A Systematic Mapping of Research on Sustainability Dimensions at Farm-level in Pig Production

Abstract

We systematically mapped the scientific literature on the sustainability of pig production at farm-level. Sustainability was considered holistically, covering its economic, environmental, and social dimensions, each consisting of a broad range of different aspects that may contradict or reinforce each other. Literature published between January 2000 and March 2020 with a geographical focus on Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand was included. A standard template with predefined keywords was used to summarise aspects of each sustainability dimension covered in identified papers. We found that papers analysing environmental sustainability were more frequent than papers analysing economic or social sustainability. However, there are many different aspects within each dimension of sustainability, hampering comparisons between studies. In addition, each dimension of sustainability has many sides, making it difficult to compare different studies, and different dimensions and aspects may have complex interrelations. Our systematic literature review revealed that these interrelations are not well understood and that possible trade-offs or synergies between different aspects of sustainability dimensions remain unidentified. This systematic mapping of the current literature on farm-level sustainability in pig production can support a more informed discussion on knowledge gaps and help prioritise future research at farm-level to enhance sustainability in pig production.

A Systematic Mapping of Current Literature on Sustainability at Farm-Level in Beef and Lamb Meat Production

“…This was a surprisingly low number, bearing in mind that sustainability has been on the agenda for over 30 years and that beef and lamb meat farming is an important share of global livestock production. However, in previous systematic mappings we detected a similar trend among papers covering sustainability on farm-level in other species [23][24][25][26]. It was more common for papers to cover one or two of the sustainability dimensions.…”

“…This wide variety of aspects, combined with the wide variety of approaches used in the papers included, made it difficult to compare the studies. During the mapping process in the work presented here, and also in our previous mappings of dairy [23], pig [24], and egg and chicken meat [26] production, it became apparent that a prioritized area for the future should be to develop a uniform definition and nomenclature for different aspects of sustainability. Standardized nomenclature would facilitate comparisons of results from different studies and help to draw more general conclusions.…”

“…However, only one of the six sheep papers that included environmental sustainability studied GHG emissions, and instead biodiversity and land use were the main aspects of environmental sustainability considered. Social sustainability was studied to a larger extent in the beef cattle and sheep papers than previously observed in systematic mappings of dairy [23], pig [24], finfish [25] and egg and chicken meat [26] production.…”

“…The research presented in this paper is part of a larger project about sustainability in livestock production. Findings related to dairy [23], pig [24], finfish [25] and egg and chicken meat [26] production at farm-level have been published previously.…”

Comparative analysis of technical efficiency of piglet farming in three production center provinces in Indonesia

“…Vaccinations that do not show the expected results may be caused by vaccination management or inadequate biosecurity practices at the internal pig farming level (Delsart et al, 2020;Mutua and Dione, 2021). With the complexity of the problems surrounding pig farming, especially with the increasing ASF pandemic in pig farms, the role of research institutions and universities is urgently needed (Gunnarsson et al, 2020) to improve the effectiveness of vaccination.…”