Annelies Mulier

MOTIFS: a monitoring tool for integrated farm sustainability

Indicator-based monitoring tools are frequently applied for sustainability assessments, also in agriculture. However, many indicators focus on a rather restricted number of sustainability aspects such as economy or ecology. Moreover the choice of the indicator is rarely explained. The aim of our study was to develop an indicator-based monitoring tool for integrated farm sustainability — i.e. taking into account economic and ecological and social aspects — based on a supported vision of sustainable agriculture and using a set of relevant indicators. Hereby, specific attention was paid to aspects of communication and user-friendliness. Four methodological steps were considered: (i) translating the major principles of a supported vision of sustainable Flemish agriculture into concrete and relevant themes; (ii) designing indicators to monitor progress towards sustainability for each of those themes; (iii) aggregating the indicators into an integrated farm sustainability monitoring tool and (iv) applying the monitoring tool on a practical farm, as a first attempt at end-use validation. Stakeholder participation and expert consulting played an important part in each of these methodological steps. As a case study, the methodology was applied to Flemish dairy farms. As a result, we developed MOTIFS, a user-friendly and strongly communicative indicator-based monitoring tool that allows the measurement of progress towards integrated sustainable dairy farming systems and fits within a well-founded methodological framework. MOTIFS is based on the equality of the economic, ecological and social sustainability dimensions, and this equality is inherently built into the system. Through the applied methodology, we founded the selected themes and indicators and we avoided using indicators that are not relevant to the problem at hand.

A methodology for the calculation of farm level nitrogen and phosphorus balances in Flemish agriculture

Abstract Since the early 1990s, Flemish agriculture has been confronted with serious nutrient problems. Recently, the Flemish Government started encouraging farmers to take responsibility for the manure problem. This was done by giving them the choice between a manure administration system, based on fixed standards, or a nutrient balance system. In this project a methodology for the composition of nutrient balances at farm level in Flanders was developed. This methodology defines input–output models for the different sectors (cattle, pigs and poultry) and fixes rules on how to determine quantities and nutrient contents for several products. In addition, nutrient flows were followed during 1 year on 40 Flemish farms in different sectors and a mineral balance was calculated for each of them. Four major restrictions to the accurate calculation of farm level nutrient balances were identified: (1) the wide variability that is allowed between actual and reported nutrient composition of concentrated feed; (2) the estimates of the amount and composition of manure; (3) the assessment of changes in standing stock on the farm between the beginning and end of the reporting period and (4) the accuracy of the data supplied by the farmers.