A novel approach for assessing the contribution of agricultural systems to the sustainable development of regions with multi-scale indicators: Application to Guadeloupe |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Business Economics Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8130, 6700 EW, Wageningen, The Netherlands;2. Faculdade de Administracão, Ciências Contábeis e Economia, Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados (UFGD), Brazil;3. Animal Production Systems Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH, Wageningen, The Netherlands;1. Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, TP 262, Via E. Fermi 2749, Ispra, 21027 VA, Italy;2. Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Braccini 2, Grugliasco, 10095 TO, Italy;3. Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM) – Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy;4. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Via Sant''Epifanio 14, 27100 Pavia, Italy;5. Agricola 2000, Services and Research for Agriculture, Via Trieste 9, Tribiano, 20067 MI, Italy;6. Regione Lombardia – DG Agricoltura, Piazza Città di Lombardia 1, 20124 Milano, Italy;1. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;2. Beijing Engineering Research Center for Watershed Environmental Restoration & Integrated Ecological Regulation, Beijing 100875, China;3. University of Napoli ‘Parthenope’, Department of Science and Technology, Centro Direzionale, Isola C4, 80143, Naples, Italy;4. Paulista University (UNIP), Post-Graduation Program in Production Engineering, Brazil;5. Key Laboratory for City Environmental Safety and Green Development of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | Agricultural landscapes Indicators Cropping systems Integrated assessment Ecosystem services Multicriteria assessment Farming systems |
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