Many policy prescriptions emphasise poverty reduction through closer integration of poor people or areas with global markets. Global value chain (GVC) studies reveal how firms and farms in developing countries are upgraded by being integrated in global markets, but few explicitly document the impact on poverty, gender and the environment, or conversely, how value chain restructuring is in turn mediated by local history, social relations and environmental factors. This article develops a conceptual framework that can help overcome the shortcomings in ‘standalone’ value‐chain, livelihood and environmental analyses by integrating the ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ aspects of value chains that together affect poverty and sustainability.

Knowledge about fossil energy use in agricultural systems is needed, because it can improve the understanding of how to reduce the unsustainable use of limited energy resources and the following greenhouse gas emissions. This study describes and validates a model to assess fossil energy use in Danish agriculture; gives an example of how the model can be used to compare organic and conventional farming; and discusses the implications and potentials of using the model to simulate energy use in scenarios of agricultural production. The model is a development of an existing model, which was too coarse to predict measured energy use on Danish farms. The model was validated at the field operational, the crop type, and the national level, and can supplement the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change manual to quantify fossil energy use and subsequent carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture. The model can be used to model energy use as one indicator in a multi-criteria evaluation of sustainability, also including other agroecological and socio-economic indicators.As an example, energy use for eight conventional and organic crop types on loamy, sandy, and irrigated sandy soil was compared. The energy use was generally lower in the organic than in the conventional system, but yields were also lower. Consequently, conventional crop production had the highest energy production, whereas organic crop production had the highest energy efficiency. Generally, grain cereals such as wheat have a lower energy use per area than roughage crops such as beets. However, because of higher roughage crop yields per area, energy use per feed unit was higher in the roughage crops. Energy use for both conventional cattle and pig production was found to be higher than that for organic production. With respect to fossil energy use per produced livestock unit, agro-ecosystems producing pigs were in both cases less energy effective than those producing cattle.Fossil energy use for three scenarios of conversion to organic farming with increasing fodder import was compared to current conventional farming in Denmark. The scenario with the highest fodder import showed the highest energy use per livestock unit produced. In all scenarios, the energy use per unit produced was lower than in the present situation. However, the total Danish crop production was also lower.In conclusion, the model can be used to simulate scenarios, which can add new information to the discussion of future, sustainable agricultural production.

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This article aims to guide the design and implementation of action‐research projects in value‐chain analysis by presenting a strategic framework focused on small producers and trading and processing firms in developing countries. Its stepwise approach – building on the conceptual framework set out in a companion article – covers in detail what to do, questions to be asked and issues to be considered, and integrates poverty, gender, labour and environmental concerns.‘Upgrading’ strategies potentially available for improving value‐chain participation for small producers are identified, with the ultimate purpose of increasing the rewards and/or reducing the risks.

Searching for livestock production systems with a high energy utilization is of interest because of resource use andpollution aspects and because energy use is an indicator of the intenstjication of production processes. Due to interactions between crop and livestock enterprises and between levels of dtflerent input factors and their eflects on yields, it is proposed to analyze agricultural energy utilization through system modelling of data from farm studies. Energy use in small grains, grass-clover andfodder beets registered in organic and conventional mixed dairy farms was analyzed and used together with crop yields in order to model energy prices on three Danish soil types. Conventional crop yields were higher but they also used more indirect energy with input factors, especially fertilizers. The conventional yields were not suficiently higher to compensate for the extra use of energy compared with the organic crops. The organic crops had lower energy prices on all soil types, with the smallest dtflerence on irrigated sandy soils. Sensitivity analyses were made for the effects of changes in irrigation and fertilizer levels. One conclusion was that better energy utilization in grain crops might be found at intermediate levels offertilizer use, especially on irrigated soils. Actualfarm diesel use was on average 47% higher than expected from standard values, suggesting that care should be taken when basing energetic analysis of farming methods on experimental data alone. On the same farms, the energy use in firy production registered in organic and conventional mixed dairy farms was analyzed and used together with milk and meat yields in order to model energy prices for three direrent feeding strategies and two soil types. Conventional dairy production is more intensive with a greater feeding ration and a higher proportion of high-protein feed, but has also higher yields. The conventional yields were not suficiently higher to compensate for the extra use of energy compared with the organic feeding ration. However, the lower energy price in organic dairy production is dependent on the composition of the feeding strategy. Substitution of 5OOSFU of grain with grass pellets makes an ordinary organic feeding ration based on conventional crop production competable. In general, the crop energy price models can be used together with the dairy production to model the eflects of direrent feeding and crop rotation strategies on the overall energy utilization in mixed dairy production systems. 0

Different types of assessment tools have been developed in Europe with the purpose of determining the environmental impact of various livestock production systems at farm level. The assessment tools differ in terms of which environmental objectives are included and how indicators are constructed and interpreted. The paper compares typical tools for environmental assessment of livestock production systems, and recommends selected indicators suitable for benchmarking. The assessment tools used very different types of indicators ranging from descriptions of farm management and quantification of input to estimates of emissions of, e.g., nitrate and ammonia. The indicators should be useful in a benchmarking process where farmers may improve their practices through learning from farms with better agri-environmental performance. An example of this is given using data on P-surplus on pig farms. Some indicators used the area of the farm as the basis of the indicator-e.g. nitrogen surplus per hectare-while others were expressed per unit produced, e.g. emission of greenhouse gasses per kilogram milk. The paper demonstrates that a comparison of organic vs. conventional milk production and comparison of three pig production systems give different results, depending on the basis of the indicators (i.e. per hectare or per kilogram product). Indicators linked to environmental objectives with a local or regional geographical target should be area-based-while indicators with a global focus should be product-based. It is argued that the choice of indicators should be linked with the definition of the system boundaries, in the sense that area-based indicators should include emissions on the farm only, whereas product-based indicators should preferably include emissions from production of farm inputs, as well as the inputs on the actual farm. The paper ends with recommendations for choice of agri-environmental indicators taking into account the geographical scale, system boundary and method of interpretation. D

Recent studies have documented highly significant differences among current and potential crops, as well as genotypic differences, in the ability for deep rooting. Results have shown significant effects of deep roots on deep soil water and nutrient uptake.