Maria Andreoli

Farm sustainability assessment: some procedural issues

Abstract This article discusses some procedural issues relating to a multicriterial assessment of farm sustainability, based on the criteria proposed by the European Union Concerted Action on ‘The Landscape and Nature Production Capacity of Sustainable/Organic Types of Agriculture’. Two main problems are stressed: (1) the treatment of basic information used for evaluating farm performances as regards the criteria; and (2) the difficulties in evaluating a case - study farm. Firstly, the problem of implementing multicriterial analyses when using qualitative ordinal data and discrete quantitative data is faced, stressing the importance of clearly defining and applying procedures that can be transferred and repeated. This is due to the fact that almost all research contributions describe in detail multicriterial methods and results, but give little space to the problem of collecting and analysing basic information. Nevertheless, final results heavily depend on the way basic data has been gathered and processed in order to obtain the indices that have been used for the assessment. The lack of standards and of procedure description hampers the comparison of assessments and the possibility to judge their suitability to the aim of farm sustainability assessment. Secondly, the problem of finding external points of reference for judging a case-study farm is confronted. Case-studies can be important as ‘models’ for other farms. Indeed, it is easier to persuade farmers to adopt farming styles and decisions that somebody else has already successfully implemented rather than to adopt unexplored ways of managing their farms. This asks for reliable methods to assess a single farm, but almost all multicriterial methods only provide a tool for ranking a set of objects, e.g. farms, from the best to the worst. Conclusions provide some comments on the usefulness of these approaches.

A spatial analysis of terrain features and farming styles in a disadvantaged area of Tuscany (Mugello): implications for the evaluation and the design of CAP payments

In recent times there has been a growing awareness of the role of agriculture in providing public goods and services, in particular in less favoured areas. However, since agriculture is an economic activity, its permanence implies that it should be able to generate a satisfactory income for farmers. Where this is not possible, due to natural constraints or adverse economic and market conditions, in order to maintain an adequate use of farmland it is necessary to provide public aid to farmers. In this framework, the design of proper interventions aimed to promote rural development in less favoured areas should be based on a deep knowledge at the farm and territorial level. As regards the territorial level, the RDP zoning [art. 11 Reg. Ce 1698/2005] developed by Member States on the base of the guidelines provided by the European Commission is very often not sufficient to adequately define the territorial characteristics of rural areas. The use of GIS techniques may help to handle this issue by providing a better and more detailed knowledge at the territorial level. Farm level is important insofar as aid effectiveness is usually strongly depending on the type of farm that is receiving it. Thus, a careful selection of beneficiaries could determine a more effective and efficient distribution of resources. This paper aims to provide a spatial analysis of natural constraints and types of farming style in Mugello area and to analyse their relations with CAP aid distribution. Both Single Payment Scheme (SPS) and Rural Development Programme (RDP) payments have been taken into account. The paper combines a GIS analysis of terrain features with the theoretical approach of farming styles. For this purpose, the study integrates several sources of data: the 2010 Italian Agriculture Census, the Tuscany Regional Agency for Payments in Agriculture (ARTEA) database, and land cover data from the database Corine Land Cover (CLC-06), as updated to 2007 by LAMMA (Laboratory for Environment Monitoring and Modelling). A geo-referenced database including socioeconomic attributes of farms, land use, and terrain characteristics has been generated in order to merge information at territorial and farm level. The results of this integrated analysis confirm that Mugello is a very heterogeneous area as regards terrain characteristics despite the fact that it is totally included in less favoured areas. On the other side, farm strategies and economic results seem to be related to entrepreneurial characteristics as much as to natural constraints. The analysis of Pillar I payments and RDP payments for farms located in this mountainous area shows a very complex situation where the strategies implemented by farmers of the strongest farming styles may successfully counteract natural constraints. Besides, in the Authors’ opinion, the analyses performed highlight the importance of spatial analysis as a tool for evaluating how public resources are distributed on a territory, thus providing also useful information on the way this distribution could be improved, e.g. for ensuring a higher level of environmental services.

Integrating AHP and GIS Techniques for Rural Landscape and Agricultural Activities Planning

This chapter aims at providing some insights on the usefulness of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in the context of geographic multi-criteria analysis applied to GIS techniques for empirical applications. The increasing complexity in planning and programming applied to rural landscape and territories asks for multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches based on a holistic knowledge system. The AHP allows organizing in a hierarchic way both quantitative and qualitative information related to different disciplines, usually expressed in incommensurable measure units. Participatory approaches can be included either through information based on the perception of the value of indicators (criteria) or by providing weights on the relative importance of the elements included in each hierarchical level. When applied to GIS techniques, the AHP allows taking into account both spatial distribution of elements/information and their physical relations, which are paramount for the analysis of interventions about landscape, biodiversity, etc. This chapter illustrates four case studies from Tuscany Region (Italy) where this approach has been applied. Results highlight the flexibility of this approach in planning, programming and designing specific interventions where several biophysical characteristics of a territory or landscape have to be integrated with socioeconomic information both at territorial and farm levels. Results show that it is possible to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of tools for the territorial governance by applying a scientifically sound approach that does not ask for complex mathematical models and provides a methodology and results that can be understood also by “non-experts”, improving participation processes.