A review on the competitiveness and performance of ecological, organic and regenerative agricultural systems

Over the last three decades, agricultural systems have been at the center of numerous policies designed to deliver society closer to a more sustainable future. Emergent research show agriculture as a vector of change that can significantly contribute to transforming economic models–from linearity to circularity–one of the premises of the circular economy. Turning waste into resource suggests new windows of opportunity for agriculture, as well as its potential to gain competitive advantages in relation with other economic sectors and become highly performant in this regard. Considering the new meanings of competitiveness and performance in the economics of sustainability, the objective of this research was to carry out a literature review on three types of environmentally friendly agricultural systems (ecological, organic, regenerative), and explore how the concepts of competitiveness and performance converge and/or diverge based on the different characteristics of each type of agricultural system. The literature is generally convergent towards the fact that ecological, organic, and regenerative agricultural systems are highly competitive in terms of low environmental impact, especially if compared to conventional agriculture, yet they are poorly competitive from a legislative point of view–as it is considered that those three agricultural systems are highly reliant on incentives and political support. From an economic perspective, they are also not the best-performing in terms of cost generation, yields, and income volumes. More research is still needed in order to identify pathways for the large-scale practicing of profitable, resilient, and environmentally friendly agricultural systems.