IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tea/wpaper/0809.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Assessing the Sustainability of Irish Agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Emma J. Dillon

    (Rural Economy and Development Programme, Teagasc, Athenry, Co. Galway, Ireland)

  • Thia Hennessy

    (Rural Economy and Development Programme, Teagasc, Athenry, Co. Galway, Ireland)

  • Stephen Hynes

    (Rural Economy and Development Programme, Teagasc, Athenry, Co. Galway, Ireland)

  • Verena Commins

    (Rural Economy and Development Programme, Teagasc, Athenry, Co. Galway, Ireland)

Abstract

Indicators encompassing the multi-dimensional nature of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) are developed here using National Farm Survey data over a ten-year period (1996-2006) to assess the overall sustainability of Irish agriculture. This is the first such study undertaken for Ireland and the results show great change over the decade, in all three areas examined. The general concept of sustainability is discussed and the development of agricultural sustainability indicators in an Irish context described. The usefulness of composite indicators (particularly for this kind of research) is also evaluated. Individual indicators are dealt with in turn and the RERC SMILE model is used to demonstrate how these indicators can be mapped at electoral division level.1 Economic viability was found to be generally in decline over the ten-year period examined, however, when individual farming systems were taken into account, some were found to perform better than others. Unsurprisingly the more intensive farming systems (primarily dairy) were found to pollute more on average, and a case is then made for the potential trading of emissions permits across farms. Irish agriculture is experiencing a period of fundamental change, not least in terms of the ever-changing rural demographic; the challenge therefore lies in ensuring that farms remain economically, environmentally and socially sustainable in the long-term.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma J. Dillon & Thia Hennessy & Stephen Hynes & Verena Commins, 2008. "Assessing the Sustainability of Irish Agriculture," Working Papers 0809, Rural Economy and Development Programme,Teagasc.
    • Handle: RePEc:tea:wpaper:0809
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/downloads/workingpapers/08WPRE09.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2008
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bohringer, Christoph & Jochem, Patrick E.P., 2007. "Measuring the immeasurable -- A survey of sustainability indices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 1-8, June.
    2. Alan Matthews & Jean-Christophe Bureau, 2005. "EU Agricultural Policy: What Developing Countries Need to Know," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp91, IIIS.
    3. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2006. "Comparing aggregating methods for constructing the composite environmental index: An objective measure," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 305-311, September.
    4. Michela Nardo & Michaela Saisana & Andrea Saltelli & Stefano Tarantola & Anders Hoffman & Enrico Giovannini, 2005. "Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators: Methodology and User Guide," OECD Statistics Working Papers 2005/3, OECD Publishing.
    5. Giuseppe Munda, 2005. "“Measuring Sustainability”: A Multi-Criterion Framework," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 117-134, January.
    6. Breen, James P., 2008. "Simulating a Market for Tradable Greenhouse Gas Emissions Permits amongst Irish Farmers," 82nd Annual Conference, March 31 - April 2, 2008, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, UK 36770, Agricultural Economics Society.
    7. van Calker, K.J. & Berentsen, P.B.M. & Romero, C. & Giesen, G.W.J. & Huirne, R.B.M., 2006. "Development and application of a multi-attribute sustainability function for Dutch dairy farming systems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 640-658, June.
    8. Layte, Richard & Maitre, Bernard & Nolan, Brian & Watson, Dorothy & Williams, James & Casey, Barra, 2001. "Monitoring Poverty Trends and Exploring Poverty Dynamics in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number PRS41.
    9. 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.
    10. Rigby, Dan & Woodhouse, Phil & Young, Trevor & Burton, Michael, 2001. "Constructing a farm level indicator of sustainable agricultural practice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 463-478, December.
    11. Michael Freudenberg, 2003. "Composite Indicators of Country Performance: A Critical Assessment," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2003/16, OECD Publishing.
    12. Andrew Sharpe, 2004. "Literature Review of Frameworks for Macro-indicators," CSLS Research Reports 2004-03, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    13. Hansen, J. W., 1996. "Is agricultural sustainability a useful concept?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 117-143.
    14. Pirazzoli, Carlo & Castellini, Alessandra, 2000. "Application of a Model for Evaluating the Environmental Sustainability of Cultures in Hill and Mountain Areas: The Case of Berries and Fruit Chestnuts in Northern Italy," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 1(1), pages 1-14, January.
    15. Gomez-Limon, Jose Antonio & Riesgo, Laura, 2008. "Alternative Approaches On Constructing A Composite Indicator To Measure Agricultural Sustainability," 107th Seminar, January 30-February 1, 2008, Sevilla, Spain 6489, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    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. Darragh Clancy & A. Kazukauskas & C. Newman & Fiona Thorne, 2009. "An investigation of the level of structural change in the agrifood sector of Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands," Working Papers 0915, Rural Economy and Development Programme,Teagasc.

    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. Dillon, Emma J. & Hennessy, Thia C. & Hynes, Stephen, 2009. "Towards Measurement of Farm Sustainability - an Irish case study," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51786, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Gómez-Limón, José A. & Sanchez-Fernandez, Gabriela, 2010. "Empirical evaluation of agricultural sustainability using composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1062-1075, March.
    3. Gomez-Limon, Jose Antonio & Riesgo, Laura, 2008. "Alternative Approaches On Constructing A Composite Indicator To Measure Agricultural Sustainability," 107th Seminar, January 30-February 1, 2008, Sevilla, Spain 6489, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. José A. Gómez-Limón & Manuel Arriaza & M. Dolores Guerrero-Baena, 2020. "Building a Composite Indicator to Measure Environmental Sustainability Using Alternative Weighting Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Samira El Gibari & Trinidad Gómez & Francisco Ruiz, 2019. "Building composite indicators using multicriteria methods: a review," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 89(1), pages 1-24, February.
    6. Shamsheer Haq & Ismet Boz, 2020. "Measuring environmental, economic, and social sustainability index of tea farms in Rize Province, Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 2545-2567, March.
    7. Ranjan Roy & Ngai Weng Chan, 2012. "An assessment of agricultural sustainability indicators in Bangladesh: review and synthesis," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 99-110, March.
    8. Pollesch, N.L. & Dale, V.H., 2016. "Normalization in sustainability assessment: Methods and implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 195-208.
    9. Salvatore Greco & Alessio Ishizaka & Menelaos Tasiou & Gianpiero Torrisi, 2019. "On the Methodological Framework of Composite Indices: A Review of the Issues of Weighting, Aggregation, and Robustness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 61-94, January.
    10. Milica Maricic & Jose A. Egea & Veljko Jeremic, 2019. "A Hybrid Enhanced Scatter Search—Composite I-Distance Indicator (eSS-CIDI) Optimization Approach for Determining Weights Within Composite Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 497-537, July.
    11. Vecchione, Gaetano, 2010. "EU rural policy: proposal and application of an agricultural sustainability index," MPRA Paper 27032, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Vijaya Krishnan, 2015. "Development of a Multidimensional Living Conditions Index (LCI)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(2), pages 455-481, January.
    13. Edson Kogachi & Adonias Ferreira & Carlos Cavalcante & Marcelo Embiruçu, 2021. "Development of Performance Evaluation Indicators for Table Grape Packaging Units. 2. Global Indexes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, June.
    14. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2019. "Sigma-Mu efficiency analysis: A methodology for evaluating units through composite indicators," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 942-960.
    15. Paula Trivino-Tarradas & Manuel R. Gomez-Ariza & Gottlieb Basch & Emilio J. Gonzalez-Sanchez, 2019. "Sustainability Assessment of Annual and Permanent Crops: The Inspia Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-21, January.
    16. Gomez-Limon, Jose Antonio & Riesgo, Laura, 2010. "Sustainability assessment of olive grove in Andalusia: A methodological proposal," 120th Seminar, September 2-4, 2010, Chania, Crete 109323, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Siavash Fallah-Alipour & Hossein Mehrabi Boshrabadi & Mohammad Reza Zare Mehrjerdi & Dariush Hayati, 2018. "A Framework for Empirical Assessment of Agricultural Sustainability: The Case of Iran," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-26, December.
    18. Patrick Nussbaumer & Morgan Bazilian & Vijay Modi & Kandeh K. Yumkella, 2011. "Measuring Energy Poverty: Focusing on What Matters," OPHI Working Papers 42, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    19. Hatefi, S.M. & Torabi, S.A., 2010. "A common weight MCDA-DEA approach to construct composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 114-120, November.
    20. Riccardo Natoli & Segu Zuhair, 2011. "Measuring Progress: A Comparison of the GDP, HDI, GS and the RIE," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 33-56, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:tea:wpaper:0809. 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: John Lennon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/reteaie.html .

    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.