Building sustainable rural futures: the added value of systems approaches in times of change and uncertainty. 9th European IFSA Symposium, Vienna, Austria, 4-7 July 2010., 2010
Indicators of farming system performance are pertinent for the diagnosis of the sustainability of... more Indicators of farming system performance are pertinent for the diagnosis of the sustainability of farming systems and to evaluate alternative options in a systems design context. However, methodologies to define, to prioritize and to select indicators in a systematic way are scarce. The objectives of this paper are to present a conceptual approach to systematically evaluate indicator sets for assessment of the sustainability of farming systems (FSs) and discuss its possible application by analysing two indicator frameworks used for FS design (MESMIS and AESIS). The formulation and functioning of the indicator frameworks was related to their use in case-studies in Uruguay and Italy. Main features of the approach are (a) separation of entities in agroecosystems from their associated economic and cultural values; (b) categorization of entities into four dimensions (physical, ecological, productive and social); and (c) a distinction between indicators representing functional properties (for diagnosis) and structural properties (for causal relations and design of adjustments). The points of emphasis of the indicators sets could be readily found for the case studies in Italy (environmental assessment) and Uruguay (productivity and livelihood of small family farmers). The overview of the sets of indicators and their apparent omissions should feed into the stakeholder discussions to determine whether the differences in emphasis were as intended or should lead to adjustments in the indicator sets.
Sustainable development of agricultural landscapes has become a primary issue as reflected in man... more Sustainable development of agricultural landscapes has become a primary issue as reflected in many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Comparing alternative potential technologies and assessing relevant results in terms of their implementation on agroecosystems in specific environmental and social contexts is a complex matter. In this article, a conceptual model to evaluate sustainability of agroecosystems under a systems perspective is presented, which is based on dimensions and properties of agroecosystems. Examples of applications of the conceptual model are given that address sustainability assessment of agricultural technologies and agroecosystems.
Biodynamic agriculture (BD agriculture) was presented as an alternative form of agriculture by t... more Biodynamic agriculture (BD agriculture) was presented as an alternative form of agriculture by the philosopher Rudolf Steiner and is nowadays considered one of the forms of organic agriculture. The objective of the present manuscript is to critically review international scientific literature on biodynamic agriculture as published in highly ranked journals and to assess its performance. This review was based on a structured literature survey of peer-reviewed journals indexed on the Web of Science™ (WoS) Core Collection database carried out from 1985 until 2018. We found 147 publications of studies in journals with an impact factor. Of these, 93 focused on biodynamic agricultural practices, 26 on the sustainability of the biodynamic method, and 28 on the food quality of biodynamic products. The results of the literature review showed that the BD method enhances soil quality and biodiversity. Instead, further efforts are needed to implement knowledge on the socio-economic sustainabil...
The implementation of environmentally friendly agricultural policies has increased the need to co... more The implementation of environmentally friendly agricultural policies has increased the need to compare agricultural aspects of conventional (CON) and organic farming (ORG) systems. The objective of the present work was to compare the effects of an organic and conventional long‐term experiment on bacterial and fungal biomass and activity, as well as soil CO2 emission and readily available nitrogen forms in a soil cultivated with Helianthus annuus L. The microbial biomass was more active and abundant in ORG as well as soil CO2 emission. Despite being less abundant, fungi were more active than bacteria in both ORG and CON experiments. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that the ORG treatment had a significantly greater bacterial richness than CON. Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the most abundant phyla contributing more than others to the differences between the two systems. Moreover, the soil and content was not significantly different between ORG and CON, while was...
ABSTRACT Farms contribute heavily to overall sustainability. To date, various frameworks, approac... more ABSTRACT Farms contribute heavily to overall sustainability. To date, various frameworks, approaches, methods and indicators have been developed to appraise how much corporations (firms, farms) contribute to sustainability. Among these, the Sustainable Value (SV) method helps to determine by which economic entity resources should be used in order to achieve the highest contributions to sustainability, by comparing company's efficiency of capital use against the efficiency of a benchmark. In this work we argue that the SV benchmark does not include certain crucial environmental concepts, such as the carrying capacity of an ecosystem or the multiple vital functions provided by ecosystem services. Thus, it is not a suitable reference for companies to evaluate their contribution to sustainability. As an alternative benchmark to standard SV applications, we propose a farm whose resource use productivity is correlated to the fulfilment of pre-determined environmental constraints: the Environmentally Sustainable Farm (ESF). To design this farm, we created an agro-environmental farm modelling framework that includes: (i) methods and approaches to assess indicators concerning specific environmental issues; (ii) an integrated ecological–economic model based on linear programming. This farm modelling framework is employed to determine both the environmental performance and the economic returns of two farming systems, conventional (CFS) and organic (OFS), which are compared using the Sustainable Value approach. Despite the fact that the OFS environmentally outperforms the CFS, none of them reaches the sustainable performances achieved by the ESF, both performing a negative Sustainable Value. The environmental constraints forced the ESF towards management choices that, although decreasing the economic performance, increase its environmental sustainability behaviour. Hence, the ESF is a viable benchmark that can be used to evaluate farms' environmental sustainability.
Sustainability Impact Assessment of Land Use Changes, 2008
Transfer into decision support: The Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool (SIAT) Stefan Sieber1, ... more Transfer into decision support: The Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool (SIAT) Stefan Sieber1, Klaus Müller1, Peter Verweij2, Hördur Haraldsson3, Katharina Fricke1, Cesare Pacini4, Karen Tscherning1, Katharina Helming1, Torbjorn Jansson5 (1) Leibniz-Centre ...
SUMMARYCapturing agricultural heterogeneity through the analysis of farm typologies is key with r... more SUMMARYCapturing agricultural heterogeneity through the analysis of farm typologies is key with regard to the design of sustainable policies and to the adoptability of new technologies. An optimal balance needs to be found between, on the one hand, the requirement to consider local stakeholder and expert knowledge for typology identification, and on the other hand, the need to identify typologies that transcend the local boundaries of single studies and can be used for comparisons. In this paper, we propose a method that supports expert-driven identification of farm typologies, while at the same time keeping the characteristics of objectivity and reproducibility of statistical tools. The method uses a range of multivariate analysis techniques and it is based on a protocol that favours the use of stakeholder and expert knowledge in the process of typology identification by means of visualization of farm groups and relevant statistics. Results of two studies in Zimbabwe and Kenya are ...
Building sustainable rural futures: the added value of systems approaches in times of change and uncertainty. 9th European IFSA Symposium, Vienna, Austria, 4-7 July 2010., 2010
Indicators of farming system performance are pertinent for the diagnosis of the sustainability of... more Indicators of farming system performance are pertinent for the diagnosis of the sustainability of farming systems and to evaluate alternative options in a systems design context. However, methodologies to define, to prioritize and to select indicators in a systematic way are scarce. The objectives of this paper are to present a conceptual approach to systematically evaluate indicator sets for assessment of the sustainability of farming systems (FSs) and discuss its possible application by analysing two indicator frameworks used for FS design (MESMIS and AESIS). The formulation and functioning of the indicator frameworks was related to their use in case-studies in Uruguay and Italy. Main features of the approach are (a) separation of entities in agroecosystems from their associated economic and cultural values; (b) categorization of entities into four dimensions (physical, ecological, productive and social); and (c) a distinction between indicators representing functional properties (for diagnosis) and structural properties (for causal relations and design of adjustments). The points of emphasis of the indicators sets could be readily found for the case studies in Italy (environmental assessment) and Uruguay (productivity and livelihood of small family farmers). The overview of the sets of indicators and their apparent omissions should feed into the stakeholder discussions to determine whether the differences in emphasis were as intended or should lead to adjustments in the indicator sets.
Sustainable development of agricultural landscapes has become a primary issue as reflected in man... more Sustainable development of agricultural landscapes has become a primary issue as reflected in many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Comparing alternative potential technologies and assessing relevant results in terms of their implementation on agroecosystems in specific environmental and social contexts is a complex matter. In this article, a conceptual model to evaluate sustainability of agroecosystems under a systems perspective is presented, which is based on dimensions and properties of agroecosystems. Examples of applications of the conceptual model are given that address sustainability assessment of agricultural technologies and agroecosystems.
Biodynamic agriculture (BD agriculture) was presented as an alternative form of agriculture by t... more Biodynamic agriculture (BD agriculture) was presented as an alternative form of agriculture by the philosopher Rudolf Steiner and is nowadays considered one of the forms of organic agriculture. The objective of the present manuscript is to critically review international scientific literature on biodynamic agriculture as published in highly ranked journals and to assess its performance. This review was based on a structured literature survey of peer-reviewed journals indexed on the Web of Science™ (WoS) Core Collection database carried out from 1985 until 2018. We found 147 publications of studies in journals with an impact factor. Of these, 93 focused on biodynamic agricultural practices, 26 on the sustainability of the biodynamic method, and 28 on the food quality of biodynamic products. The results of the literature review showed that the BD method enhances soil quality and biodiversity. Instead, further efforts are needed to implement knowledge on the socio-economic sustainabil...
The implementation of environmentally friendly agricultural policies has increased the need to co... more The implementation of environmentally friendly agricultural policies has increased the need to compare agricultural aspects of conventional (CON) and organic farming (ORG) systems. The objective of the present work was to compare the effects of an organic and conventional long‐term experiment on bacterial and fungal biomass and activity, as well as soil CO2 emission and readily available nitrogen forms in a soil cultivated with Helianthus annuus L. The microbial biomass was more active and abundant in ORG as well as soil CO2 emission. Despite being less abundant, fungi were more active than bacteria in both ORG and CON experiments. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that the ORG treatment had a significantly greater bacterial richness than CON. Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the most abundant phyla contributing more than others to the differences between the two systems. Moreover, the soil and content was not significantly different between ORG and CON, while was...
ABSTRACT Farms contribute heavily to overall sustainability. To date, various frameworks, approac... more ABSTRACT Farms contribute heavily to overall sustainability. To date, various frameworks, approaches, methods and indicators have been developed to appraise how much corporations (firms, farms) contribute to sustainability. Among these, the Sustainable Value (SV) method helps to determine by which economic entity resources should be used in order to achieve the highest contributions to sustainability, by comparing company's efficiency of capital use against the efficiency of a benchmark. In this work we argue that the SV benchmark does not include certain crucial environmental concepts, such as the carrying capacity of an ecosystem or the multiple vital functions provided by ecosystem services. Thus, it is not a suitable reference for companies to evaluate their contribution to sustainability. As an alternative benchmark to standard SV applications, we propose a farm whose resource use productivity is correlated to the fulfilment of pre-determined environmental constraints: the Environmentally Sustainable Farm (ESF). To design this farm, we created an agro-environmental farm modelling framework that includes: (i) methods and approaches to assess indicators concerning specific environmental issues; (ii) an integrated ecological–economic model based on linear programming. This farm modelling framework is employed to determine both the environmental performance and the economic returns of two farming systems, conventional (CFS) and organic (OFS), which are compared using the Sustainable Value approach. Despite the fact that the OFS environmentally outperforms the CFS, none of them reaches the sustainable performances achieved by the ESF, both performing a negative Sustainable Value. The environmental constraints forced the ESF towards management choices that, although decreasing the economic performance, increase its environmental sustainability behaviour. Hence, the ESF is a viable benchmark that can be used to evaluate farms' environmental sustainability.
Sustainability Impact Assessment of Land Use Changes, 2008
Transfer into decision support: The Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool (SIAT) Stefan Sieber1, ... more Transfer into decision support: The Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool (SIAT) Stefan Sieber1, Klaus Müller1, Peter Verweij2, Hördur Haraldsson3, Katharina Fricke1, Cesare Pacini4, Karen Tscherning1, Katharina Helming1, Torbjorn Jansson5 (1) Leibniz-Centre ...
SUMMARYCapturing agricultural heterogeneity through the analysis of farm typologies is key with r... more SUMMARYCapturing agricultural heterogeneity through the analysis of farm typologies is key with regard to the design of sustainable policies and to the adoptability of new technologies. An optimal balance needs to be found between, on the one hand, the requirement to consider local stakeholder and expert knowledge for typology identification, and on the other hand, the need to identify typologies that transcend the local boundaries of single studies and can be used for comparisons. In this paper, we propose a method that supports expert-driven identification of farm typologies, while at the same time keeping the characteristics of objectivity and reproducibility of statistical tools. The method uses a range of multivariate analysis techniques and it is based on a protocol that favours the use of stakeholder and expert knowledge in the process of typology identification by means of visualization of farm groups and relevant statistics. Results of two studies in Zimbabwe and Kenya are ...
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Papers by Cesare Pacini