Beyond productivity: multiple criteria for assessing the performance of agriculture systems
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The document discusses the need for a paradigm shift in agriculture beyond mere production to include resilience, diversity, and socio-economic parameters. It emphasizes the importance of integrating big data and redefining performance measures to assess sustainability in farming systems. New assessment methods focusing on community well-being and resource efficiency are essential for fostering adaptive management and achieving long-term sustainability goals.
Beyond productivity: multiple criteria for assessing the performance of agriculture systems
- 1. BEYOND PRODUCTIVITY: MULTIPLE CRITERIA FOR ASSESSINGTHE PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS Karlheinz Knickel Universidade de Évora / ICAAM - Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas
- 2. Some basic considerations ■ Contemporary societal demands regarding agriculture go far beyond (low-cost) (food) production. ■ Key (farm) performance parameters used in the past have lost much of their credentials ■ Intensive agricultural production systems are hardly resilient as they depend excessively on external inputs (nutrients, finance, etc.) and have a low buffer capacity. ■ The same systems tend to be heavily affected by changes in market prices and have a low adaptive capacity, e.g. due to a high level of capital investment and debt ■ A diversity of farm development trajectories can be observed in practice –we need to recognise this diversity as an asset and a source of inspiration ■ There is an enormous number of smaller farms with particular socio-economic situations, strategies and needs – they must not be overlooked ■ A substantial paradigm shift is needed regarding agricultural modernisation (OECD Environmental Outlook, Rise Foundation, Forum for the Future of Agriculture … Janez Potočnik)
- 3. J D van der Ploeg (2003) The virtual farmer
- 4. From data to information to knowledge ■ 'Big data' – a rapidly increasing amount of data is captured by sensors, satellites, cameras, pedometers and many other devices. ■ Farms are becoming wired and data-intensive ■ The main challenge is to integrate the data and to make them meaningful – To develop (agronomic and farm management) models that interpret the data and generate actionable advise in decision support – Food chains might become much more data-driven … value chain integration ■ New initiatives for data sharing, e.g. in the US around 'prescriptive farming', are based on new business models and governance structures – Potential risks and impacts on agricultural structures
- 5. Economic parameters ■ Given economic conditions do not favour resource-efficient, resilient, low-carbon systems and practices ■ The current one-sided emphasis on economic performance, competitiveness and growth is counterproductive ■ New approaches for assessing farms’ performance need to extend beyond the current narrow focus on production functions, unit costs, and economic performance ■ Lock-ins and path dependency are major issues ■ Performance measures need to be able to assess the effectiveness of different scales, types and styles of farming in addressing wider societal demands
- 6. Socio-economic parameters and cohesion ■ Many highly rationalised, capital-intensive 'modern' farms are not really resilient – not in financial and resource use terms (e.g. DK), and not in social terms (e.g. IE) ■ Most farmers are also concerned with non-economic parameters – social and community well-being – autonomy – at the level of the farm and at community/regional level – quality of life, work-life-balance – quality of the natural environment ■ On a societal level, fair trade, cooperation, networks, cohesion are becoming more important
- 7. Resource use efficiency ■ Resource-intensity of industrialised production systems is problematic – High energy inputs – GHG emissions – Water use ■ Need to reconfigure the farming system to take full advantage of natural resources and ecosystem services – Design and management of sustainable agroecosystems – Crop-livestock integration, agro-forestry, permaculture, …
- 8. SAFA tool (FAO, 2014) • SAFA is a holistic global framework for the assessment of sustainability along food and agriculture value chains • SAFA is intended primarily for self-evaluation and internal communication about sustainability goals and performance
- 9. More integrated perspectives needed The "bio-based economy" Ecosystem services Consumer, civil society Agri-food systems
- 10. Perspective matters more than anything else ■ time dimension – short term goals vs. longer-term outlook ■ spatial dimension – field and farm vs. community/landscape/watershed level ■ reference system – business/farm household vs. societal/whole economy perspective More work needed on different perspectives and how they can be reconciled, and on more integrative systems-based analyses Multi-perspectival reflexive analyses needed
- 11. Summary of key points ■ Performance? New orientations and pathways means new assessment methods ■ We need an acknowledgment of the diversity of pathways, and of territory and community as reference systems (going beyond field and farm level) ■ Fostering learning processes and self-evaluation should be a primary goal … experimentation, learning and adaptation, reflexive governance ■ A Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) is much more than biotechnology, bioenergy and industry-led or industry-scale processes – 'intelligent', i.e. knowledge-intensive natural resource efficient production systems, eco-functional intensification, resilient agricultural systems and adaptive management approaches
- 12. Contact / cooperation Karlheinz Knickel ■ karlheinz.Knickel@gmail.com ■ LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/kknickel ■ Frankfurt/M. – Évora –Trondheim ■ FP7 ERA-NET project RETHINK (just concluded): http://www.rethink-net.eu/ ■ H2020 SALSA project (on-going): http://www.salsa.uevora.pt/
Editor's Notes
- #10: … multifunctionality agriculture, small farmer approaches, eco-functional approaches, agro-ecology = redefinition of boundaries!! = crossing social and natural sciences boundaries, crossing geographical and cultural boundaries … "co-learning" !!