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Measuring agricultural sustainability at the farm-level: A pragmatic approach

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  • Franks, Jeremy
  • Frater, Poppy

Abstract

With increasing political pressure to produce more food whilst being environmentally and socially considerate, alongside the need to cope with climatic extremes and financial instability, farming needs to become more sustainable. To monitor and improve understanding of sustainable agriculture, farmers will need additional tools to illustrate the impacts of their business decisions. However, current tools to monitor the sustainability of agriculture require measurement of variables that are rarely readily available. Moreover these tools exclude farmers in their development and interpretation. This paper suggests a pragmatic approach to creating a farm-based monitoring tool. We propose that farm-level indices of sustainability are initially based only on data that is readily available. Whilst this would increase its appeal to farmers and therefore participation rates, it may initially have little immediate value as a measure of sustainability. Therefore a ‘design-action-design’ cycle-the basis of adaptive co-management- must be employed to allow the tool to evolve. Starting from this pragmatic, bottom-up perspective, as data collection systems improve, more theoretically driven (i.e. top-down) site-specific variables of sustainability can be included to provide a more comprehensive tool. This paper illustrates the principles involved by (i) calculating a farm-specific composite sustainability index (CSI) for a commercial farm based on readily available data and (ii) emphasising the need to establish better data collection systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Franks, Jeremy & Frater, Poppy, 2013. "Measuring agricultural sustainability at the farm-level: A pragmatic approach," International Journal of Agricultural Management, Institute of Agricultural Management, vol. 2(4), pages 1-19, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ijameu:175061
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.175061
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    1. Azad, M.A. Samad & Ancev, Tihomir, 2020. "Assessing the dynamics of natural capital on farms: A soil natural capital indicator," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    2. Ryan, Mary & Buckley, Cathal & Dillon, Emma Jane & Donnellan, Trevor & Hanrahan, Kevin & Hennessy, Thia & Moran, Brian, 2014. "The development of farm-level sustainability indicators for Ireland using the Teagasc National Farm Survey," 88th Annual Conference, April 9-11, 2014, AgroParisTech, Paris, France 170501, Agricultural Economics Society.
    3. Kadir, Kadir & Hasanah, Isnaeni Nur, 2021. "Measurement of Sustainable Agriculture at Household Level: Results of Indonesian Agriculture Integrated Survey (AGRIS) Pilot," MPRA Paper 120697, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 12 Dec 2021.
    4. Beadle, Brian, 2023. "The design and application of an agricultural sustainability index using item response theory," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 278112, March.

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