Quantifying the sustainability of agriculture |
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| Authors: | M G Bos H van den Bosch H Diemont H van Keulen J Lahr G Meijerink A Verhagen |
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| Institution: | (1) International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands;(2) Alterra, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands;(3) Plant Research International, PRI, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands;(4) Agricultural Economic Research Institute, LEI, P.O. Box 29703, 2505 LS The Hague, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | The rural sustainability index is a scientifically based tool to quantify the performance of agriculture. The sustainability
of crop production is quantified from three perspectives; people, planet and profit. Within each perspective, one condition
was selected that must be met to warrant agriculture. These are: No hazardous work should be used within the crop production
chain; agricultural crops should not be grown on land allocated to nature by national law or regulations and, when a GM-crop
is present or is introduced in a region, it should not harm development opportunities of other farmers. If these excluding
conditions are met, the sustainability of agriculture is assessed through five performance indicators on school attendance,
water use and consumption, fertilizer use, pesticide use, and farm income. For each of the five indicators, critical values
and target values have been given that limit the transition range between non-sustainable and sustainable production. The
five indicators are combined into a sustainability index. The index aims at improving the socio-economic position of farmers
while protecting the environment.
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| Keywords: | Agriculture Sustainability Crop Production Water Nutrients Pest Control Pesticides Environment Income Education |
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