IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v163y2018icp73-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating agricultural trade-offs in the age of sustainable development

Author

Listed:
  • Kanter, David R.
  • Musumba, Mark
  • Wood, Sylvia L.R.
  • Palm, Cheryl
  • Antle, John
  • Balvanera, Patricia
  • Dale, Virginia H.
  • Havlik, Petr
  • Kline, Keith L.
  • Scholes, R.J.
  • Thornton, Philip
  • Tittonell, Pablo
  • Andelman, Sandy

Abstract

A vibrant, resilient and productive agricultural sector is fundamental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Bringing about such a transformation requires optimizing a range of agronomic, environmental and socioeconomic outcomes from agricultural systems – from crop yields, to biodiversity, to human nutrition. However, these outcomes are not independent of each other – they interact in both positive and negative ways, creating the potential for synergies and trade-offs. Consequently, transforming the agricultural sector for the age of sustainable development requires tracking these interactions, assessing if objectives are being achieved and allowing for adaptive management within the diverse agricultural systems that make up global agriculture. This paper reviews the field of agricultural trade-off analysis, which has emerged to better understand these interactions – from field to farm, region to continent. Taking a “cradle-to-grave” approach, we distill agricultural trade-off analysis into four steps: 1) characterizing the decision setting and identifying the context-specific indicators needed to assess agricultural sustainability, 2) selecting the methods for generating indicator values across different scales, 3) deciding on the means of evaluating and communicating the trade-off options with stakeholders and decision-makers, and 4) improving uptake of trade-off analysis outputs by decision-makers. Given the breadth of the Sustainable Development Goals and the importance of agriculture to many of them, we assess notions of human well-being beyond income or direct health concerns (e.g. related to gender, equality, nutrition), as well as diverse environmental indicators ranging from soil health to biodiversity to climate forcing. Looking forward, areas of future work include integrating the four steps into a single modeling platform and connecting tools across scales and disciplines to facilitate trade-off analysis. Likewise, enhancing the policy relevance of agricultural trade-off analysis requires improving scientist-stakeholder engagement in the research process. Only then can this field proactively address trade-off issues that are integral to sustainably intensifying local and global agriculture – a critical step toward successfully implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Kanter, David R. & Musumba, Mark & Wood, Sylvia L.R. & Palm, Cheryl & Antle, John & Balvanera, Patricia & Dale, Virginia H. & Havlik, Petr & Kline, Keith L. & Scholes, R.J. & Thornton, Philip & Titton, 2018. "Evaluating agricultural trade-offs in the age of sustainable development," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 73-88.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:163:y:2018:i:c:p:73-88
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2016.09.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X1630542X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2016.09.010?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. Kristjanson, Patti & Reid, Robin S. & Dickson, Nancy M. & Grace, Delia & Clark, William C. & Romney, Dannie & Puskur, Ranjitha & MacMillan, Susan, 2009. "Linking International Agricultural Research Knowledge with Action for Sustainable Development," Scholarly Articles 9774655, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    2. Peter Verburg & Bas Eickhout & Hans Meijl, 2008. "A multi-scale, multi-model approach for analyzing the future dynamics of European land use," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 42(1), pages 57-77, March.
    3. AfDB AfDB, . "Report of the High Level Panel - Investing in Africa’s Future," High Level Panel Report, African Development Bank, number 97 edited by AfDB AfDB.
    4. John M. Antle & Susan M. Capalbo, 2001. "Econometric-Process Models for Integrated Assessment of Agricultural Production Systems," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(2), pages 389-401.
    5. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    6. Calogero Carletto & Dean Jolliffe & Raka Banerjee, 2015. "From Tragedy to Renaissance: Improving Agricultural Data for Better Policies," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 133-148, February.
    7. Homann-Kee Tui, Sabine & Valbuena, Diego & Masikati, Patricia & Descheemaeker, Katrien & Nyamangara, Justice & Claessens, Lieven & Erenstein, Olaf & van Rooyen, Andre & Nkomboni, Daniel, 2015. "Economic trade-offs of biomass use in crop-livestock systems: Exploring more sustainable options in semi-arid Zimbabwe," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 48-60.
    8. McCown, R. L., 2002. "Changing systems for supporting farmers' decisions: problems, paradigms, and prospects," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 179-220, October.
    9. Patti Kristjanson & Blane Harvey & Marissa Van Epp & Philip K. Thornton, 2014. "Social learning and sustainable development," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 5-7, January.
    10. Tittonell, P. & van Wijk, M.T. & Herrero, M. & Rufino, M.C. & de Ridder, N. & Giller, K.E., 2009. "Beyond resource constraints - Exploring the biophysical feasibility of options for the intensification of smallholder crop-livestock systems in Vihiga district, Kenya," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 101(1-2), pages 1-19, June.
    11. Antle, John M. & Capalbo, Susan Marie, 1991. "Physical And Economic Model Integration For Measurement Of The Environmental Impacts Of Agricultural Chemical Use," Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 20(1), pages 1-15, April.
    12. Antle, John M. & Diagana, Bocar & Stoorvogel, Jetse J. & Valdivia, Roberto O., 2010. "Minimum-data analysis of ecosystem service supply in semi-subsistence agricultural systems," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 54(4), pages 1-17.
    13. Giller, K.E. & Tittonell, P. & Rufino, M.C. & van Wijk, M.T. & Zingore, S. & Mapfumo, P. & Adjei-Nsiah, S. & Herrero, M. & Chikowo, R. & Corbeels, M. & Rowe, E.C. & Baijukya, F. & Mwijage, A. & Smith,, 2011. "Communicating complexity: Integrated assessment of trade-offs concerning soil fertility management within African farming systems to support innovation and development," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 191-203, February.
    14. Jacob van Etten, 2011. "Crowdsourcing Crop Improvement in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Proposal for a Scalable and Inclusive Approach to Food Security," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(4), pages 102-110, July.
    15. Gero Carletto & Marie Ruel & Paul Winters & Alberto Zezza, 2015. "Farm-Level Pathways to Improved Nutritional Status: Introduction to the Special Issue," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 945-957, August.
    16. Rufino, M.C. & Reidsma, P. & Nillesen, E.E.M., 2011. "Comments to "Is an integrated farm more resilient against climate change? A micro-econometric analysis of portfolio diversification in African agriculture"," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 452-454, June.
    17. Alfons Weersink & Scott Jeffrey & David Pannell, 2002. "Farm-Level Modeling for Bigger Issues," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 24(1), pages 123-140.
    18. Immerzeel, Walter & Stoorvogel, Jetse & Antle, John, 2008. "Can payments for ecosystem services secure the water tower of Tibet," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 96(1-3), pages 52-63, March.
    19. John M. Antle, 2011. "Parsimonious Multi-dimensional Impact Assessment," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1292-1311.
    20. Pannell, David J. & Glenn, Nicole A., 2000. "A framework for the economic evaluation and selection of sustainability indicators in agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 135-149, April.
    21. Valdivia, Roberto O. & Antle, John M. & Stoorvogel, Jetse J., 2012. "Coupling the Tradeoff Analysis Model with a market equilibrium model to analyze economic and environmental outcomes of agricultural production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 17-29.
    22. Costanza, Robert & Chichakly, Karim & Dale, Virginia & Farber, Steve & Finnigan, David & Grigg, Kat & Heckbert, Scott & Kubiszewski, Ida & Lee, Harry & Liu, Shuang & Magnuszewski, Piotr & Maynard, Sim, 2014. "Simulation games that integrate research, entertainment, and learning around ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 195-201.
    23. Janssen, Sander & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2007. "Assessing farm innovations and responses to policies: A review of bio-economic farm models," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 622-636, June.
    24. repec:hrv:hksfac:5345878 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Tittonell, P. & van Wijk, M.T. & Rufino, M.C. & Vrugt, J.A. & Giller, K.E., 2007. "Analysing trade-offs in resource and labour allocation by smallholder farmers using inverse modelling techniques: A case-study from Kakamega district, western Kenya," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 95(1-3), pages 76-95, December.
    26. David Tilman & Michael Clark, 2014. "Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health," Nature, Nature, vol. 515(7528), pages 518-522, November.
    27. Dogliotti, S. & van Ittersum, M.K. & Rossing, W.A.H., 2005. "A method for exploring sustainable development options at farm scale: a case study for vegetable farms in South Uruguay," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 29-51, October.
    28. Dale, Virginia H. & Polasky, Stephen, 2007. "Measures of the effects of agricultural practices on ecosystem services," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 286-296, December.
    29. García-Barrios, L.E. & Speelman, E.N. & Pimm, M.S., 2008. "An educational simulation tool for negotiating sustainable natural resource management strategies among stakeholders with conflicting interests," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 210(1), pages 115-126.
    30. Pingali, Prabhu L. & Rosegrant, Mark W., 1995. "Agricultural commercialization and diversification: processes and policies," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 171-185, June.
    31. Groot, Jeroen C.J. & Oomen, Gerard J.M. & Rossing, Walter A.H., 2012. "Multi-objective optimization and design of farming systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 63-77.
    32. Jones, J. W. & Keating, B. A. & Porter, C. H., 2001. "Approaches to modular model development," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 70(2-3), pages 421-443.
    33. Hugo Valin & Ronald D. Sands & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe & Gerald C. Nelson & Helal Ahammad & Elodie Blanc & Benjamin Bodirsky & Shinichiro Fujimori & Tomoko Hasegawa & Petr Havlik & Edwina Heyhoe, 2014. "The future of food demand: understanding differences in global economic models," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(1), pages 51-67, January.
    34. Bekele, Elias G. & Lant, Christopher L. & Soman, Sethuram & Misgna, Girmay, 2013. "The evolution and empirical estimation of ecological-economic production possibilities frontiers," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 1-9.
    35. van Ittersum, Martin K. & Ewert, Frank & Heckelei, Thomas & Wery, Jacques & Alkan Olsson, Johanna & Andersen, Erling & Bezlepkina, Irina & Brouwer, Floor & Donatelli, Marcello & Flichman, Guillermo & , 2008. "Integrated assessment of agricultural systems - A component-based framework for the European Union (SEAMLESS)," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 96(1-3), pages 150-165, March.
    36. Dale, Virginia H. & Kline, Keith L. & Buford, Marilyn A. & Volk, Timothy A. & Tattersall Smith, C. & Stupak, Inge, 2016. "Incorporating bioenergy into sustainable landscape designs," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1158-1171.
    37. John M. Antle & Prabhu L. Pingali, 1994. "Pesticides, Productivity, and Farmer Health: A Philippine Case Study," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(3), pages 418-430.
    38. Pollesch, N. & Dale, V.H., 2015. "Applications of aggregation theory to sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 117-127.
    39. Clark, William C. & Tomich, Thomas P. & Noordwijk, Meine van & Guston, David & Delia, Catacutan & Dickson, Nancy M. & McNie, Elizabeth, 2011. "Boundary Work for Sustainable Development: Natural Resource Management at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)," Scholarly Articles 9774653, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    40. Leslie Lipper & Philip Thornton & Bruce M. Campbell & Tobias Baedeker & Ademola Braimoh & Martin Bwalya & Patrick Caron & Andrea Cattaneo & Dennis Garrity & Kevin Henry & Ryan Hottle & Louise Jackson , 2014. "Climate-smart agriculture for food security," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1068-1072, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Le Gal, P.-Y. & Dugué, P. & Faure, G. & Novak, S., 2011. "How does research address the design of innovative agricultural production systems at the farm level? A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(9), pages 714-728.
    2. Ditzler, Lenora & Klerkx, Laurens & Chan-Dentoni, Jacqueline & Posthumus, Helena & Krupnik, Timothy J. & Ridaura, Santiago López & Andersson, Jens A. & Baudron, Frédéric & Groot, Jeroen C.J., 2018. "Affordances of agricultural systems analysis tools: A review and framework to enhance tool design and implementation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 20-30.
    3. Valdivia, Roberto O. & Antle, John M. & Stoorvogel, Jetse J., 2012. "Coupling the Tradeoff Analysis Model with a market equilibrium model to analyze economic and environmental outcomes of agricultural production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 17-29.
    4. Hammond, James & Fraval, Simon & van Etten, Jacob & Suchini, Jose Gabriel & Mercado, Leida & Pagella, Tim & Frelat, Romain & Lannerstad, Mats & Douxchamps, Sabine & Teufel, Nils & Valbuena, Diego & va, 2017. "The Rural Household Multi-Indicator Survey (RHoMIS) for rapid characterisation of households to inform climate smart agriculture interventions: Description and applications in East Africa and Central ," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 225-233.
    5. Rodriguez, D & de Voil, P & Rufino, MC & Odendo, M & van Wijk, MT, 2017. "To mulch or to munch? Big modelling of big data," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 32-42.
    6. Thornton, Philip K. & Whitbread, Anthony & Baedeker, Tobias & Cairns, Jill & Claessens, Lieven & Baethgen, Walter & Bunn, Christian & Friedmann, Michael & Giller, Ken E. & Herrero, Mario & Howden, Mar, 2018. "A framework for priority-setting in climate smart agriculture research," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 161-175.
    7. Schreefel, L. & de Boer, I.J.M. & Timler, C.J. & Groot, J.C.J. & Zwetsloot, M.J. & Creamer, R.E. & Schrijver, A. Pas & van Zanten, H.H.E. & Schulte, R.P.O., 2022. "How to make regenerative practices work on the farm: A modelling framework," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    8. Janssen, Sander & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2007. "Assessing farm innovations and responses to policies: A review of bio-economic farm models," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 622-636, June.
    9. Groot, Jeroen C.J. & Oomen, Gerard J.M. & Rossing, Walter A.H., 2012. "Multi-objective optimization and design of farming systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 63-77.
    10. Britz, Wolfgang & Ciaian, Pavel & Gocht, Alexander & Kanellopoulos, Argyris & Kremmydas, Dimitrios & Müller, Marc & Petsakos, Athanasios & Reidsma, Pytrik, 2021. "A design for a generic and modular bio-economic farm model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    11. Alison Shaw & Patti Kristjanson, 2014. "A Catalyst toward Sustainability? Exploring Social Learning and Social Differentiation Approaches with the Agricultural Poor," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(5), pages 1-33, May.
    12. Cooper, Gregory S. & Rich, Karl M. & Shankar, Bhavani & Rana, Vinay & Ratna, Nazmun N. & Kadiyala, Suneetha & Alam, Mohammad J. & Nadagouda, Sharan B., 2021. "Identifying ‘win-win-win’ futures from inequitable value chain trade-offs: A system dynamics approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    13. Rossing, Walter A.H. & Albicette, Maria Marta & Aguerre, Veronica & Leoni, Carolina & Ruggia, Andrea & Dogliotti, Santiago, 2021. "Crafting actionable knowledge on ecological intensification: Lessons from co-innovation approaches in Uruguay and Europe," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    14. Chopin, Pierre & Blazy, Jean-Marc & Guindé, Loïc & Wery, Jacques & Doré, Thierry, 2017. "A framework for designing multi-functional agricultural landscapes: Application to Guadeloupe Island," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 316-329.
    15. Kragt, M.E. & Pannell, D.J. & McVittie, A. & Stott, A.W. & Vosough Ahmadi, B. & Wilson, P., 2016. "Improving interdisciplinary collaboration in bio-economic modelling for agricultural systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 217-224.
    16. Dupré, Marie & Blazy, Jean-Marc & Michels, Thierry & Le Gal, Pierre-Yves, 2021. "Supporting policymakers in designing agricultural policy instruments: A participatory approach with a regional bioeconomic model in La Réunion (France)," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    17. John M. Antle & Claudio O. Stöckle, 2017. "Climate Impacts on Agriculture: Insights from Agronomic-Economic Analysis," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(2), pages 299-318.
    18. van Wijk, Mark T., 2014. "From global economic modelling to household level analyses of food security and sustainability: How big is the gap and can we bridge it?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P2), pages 378-388.
    19. Schönhart, Martin & Schauppenlehner, Thomas & Schmid, Erwin & Muhar, Andreas, 2011. "Integration of bio-physical and economic models to analyze management intensity and landscape structure effects at farm and landscape level," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 122-134, February.
    20. Tittonell, Pablo & Gérard, Bruno & Erenstein, Olaf, 2015. "Tradeoffs around crop residue biomass in smallholder crop-livestock systems – What’s next?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 119-128.

    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:163:y:2018:i:c:p:73-88. 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.