home    about    browse    search    latest    help 
Login | Create Account

Assessing agro-ecological practices using a combination of three sustainability assessment tools

Landert, Jan; Pfeifer, Catherine; Carolus, Johannes; Schwarz, Gerald; Albanito, Fabrizio; Muller, Adrian; Smith, Pete; Sanders, Jürn; Schader, Christian; Vanni, Francesco; Prazan, Jaroslav; Baumgart, Lukas; Blockeel, Johan; Weisshaidinger, Rainer; Bartel-Kratochvil, Ruth; Hollaus, Alexander; Mayer, Andreas; Hrabalova, Andrea; Helin, Janne; Aakkula, Jyrki; Svels, Kristina; Guisepelli, Emmanuel; Smyrniotopoulou, Alexandra; Vlahos, George; Iordanidis, Yiannis; Szilágyi, Alfréd; Podmaniczky, László; Balázs, Katalin; Galioto, Francesco; Longhitano, Davide; Rossignolo, Letizia; Povellato, Andrea; Zīlāns, Andis; Jegelevičius, Gražvydas; Frățilă, Mihaela; Yoldi, Uxue Iragui; Massa, Carlos Astrain; Bienzobas Adrián, Jon; Sahlin, Kajsa Resare; Röös, Elin; Frick, Rebekka; Bircher, Richard; Aalders, Inge; Irvine, Katherine N.; Kyle, Carol and Miller, David (2020) Assessing agro-ecological practices using a combination of three sustainability assessment tools. Landbauforschung, 70 (2), pp. 129-144.

[thumbnail of landert-etal-2020-Landbauforschung-Vol70-Issue2-p129-144.pdf] PDF - English
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

1MB

Document available online at: https://www.landbauforschung.net/fileadmin/landbauforschung/Pdf_Papers_Reviews/LBF-70-02_18_Research_Landert_et_al_20210208.pdf


Summary

The alignment of the environmental, economic and social sustainability of farms is necessary for enhancing the pro-vision of public goods in farming. This study combines the use of three tools for the assessment of farm sustainability. It provides first insights into the sustainability performance of farms at different stages of agro-ecological transitions in 15 case studies covering a range of different farming systems across Europe. Each case study reflects a different transition towards agro-ecological farming. The tools applied were COMPAS (an economic farm assessment tool); Cool Farm Tool (a greenhouse gas inventory, water footprint and biodiversity assessment tool); and the SMART Farm Tool (a ultidimensional sustainability assessment tool).First results of the use of combined sustainability assessments deepen the understanding of different farming systems. Sustainability performance varies greatly between farms, but overall, agro-ecological farms tend to enhance biodiversity and water quality. For soil quality, no clear patterns could be identified. The same applies to economic performance at different stages of the agro-ecological transition. Quality of life was generally rated medium to high on all investigated farms. The combined sustainability assessment enabled the identification of areas for further policy development. Aligning the tools required harmonising definitions, simplification and assumptions with regard to the input data of the tools.


EPrint Type:Journal paper
Keywords:sustainability assessment, agro-ecological practices, Abacus, FiBL3516103
Agrovoc keywords:
Language
Value
URI
English
sustainability
UNSPECIFIED
Subjects: Food systems > Policy environments and social economy
Research affiliation: Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Sustainability > Agroecology
Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Sustainability > Sustainability assessment
DOI:10.3220/LBF1612794225000
Deposited By: Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, FiBL
ID Code:39292
Deposited On:15 Feb 2021 13:06
Last Modified:15 Feb 2021 14:33
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics