TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing agro-ecological practices using a combination of three sustainability assessment tools
AU - Landert, Jan
AU - Pfeifer, Catherine
AU - Carolus, Johannes
AU - Schwarz, Gerald
AU - Albanito, Fabrizio
AU - Muller, Adrian
AU - Smith, Pete
AU - Sanders, Juern
AU - Schader, Christian
AU - Vanni, Francesco
AU - Prazan, Jaroslav
AU - Baumgart, Lukas
AU - Blockeel, Johan
AU - Weisshaidinger, Rainer
AU - Bartel-Kratochvil, Ruth
AU - Hollaus, Alexander
AU - Mayer, Andreas
AU - Hrabalova, Andrea
AU - Helin, Janne
AU - Aakkula, Jyrki
AU - Svels, Kristina
AU - Guisepelli, Emmanuel
AU - Smyrniotopoulou, Alexandra
AU - Vlahos, George
AU - Iordanidis, Yiannis
AU - Szilagyi, Alfred
AU - Podmaniczky, Laszlo
AU - Balazs, Katalin
AU - Galioto, Francesco
AU - Longhitano, Davide
AU - Rossignolo, Letizia
AU - Povellato, Andrea
AU - Zilans, Andis
AU - Grazvy-das Jegelevicius, null
AU - Fratila, Mihaela
AU - Yoldi, Uxue Iragui
AU - Massa, Carlos Astrain
AU - Adrian, Jon Bienzobas
AU - Sahlin, Kajsa Resare
AU - Roos, Elin
AU - Frick, Rebekka
AU - Bircher, Richard
AU - Aalders, Inge
AU - Irvine, Katherine N.
AU - Kyle, Carol
AU - Miller, David
N1 - This paper is based on results from the research project UNISECO, which is funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 773901.We would like to thank all the farmers, farm organisations and stakeholders of the multi-actor platforms of the UNISECO project who contributed to the data collection. We also like to thank Andreas Basler whose corrections improved the comprehensibility of the paper.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - The alignment of the environmental, economic and social sustainability of farms is necessary for enhancing the provision 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 multidimensional 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.
AB - The alignment of the environmental, economic and social sustainability of farms is necessary for enhancing the provision 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 multidimensional 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.
KW - agro-ecology
KW - agro-ecological farming practices
KW - sustainability assessment tools
KW - SMART Farm Tool (RRID:SCR_018197)
KW - Cool Farm Tool
KW - AGRICULTURE
KW - BIODIVERSITY
KW - FARMERS
KW - INTENSIFICATION
KW - INDICATORS
KW - EMISSIONS
KW - SYSTEMS
KW - POLICY
KW - SOILS
KW - CROP
U2 - 10.3220/LBF1612794225000
DO - 10.3220/LBF1612794225000
M3 - Article
SN - 0458-6859
VL - 70
SP - 129
EP - 144
JO - Landbauforschung-Journal of sustainable and organic agricultural systems
JF - Landbauforschung-Journal of sustainable and organic agricultural systems
IS - 2
ER -