In developing countries, agricultural development is still a fundamental means of poverty alleviation, economic development and, in general, sustainable development. Despite the great emphasis on sustainable agricultural development, it seems that there are many practical difficulties towards empirical assessment of agricultural sustainability. In this regard, the present study aims to propose a comprehensive framework for the assessment of agricultural sustainability and present an empirical application of the proposed framework in south-east Iran (Kerman province). The framework is based on a stepwise procedure, involving: (1) The calculation of economic, social, environmental, political, institutional and demographic indicators, covering the actual and potential aspects of unsustainability; (2) the application of Fuzzy Pairwise Comparisons and Analytic Hierarchy Process to construct composite indicators, with the purpose of incorporating the concept of social construct into the assessment process; and (3) the application of Sustainability Maps, diagrams and Barometer of Sustainability for presenting and analyzing the results. The output of the framework is a comprehensive and yet easy-to-understand picture of agricultural sustainability numerically and visually for the selected counties of the province in 2003 and 2015 —via the variety of comparisons and rankings— which allows us to identify the weaknesses and strengths of agriculture in each county in various sustainability levels (comprehensive, overall actual and overall potential, dimensional, and base indicators). It also enables us to monitor and analyze the trends in sustainability changes over the years. By providing such information, this framework can be a useful tool to support agricultural sector decisions that would help planners and policymakers find the right path and move toward sustainability, or modify policies to stay in the right direction over time. Overall, the results suggest that the proposed framework can be an effective tool for the assessment of agricultural sustainability. Of course, it is necessary to examine and validate its capabilities through practical applications in different agricultural areas and systems.

This article reports on an analysis of technical efficiency and environment-technology gaps in wheat farming in Iran. A random sample of 676 farmers was selected from the province of Kerman in 2004. In this study, Kerman is divided into five regions based on climatic and geographical conditions. The province is situated in the south-eastern part of Iran and contains substantial variations in climate. Copyright 2008 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

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In recent decades, increased extraction of groundwater for human and agriculture consumption has led to a substantial drop in groundwater level in large areas of across the world. Declining groundwater levels is a serious problem in itself and has multiple economic, social, cultural, political, security‐related, and environmental externalities. The negative economic‐environmental externalities of overextraction of groundwater in the Orzouiyeh plain in the Kerman Province, Iran, were evaluated using methods such as replacement cost, production function, market prices, shadow price, and the value of the input marginal product. After evaluating externalities, the Positive Mathematical Programming method was used to evaluate different water policies to reduce the consumption of groundwater. The total economic losses due to the externalities were calculated to equal 2.8 U.S. million dollars. The damages caused by environmental externalities were calculated to equal 436.1 U.S. million dollars. The results related to the positive planning model show that the best policy among different options, such as deficit irrigation policy or combined policies, involves implementation of pressurized irrigation systems.