IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v157y2017icp118-128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability assessment of agricultural systems: The validity of expert opinion and robustness of a multi-criteria analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Pashaei Kamali, Farahnaz
  • Borges, João A.R.
  • Meuwissen, Miranda P.M.
  • de Boer, Imke J.M.
  • Oude Lansink, Alfons G.J.M.

Abstract

Sustainability assessment of agricultural systems is frequently hampered by data availability. Elicitation of expert opinions combined with multi-criteria assessment (MCA) could be a useful approach for sustainability assessments in data-scarce situations. To our knowledge, the validity of expert opinion used to score sustainability performance of agricultural systems, however, has not been addressed. Also, robustness of the overall outcome of MCA to uncertainty about scores obtained from expert elicitation and weights used to aggregate scores is generally not addressed. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the validity of expert opinion, and to evaluate the robustness of the overall MCA outcome to uncertainty about scores and weights. The case study considers three soybean agricultural systems in Latin America: conventional agricultural system, with either genetically modified (GM) or non-genetically modified (non-GM) soybeans, and organic agricultural system. The validation was carried out by comparing the sustainability scores of experts with values from scientific studies. The robustness of the overall outcome of the MCA to uncertainty about scores and weights was assessed using Monte Carlo simulation. The comparison of expert opinion with reviewed studies showed that expert opinions are a potential alternative to extensive data-rich methods. The validity of expert opinions can be increased by considering a larger group of experts, with a high level of knowledge about agricultural systems and sustainability issues. With regard to robustness, the overall outcome of the MCA showed higher variation for organic soybean agricultural systems compared with GM and non-GM, in both Brazil and Argentina.

Suggested Citation

  • Pashaei Kamali, Farahnaz & Borges, João A.R. & Meuwissen, Miranda P.M. & de Boer, Imke J.M. & Oude Lansink, Alfons G.J.M., 2017. "Sustainability assessment of agricultural systems: The validity of expert opinion and robustness of a multi-criteria analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 118-128.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:157:y:2017:i:c:p:118-128
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2017.07.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X16303699
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.07.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sydorovych, Olha & Wossink, Ada, 2008. "The meaning of agricultural sustainability: Evidence from a conjoint choice survey," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 10-20, July.
    2. Klaas Calker & Paul Berentsen & Gerard Giesen & Ruud Huirne, 2005. "Identifying and ranking attributes that determine sustainability in Dutch dairy farming," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(1), pages 53-63, March.
    3. Nemecek, Thomas & Dubois, David & Huguenin-Elie, Olivier & Gaillard, Gérard, 2011. "Life cycle assessment of Swiss farming systems: I. Integrated and organic farming," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 217-232, March.
    4. Welsh, Rick, 1999. "The Economics of Organic Grain and Soybean Production in the Midwestern United States," Policy Studies Program Reports, Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture, number 134120, January.
    5. Delbridge, Timothy A. & Fernholz, Carmen & King, Robert P. & Lazarus, William, 2013. "A whole-farm profitability analysis of organic and conventional cropping systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 1-10.
    6. P Linares & C Romero, 2000. "A multiple criteria decision making approach for electricity planning in Spain: economic versus environmental objectives," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 51(6), pages 736-743, June.
    7. Gaitán-Cremaschi, Daniel & Kamali, Farahnaz Pashaei & van Evert, Frits K. & Meuwissen, Miranda P.M. & Oude Lansink, Alfons G.J.M., 2015. "Benchmarking the sustainability performance of the Brazilian non-GM and GM soybean meal chains: An indicator-based approach," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 22-32.
    8. Michalopoulos, T. & Hogeveen, H. & Heuvelink, E. & Oude Lansink, A.G.J.M., 2013. "Public multi-criteria assessment for societal concerns and gradual labelling," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 97-108.
    9. Delate, K. M. & Duffy, Michael & Chase, Craig A. & Holste, A. & Friedrich, H. & Wantate, N, 2003. "An Economic Comparison of Organic and Conventional Grain Crops in a Long-Term Agroecological Research (Ltar) Site in Iowa," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11818, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    10. Grimble, Robin & Wellard, Kate, 1997. "Stakeholder methodologies in natural resource management: a review of principles, contexts, experiences and opportunities," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 173-193, October.
    11. Pohekar, S. D. & Ramachandran, M., 2004. "Application of multi-criteria decision making to sustainable energy planning--A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 365-381, August.
    12. Refsgaard, Karen & Halberg, Niels & Kristensen, Erik Steen, 1998. "Energy utilization in crop and dairy production in organic and conventional livestock production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 599-630, August.
    13. Nemecek, Thomas & Huguenin-Elie, Olivier & Dubois, David & Gaillard, Gérard & Schaller, Britta & Chervet, Andreas, 2011. "Life cycle assessment of Swiss farming systems: II. Extensive and intensive production," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 233-245, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Benavides, Raúl Andrés Molina & Gaona, Rómulo Campos & Atzori, Alberto Stanislao & Sánchez, Luisa Fernanda & Guerrero, Hugo Sánchez, 2023. "Application of a system dynamics model to evaluate the implementation of payment for environmental services as a reconversion mechanism in high mountain farming," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 484(C).
    2. Hussein Samh Al-Masroori & Shekar Bose, 2021. "Fisheries sustainability assessment and sensitivity analysis: an illustration," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(11), pages 16283-16303, November.
    3. Hrabrin Bachev & Bojidar Ivanov & Angel Sarov, 2020. "Unpacking Governance Sustainability of Bulgarian Agriculture," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 106-137.
    4. Andersen Onofre, Kelsey F. & Forbes, Gregory A. & Andrade-Piedra, Jorge L. & Buddenhagen, Chris E. & Fulton, James C. & Gatto, Marcel & Khidesheli, Zurab & Mdivani, Rusudan & Xing, Yanru & Garrett, Ka, 2021. "An integrated seed health strategy and phytosanitary risk assessment: Potato in the Republic of Georgia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    5. Asimina Kouriati & Anna Tafidou & Evgenia Lialia & Angelos Prentzas & Christina Moulogianni & Eleni Dimitriadou & Thomas Bournaris, 2024. "A Multicriteria Decision Analysis Model for Optimal Land Uses: Guiding Farmers under the New European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (2023–2027)," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Thanh Ngo & Hai‐Dang Nguyen & Huong Ho & Vo‐Kien Nguyen & Thuy T. T. Dao & Hai T. H. Nguyen, 2021. "Assessing the important factors of sustainable agriculture development: An Indicateurs de Durabilité des Exploitations Agricoles‐Analytic Hierarchy Process study in the northern region of Vietnam," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 327-338, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Behroozeh, Samira & Hayati, Dariush & Karami, Ezatollah, 2022. "Determining and validating criteria to measure energy consumption sustainability in agricultural greenhouses," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    2. Zhen, Wei & Qin, Quande & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2017. "Spatio-temporal patterns of energy consumption-related GHG emissions in China's crop production systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 274-284.
    3. Vogel, Everton & Martinelli, Gabrielli & Artuzo, Felipe Dalzotto, 2021. "Environmental and economic performance of paddy field-based crop-livestock systems in Southern Brazil," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Delate, Kathleen & Cambardella, Cynthia & Chase, Craig & Turnbull, Robert, 2015. "A Review of Long-Term Organic Comparison Trials in the U.S," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 4(3 Special).
    5. Nemecek, Thomas & Dubois, David & Huguenin-Elie, Olivier & Gaillard, Gérard, 2011. "Life cycle assessment of Swiss farming systems: I. Integrated and organic farming," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 217-232, March.
    6. Stefan A. Hajkowicz, 2012. "For the Greater Good? A Test for Strategic Bias in Group Environmental Decisions," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 331-344, May.
    7. Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Rafiee, Shahin & Omid, Mahmoud & Yousefi, Marziye & Movahedi, Mehran, 2013. "Modeling of energy consumption and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in wheat production in Esfahan province of Iran using artificial neural networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 333-338.
    8. Pradeleix, L. & Roux, P. & Bouarfa, S. & Bellon-Maurel, V., 2023. "Multilevel life cycle assessment to evaluate prospective agricultural development scenarios in a semi-arid irrigated region of Tunisia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    9. Heinrich, G. & Basson, L. & Cohen, B. & Howells, M. & Petrie, J., 2007. "Ranking and selection of power expansion alternatives for multiple objectives under uncertainty," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2350-2369.
    10. Pradeleix, L. & Roux, P. & Bouarfa, S. & Bellon-Maurel, V., 2022. "Multilevel environmental assessment of regional farming activities with Life Cycle Assessment: Tackling data scarcity and farm diversity with Life Cycle Inventories based on Agrarian System Diagnosis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    11. Houshyar, Ehsan & Grundmann, Philipp, 2017. "Environmental impacts of energy use in wheat tillage systems: A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) study in Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 11-24.
    12. Liang, Long & Lal, Rattan & Ridoutt, Bradley G. & Zhao, Guishen & Du, Zhangliu & Li, Li & Feng, Dangyang & Wang, Liyuan & Peng, Peng & Hang, Sheng & Wu, Wenliang, 2018. "Multi-indicator assessment of a water-saving agricultural engineering project in North Beijing, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 34-46.
    13. Raupp, I. & Costa, F., 2021. "Hydropower expansion planning in Brazil - Environmental improvements," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    14. Berti, Marisol & Johnson, Burton & Ripplinger, David & Gesch, Russ & Aponte, Alfredo, 2017. "Environmental impact assessment of double- and relay-cropping with winter camelina in the northern Great Plains, USA," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 1-12.
    15. Liu, Chia-Yi & Hsieh & Chen-Yu, 2023. "How does Organic Agriculture Contribute to Sustainable Development? Organic Agriculture in Taiwan," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 14(03), September.
    16. El Chami, D. & Daccache, A., 2015. "Assessing sustainability of winter wheat production under climate change scenarios in a humid climate — An integrated modelling framework," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 19-25.
    17. Chen, Xuqi & Gao, Zhifeng & Swisher, Marilyn & House, Lisa & Zhao, Xin, 2018. "Eco-labeling in the Fresh Produce Market: Not All Environmentally Friendly Labels Are Equally Valued," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 201-210.
    18. Forte, Annachiara & Zucaro, Amalia & De Vico, Gionata & Fierro, Angelo, 2016. "Carbon footprint of heliciculture: A case study from an Italian experimental farm," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 99-111.
    19. Luhmann, Henrike & Schaper, Christian & Theuvsen, Ludwig, 2016. "Acceptance of a Sustainability Standard: Evidence from an Empirical Study of Future-Oriented Dairy Farmers," 2016 International European Forum (151st EAAE Seminar), February 15-19, 2016, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 244538, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    20. Murphy, Fionnuala & Devlin, Ger & McDonnell, Kevin, 2014. "Forest biomass supply chains in Ireland: A life cycle assessment of GHG emissions and primary energy balances," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-8.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:157:y:2017:i:c:p:118-128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.