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Family farm sustainability in southern Brazil: An application of agri-environmental indicators

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  • Fernandes, Lúcio André de O.
  • Woodhouse, Philip J.

Abstract

This paper investigates the sustainability of agroecological and conventional agriculture on small farms in southern Brazil. A methodology was developed to identify agri-environmental indicators of the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the farming systems. The criteria used for selecting sustainability indicators were policy relevance, measurability, validity/analytical soundness, level of aggregation/communication to the user. Based on these criteria indicators were selected for natural, financial, physical, human, and social capital assets. The research identified 'external' indicators, those relevant to researcher/policy makers, and 'internal' indicators, those relevant to the resource users. The two sets were combined and data relevant to the selected indicators were collected from secondary sources and also direct from farmers through a small-scale sample survey. After analysing the data, indicators were selected for each capital asset to generate a multi-criteria assessment of sustainability at three scales: farm, local and regional. The analysis provided evidence of ecological and social advantages of ecological farms, but financial disadvantages associated with the cost of alternative marketing arrangements for agroecological produce. The paper draws conclusions about the usefulness of indicators in the assessment of farming sustainability and possibilities for wider application.

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  • Fernandes, Lúcio André de O. & Woodhouse, Philip J., 2008. "Family farm sustainability in southern Brazil: An application of agri-environmental indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 243-257, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:66:y:2008:i:2-3:p:243-257
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    Cited by:

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    2. Luong Van Pham & Carl Smith, 2014. "Drivers of agricultural sustainability in developing countries: a review," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 326-341, June.
    3. Aleksander Grzelak & Jakub Staniszewski & Michał Borychowski, 2020. "Income or Assets—What Determines the Approach to the Environment among Farmers in A Region in Poland?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-20, June.
    4. Herrera, Gabriel Paes & Lourival, Reinaldo & da Costa, Reginaldo Brito & Mendes, Dany Rafael Fonseca & Moreira, Tito Belchior Silva & de Abreu, Urbano Gomes Pinto & Constantino, Michel, 2018. "Econometric analysis of income, productivity and diversification among smallholders in Brazil," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 455-459.
    5. Gao, Yang & Zhang, Xiao & Wu, Lei & Yin, Shijiu & Lu, Jiao, 2017. "Resource basis, ecosystem and growth of grain family farm in China: Based on rough set theory and hierarchical linear model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 157-167.
    6. Maria Tsiouni & Stamatis Aggelopoulos & Alexandra Pavloudi & Dario Siggia, 2021. "Economic and Financial Sustainability Dependency on Subsidies: The Case of Goat Farms in Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-15, July.
    7. Aleksander Grzelak, 2020. "The Objectives of Farm Operations—Evidence from a Region in Poland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    8. Hubeau, Marianne & Marchand, Fleur & Coteur, Ine & Mondelaers, Koen & Debruyne, Lies & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2017. "A new agri-food systems sustainability approach to identify shared transformation pathways towards sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 52-63.
    9. Sophia Dobkowitz & Ariane Walz & Gabriele Baroni & Aldrin M. Pérez-Marin, 2020. "Cross-Scale Vulnerability Assessment for Smallholder Farming: A Case Study from the Northeast of Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-24, May.
    10. Jung, Suhyun & Rasmussen, Laura Vang & Watkins, Cristy & Newton, Peter & Agrawal, Arun, 2017. "Brazil's National Environmental Registry of Rural Properties: Implications for Livelihoods," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 53-61.
    11. Andrea Pronti & Flavio Bertinaria, 2017. "Un’analisi multidimensionale della sostenibilità per l’agricoltura familiare. Il caso dell’area amazzonica peruviana/A multidimensional assessment of sustainability for small farming production. The c," IRCrES Working Paper 201711, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY.
    12. Chiarella, Cristina & Meyfroidt, Patrick & Abeygunawardane, Dilini & Conforti, Piero, 2023. "Balancing the trade-offs between land productivity, labor productivity and labor intensity," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 52(10), pages 1618-1634.

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