Agricultural land use is affected by government policies and leads to different consequences of regional sustainability. In this work, changes in cropping patterns including acreage, cropping locations and management-related environmental impacts were simulated under various policy scenarios for Quzhou County, China. This county is in China's major agricultural region, the North China Plain. Four dominant crop systems were categorized (winter wheat/summer maize, winter wheat/summer maize/spring maize, cotton, and vegetables) and analyzed, following two alternative policy scenarios that either prioritized government funding to subsidize crop production (“subsidy” scenario) or promoted advanced irrigation techniques (“technique” scenario). Input–output coefficients for all four crop systems were determined, mainly irrigation demand, yield, and price of produce, but other factors like a limited area of arable land and scarce regional water resources were also considered. For the simulation, a LINDO Inc. system was linked with the CLUE (Conversion of Land Use and its Effects) model. Temporal changes of crop systems were simulated with the LINDO system, whereas spatial dynamics of cropping patterns were simulated with the CLUE model, based on land suitability maps. The results show that crop patterns changed variably with time under the two scenarios, and water availability was the primary constraint on sustainability of land use. Under the subsidy scenario, winter wheat/summer maize/spring maize became dominant across the entire county, replacing other crop systems. In contrast, the vegetable system gradually occupied farmland surrounding the township under the technique scenario. The different policies produced opposite consequences for regional sustainability. Although a “subsidy” policy contributed to farmers’ income, it did not encourage water conservation for sustainable crop production, leading to land abandonment because of water shortage. In contrast, the “technique” policy partially cut direct financial benefits to farmers, but promoted water conservation and made a substantial contribution to agricultural sustainability.     

A ‘Legislation-Check’ based on ‘3-D Sustainability’ - Addressing global precautionary land governance

This paper aims to provide a new and practical approach called ‘Legislation-Check’ to identifying shortcomings in national legislation in terms of how well it implements sustainable development, and ways of improving the legislation. National legislation was chosen as it represents a sort of ‘skeleton of society’ and defines the status quo, as well as setting the main environmental, societal and economic directions of the population covered.The approach presented is based on a new concept called ‘3-D Sustainability’, which focuses on the precautionary principle. 3-D Sustainability provides criteria in a flexible hierarchy for solving conflicts of interest between economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. In this paper, these criteria and dimensions are applied to various sectors of Austrian national environmental legislation to identify the shortcomings of the legislation and ways of addressing these shortcomings.This paper shows, by way of quantitative data, a significant increase in the use of sustainability related terms in generally applicable legal instruments (both federal and provincial) in Austria since 2003. In qualitative terms the results of the paper further indicate, using national environmental legislation, several hierarchical disorders between different legal acts and opportunities for improving them. Furthermore, inadequacies in the way that the legislation handles sustainable development and a total lack of overall objectives and targets in terms of sustainability are highlighted, which can jeopardise sustainable development.The concept of ‘3-D Sustainability’ has not previously focused on national legislation, despite the practical importance of the legal implementation and enforcement on this geographic level. Hence, this paper contributes, through scientifically-based decision support, to practical pathways for the innovation of institutional, procedural and substantive arrangements in existing legislation.The approach presented in this paper is not restricted to environmental issues, but is applicable to all thematic areas. It is also not geographically limited, but could be implemented in any country and also beyond national borders. Furthermore, the approach can be easily replicated and provides systematically gained results for global governance change towards sustainable development.     

基于案例研究的西南地区山地小城镇可持续建设水平诊断

[目的]通过诊断西南地区山地小城镇可持续建设水平,针对性地提出提升西南地区山地小城镇可持续建设水平的路径,为西南地区山地小城镇可持续建设提供科学的决策支撑。[方法]基于对我国20世纪80年代以来不同部门建立的9套城镇化可持续建设指标体系的梳理,结合西南地区山地小城镇可持续建设的内涵,从经济建设、社会进步、资源环境3个准则层选取24个指标,构建西南地区山地小城镇可持续建设水平评价指标体系框架。并利用熵值层次法确定评价指标体系中各指标的权重,应用线性加权综合评价模型对西南地区具有代表性的山地小城镇进行可持续建设水平诊断。[结果]西南地区山地小城镇可持续建设水平不高,尤其是经济建设比较落后。一方面以农业为主的西南地区山地小城镇经济结构亟待升级转型。另一方面,西南地区山地小城镇镇区人口集聚能力不足,限制了经济发展。通过对样本镇的聚类分析,西南地区山地小城镇的可持续发展能力可分为较强、一般、较弱3类。[结论]提高西南地区山地小城镇可持续经济建设水平关键是要依据自身资源禀赋调整经济结构。西南地区山地小城镇可以依托招商引资发展工业经济,通过优化资源的合理利用,发展镇区工业园;同时可以依托新农村建设发展乡镇生态旅游项目,从而带动镇域经济发展。