Quantitative assessment of agricultural sustainability reveals divergent priorities among nations

Xin, Zhang; Yao, Guolin; Vishwakarma, Srishti; Dalin, Carole; Komarek, Adam M.; Kanter, David; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Pfeifer, Kimberly; Jing, Zhao; Zou, Tuo; D’Odorico, Paolo; Folberth, Christian; Rodriguez, Fernando Galeana; Fanzo, Jessica; Rosa, Lorenzo; Dennison, William C.; Musumba, Mark; Heyman, Amy; Davidson, Eric A.

doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2021.08.015

Cited by 88 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The majority of these frameworks reflects a holistic approach and embraces the multi-sectoral and multi-outcome nature of food systems. Yet, while several of those frameworks are based on empirical data, e.g., [31], a larger number of them remain essentially conceptual or theoretical, e.g., [8,27], and as such do not provide the empirical elements which are necessary to measure concretely food systems' sustainability.…”

Section: Empirical Food System Sustainability Indices-a Rapid Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of these studies, however, offer indices that don't cover well the entire food system. Zhang et al [31] for instance develop a multi-dimensional sustainability index that focuses on the agricultural sector only, thus, overlooking the other components of food system (processing, storage, distribution, etc.). Other studies propose to work at the local or subnational scales, e.g., [30,36], and, as such, are not suitable for global multi-country assessments.…”

Section: Empirical Food System Sustainability Indices-a Rapid Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Can economic development be a driver of food system sustainability? Empirical evidence from a global sustainability index and a multi-country analysis

Béné

Fanzo

Achicanoy

et al. 2022

PLOS Sustain Transform

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Despite representing a growing element of the international community’s discourse, the sustainability of food systems and the challenge of its empirical measurement are still highly debated. In this paper, we propose to address this gap by computing a global food system sustainability index which we then use in a cross-country analysis covering 94 countries in low-, middle- and high-income regions. The analysis reveals a strong non-linear but positive correlation between the food system sustainability index and countries’ individual GDP per capita. This relationship suggests some possible degree of endogeneity between food system sustainability and economic development. We then use the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways framework and Individual Conditional Expectations modeling techniques to explore how the sustainability of food systems is projected to evolve in the future as countries move up the economic development ladder. The projections indicate that for lower income countries, the change is usually more significant than for higher income countries. The analysis also reveals that the different dimensions of sustainability will not all contribute equally to future improvements in food system sustainability. In particular, investments targeting social and food security & nutrition dimensions are projected to have a greater effect on the sustainability of food systems than investment/interventions aiming at the environment or economic domains. For countries located at the lower end of the economic development spectrum, this would imply that, even with limited resources, policy-makers could substantially improve the sustainability of countries’ food systems by prioritizing (sub)national policies and interventions focused on social and food security & nutrition domains.

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Section: Empirical Food System Sustainability Indices-a Rapid Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Food System Sustainability Indices-a Rapid Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can economic development be a driver of food system sustainability? Empirical evidence from a global sustainability index and a multi-country analysis

Béné

Fanzo

Achicanoy

et al. 2022

PLOS Sustain Transform

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Further, these frameworks or assessment models are more focussed towards analysing sustainability from consumers' perspectives. Policymaking and assessment in a sustainable agriculture supply chain need SAMPJ 13,2 to have a broader perspective and include all the stakeholders to achieve sustainability (Deng et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021). A recent literature review paper by Hebinck et al (2021) on policymaking and assessment frameworks in sustainable food systems also highlights that most of the policymaking frameworks are mainly based on consumer centric approaches.…”

Section: Policymaking In Sustainable Agriculture Supply Chainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decision support framework for integrating triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability in agriculture supply chain

Singh

Srivastava

2021

SAMPJ

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Purpose This paper aims to address the conceptual and practical challenges in integrating triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability in the agriculture supply chain (ASC). It identifies the key enablers for each of the three dimensions of TBL sustainability, analyses their causal relationships as well as cross-dimensional interactions under each TBL dimension. Further, it develops a decision support framework (DSF) for the assessment of TBL sustainability practices and policies in ASC and validates it through a case study. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive structure modelling (ISM) methodology is deployed to establish the interrelationships among all TBL enablers and to identify the enablers with high driving power on sustainable ASC. Brainstorming by a group of experts was used to identify the relevant enables. Finally, a DSF was developed as a resultant of ISM. Findings The paper provides a set of enablers with high driving power that can significantly influence the sustainability practices and policies in ASC. The social enablers directly help to enhance the effect of economic enablers and collectively these enhance the effect of environmental enablers. If agriculture firms and supply chains design innovative policies and develop practices based on these enablers, they can achieve sustainable ASC. Consequently, the living standards of the people directly or indirectly associated with the agriculture firm or supply chain can be improved without compromising on economic performance. Research limitations/implications The paper consolidates the fragmented knowledge of sustainable supply chain management in the agriculture sector and suggests a DSF to policymakers, managers and practitioners for assessing TBL sustainability practices and policies. The DSF has wide applicability in other sectors of production and operations management as these sectors also face the challenge of achieving TBL sustainability across their supply chain. Practical implications The DSF, developed in the paper, is a useful tool for practitioners to frame and analyse sustainability initiatives and policies for ASC. A firm or supply chain may achieve TBL sustainability if it succeeds in uplifting the social status of its stakeholders. Social implications It is a first step towards addressing the practical challenge of integrating sustainability in the agriculture sector of emerging economies and provides a path to improve the livelihood of people in the agriculture sector. Stakeholder engagement with a focus on collaboration and awareness may lead to the desired social and environmental consequences. Potential adverse social effects also need to be considered. Originality/value This paper focusses on the so far rather neglected but essential aspect of integrating TBL sustainability in the agriculture sector of emerging economies. The hierarchal representation and classification of the TBL sustainability enablers of sustainability is a unique effort in the field of ASC. Development of DSF is one of the first attempts to create a mapping between various enablers of TBL sustainability. The novelty of the study lies in the sector-specific, holistic evaluation of TBL sustainability policy measures that may lead to improvements in practice.

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“…Feeding the growing and increasingly affluent human population requires doubling global food production by 2050 [1] as well as reducing food waste and shifting diets [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Advances in agricultural practices have reduced hunger around the world, but at the same time have contributed significantly to climate change, biodiversity loss, and degradation of land and water resources [9][10][11]. Thus, ensuring sufficient and equitable access to food while reducing agriculture's environmental impacts is one of the greatest societal challenges of the 21st century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting agriculture to climate change via sustainable irrigation: biophysical potentials and feedbacks

Rosa

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Irrigated agriculture accounts for ∼90% of anthropogenic freshwater consumption, is deployed on 22% of cultivated land, and provides 40% of global food production. Expanding irrigation onto currently underperforming rainfed croplands is crucial to meet future global food demand without further agricultural expansion and associated encroachment of natural ecosystems. Establishing irrigation is also a potential climate adaptation solution to alleviate heat- and water-stress to crops and reduce climate variability and extremes. Despite irrigation being one of the land management practices with the largest environmental and hydroclimatic impacts, the role of irrigation to adapt agriculture to climate change and achieve global sustainability goals has just started to be quantified. This study reviews biophysical opportunities and feedbacks of ‘sustainable irrigation’. I describe the concept of sustainable irrigation expansion—where there are opportunities to increase agricultural productivity over currently water-limited rainfed croplands by adopting irrigation practices that do not deplete freshwater stocks and impair aquatic ecosystems. Expanding sustainable irrigation may avert agricultural expansion but create additional externalities that are often neglected. This review highlights major gaps in the analysis and understanding on the role of sustainable irrigation expansion to adapt agriculture to climate change. This study reviews the implications of a potential sustainable irrigation expansion on (a) global food security, (b) hydroclimatic conditions, (c) water quality, (d) soil salinization, (e) water storage infrastructure, and (f) energy use. These implications help to explain the challenges of achieving sustainability in irrigated agriculture and thus also point toward solutions and future research needs.

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Quantitative assessment of agricultural sustainability reveals divergent priorities among nations

Abstract: Highlights d We offer a Sustainable Agriculture Matrix to track performance of countries worldwide d Priority areas for improving agricultural sustainability depend on development stage d Analysis of trade-offs and synergies among indicators can inform national policies

Cited by 88 publications

References 42 publications

Can economic development be a driver of food system sustainability? Empirical evidence from a global sustainability index and a multi-country analysis

Can economic development be a driver of food system sustainability? Empirical evidence from a global sustainability index and a multi-country analysis

Decision support framework for integrating triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability in agriculture supply chain

Adapting agriculture to climate change via sustainable irrigation: biophysical potentials and feedbacks

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