IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i3p738-d202214.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Assessment of Annual and Permanent Crops: The Inspia Model

Author

Listed:
  • Paula Trivino-Tarradas

    (ETSIAM, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, Ctra, Nacional IV, km. 396, 14014 Córdoba, Spain
    European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF). Rue de la Loi 6 Box 5, 1050 Brussels, Belgium)

  • Manuel R. Gomez-Ariza

    (Asociación Española de Agricultura de Conservación Suelos Vivos (AEAC.SV), Centro IFAPA Alameda del Obispo, Av. Menéndez Pidal s/n, 14004 Córdoba, Spain)

  • Gottlieb Basch

    (European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF). Rue de la Loi 6 Box 5, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
    Institute of Mediterranean Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (ICAAM), Universidade de Évora, Polo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal)

  • Emilio J. Gonzalez-Sanchez

    (ETSIAM, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, Ctra, Nacional IV, km. 396, 14014 Córdoba, Spain
    European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF). Rue de la Loi 6 Box 5, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
    Asociación Española de Agricultura de Conservación Suelos Vivos (AEAC.SV), Centro IFAPA Alameda del Obispo, Av. Menéndez Pidal s/n, 14004 Córdoba, Spain)

Abstract

The Initiative for Sustainable Productive Agriculture (INSPIA) project promotes best management practices for agriculture, to enhance the provision of ecosystem services through better stewardship of soil and water resources while ensuring high levels of productivity. This paper presents the INSPIA methodology for the assessment of sustainability and for guiding farmers on strategic decision-making at farm level, applicable to any kind of cropland. The methodology is based on the application of 15 best management practices, which are assessed through a set of 31 basic sustainability indicators that cover the economic, social and environmental dimensions both agreed by a panel of experts. Basic indicators are then grouped into 12 aggregated indicators, to build the final INSPIA composite index. The INSPIA methodology provides farmers and advisers with a tool to understand sustainability and which, to a certain extent, serves to improve performance toward sustainability. Results are presented in three different ways: a bar diagram with the whole set of basic indicator-values; a pie chart representing the sustainability split in the aggregated indicators; and a final sustainability index. In the medium and long term, the INSPIA methodology can help to monitor and assess agricultural and environmental policy implementation, as well as help improve its decision-making processes in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:3:p:738-:d:202214
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/738/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/738/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenny Pope, 2006. "Editorial: What'S So Special About Sustainability Assessment?," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(03), pages 1-1.
    2. Hansen, J. W., 1996. "Is agricultural sustainability a useful concept?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 117-143.
    3. Walter, Christof & Stützel, Hartmut, 2009. "A new method for assessing the sustainability of land-use systems (II): Evaluating impact indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1288-1300, March.
    4. Frédéric Zahm & Philippe Viaux & Lionel Vilain & Philippe Girardin & Christian Mouchet, 2008. "Assessing farm sustainability with the IDEA method - from the concept of agriculture sustainability to case studies on farms," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(4), pages 271-281.
    5. Giuseppe Munda, 2008. "Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation for a Sustainable Economy," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-540-73703-2, September.
    6. 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.
    7. Bockstaller, C. & Girardin, P., 2003. "How to validate environmental indicators," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 639-653, May.
    8. 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.
    9. Hani, Fritz & Braga, Francesco S. & Stampfli, Andreas & Keller, Thomas & Fischer, Matthew & Porsche, Hans, 2003. "RISE, a Tool for Holistic Sustainability Assessment at the Farm Level," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 6(4), pages 1-13.
    10. Paracchini, Maria Luisa & Bulgheroni, Claudia & Borreani, Giorgio & Tabacco, Ernesto & Banterle, Alessandro & Bertoni, Danilo & Rossi, Graziano & Parolo, Gilberto & Origgi, Roberto & De Paola, Claudio, 2015. "A diagnostic system to assess sustainability at a farm level: The SOSTARE model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 35-53.
    11. Cristiana Peano & Nadia Tecco & Egidio Dansero & Vincenzo Girgenti & Francesco Sottile, 2015. "Evaluating the Sustainability in Complex Agri-Food Systems: The SAEMETH Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-21, May.
    12. 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.
    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. Huichun Ye & Hongye Wang & Chaojia Nie & Jingjing Wang & Wenjiang Huang & Lingling Teng & Mingquan Wu, 2023. "Measurement Indicators and an Evaluation Approach for Assessing the Sustainable Development Capacity of Tropical Agriculture: A Case Study for Hainan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Yahui Lv & Chao Zhang & Jiani Ma & Wenju Yun & Lulu Gao & Pengshan Li, 2019. "Sustainability Assessment of Smallholder Farmland Systems: Healthy Farmland System Assessment Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Paula Triviño-Tarradas & Pilar Carranza-Cañadas & Francisco-Javier Mesas-Carrascosa & Emilio J. Gonzalez-Sanchez, 2020. "Evaluation of Agricultural Sustainability on a Mixed Vineyard and Olive-Grove Farm in Southern Spain through the INSPIA Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, February.
    4. Trigo, Ana & Marta-Costa, Ana & Fragoso, Rui, 2023. "Improving sustainability assessment: A context-oriented classification analysis for the wine industry," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. María M. Serrano-Baena & Paula Triviño-Tarradas & Carlos Ruiz-Díaz & Rafael E. Hidalgo Fernández, 2020. "Implications of BREEAM Sustainability Assessment on the Design of Hotels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-13, August.

    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. 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.
    2. Norman Siebrecht, 2020. "Sustainable Agriculture and Its Implementation Gap—Overcoming Obstacles to Implementation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-27, May.
    3. Paolo Cupo & Rinalda Alberta Di Cerbo, 2016. "The determinants of ranking in sustainable efficiency of Italian farms," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 141-159.
    4. Paula Triviño-Tarradas & Pilar Carranza-Cañadas & Francisco-Javier Mesas-Carrascosa & Emilio J. Gonzalez-Sanchez, 2020. "Evaluation of Agricultural Sustainability on a Mixed Vineyard and Olive-Grove Farm in Southern Spain through the INSPIA Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, February.
    5. Anna Gaviglio & Mattia Bertocchi & Maria Elena Marescotti & Eugenio Demartini & Alberto Pirani, 2016. "The social pillar of sustainability: a quantitative approach at the farm level," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, December.
    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. Yahui Lv & Chao Zhang & Jiani Ma & Wenju Yun & Lulu Gao & Pengshan Li, 2019. "Sustainability Assessment of Smallholder Farmland Systems: Healthy Farmland System Assessment Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-19, August.
    8. Ionuț-Alexandru Spânu & Alexandru Ozunu & Dacinia Crina Petrescu & Ruxandra Malina Petrescu-Mag, 2022. "A Comparative View of Agri-Environmental Indicators and Stakeholders’ Assessment of Their Quality," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, March.
    9. de Olde, Evelien M. & Bokkers, Eddie A.M. & de Boer, Imke J.M., 2017. "The Choice of the Sustainability Assessment Tool Matters: Differences in Thematic Scope and Assessment Results," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 77-85.
    10. Irene Tzouramani & Stamatis Mantziaris & Pavlos Karanikolas, 2020. "Assessing Sustainability Performance at the Farm Level: Examples from Greek Agricultural Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, April.
    11. Jun Fan & Xingming Fan & Attachai Jintrawet & Horst Weyerhaeuser, 2021. "Sustainability Interventions on Agro-Ecosystems: An Experience from Yunnan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, May.
    12. Maria G. Lampridi & Claus G. Sørensen & Dionysis Bochtis, 2019. "Agricultural Sustainability: A Review of Concepts and Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-27, September.
    13. Trigo, Ana & Marta-Costa, Ana & Fragoso, Rui, 2023. "Improving sustainability assessment: A context-oriented classification analysis for the wine industry," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    14. 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.
    15. Lozano-Oyola, Macarena & Contreras, Ignacio & Blancas, Francisco Javier, 2019. "An Operational Non-compensatory Composite Indicator: Measuring Sustainable Tourism in Andalusian Urban Destinations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 1-10.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Franks, Jeremy & Frater, Poppy, 2013. "Measuring agricultural sustainability at the farm-level: A pragmatic approach," International Journal of Agricultural Management, Institute of Agricultural Management, vol. 2(4), pages 1-19, July.
    19. Stylianou, Andreas & Sdrali, Despina & Apostolopoulos, Constantinos D., 2020. "Capturing the diversity of Mediterranean farming systems prior to their sustainability assessment: The case of Cyprus," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    20. Qingyun Du & Yanxia Wang & Fu Ren & Zhiyuan Zhao & Hongqiang Liu & Chao Wu & Langjiao Li & Yiran Shen, 2014. "Measuring and Analysis of Urban Competitiveness of Chinese Provincial Capitals in 2010 under the Constraints of Major Function-Oriented Zoning Utilizing Spatial Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-26, May.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:3:p:738-:d:202214. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.