Quantitative assessment for sustainable agriculture
Framework will help nations gauge progress and pitfalls

Date:
September 17, 2021
Source:
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Summary:
Scientists have assembled a quantitative assessment for agriculture
sustainability for countries around the world based not only on
environmental impacts, but economic and social impacts, as well. The
Sustainable Agriculture Matrix, or SAM, provides independent
and transparent measurements of agricultural sustainability at
a national level that can help governments and organizations to
evaluate progress, encourage accountability, identify priorities
for improvement, and inform national policies and actions towards
sustainable agriculture around the globe.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
For the first time, scientists have assembled a quantitative assessment
for agriculture sustainability for countries around the world based
not only on environmental impacts, but economic and social impacts, as
well. The Sustainable Agriculture Matrix, or SAM, provides independent
and transparent measurements of agricultural sustainability at a national
level that can help governments and organizations to evaluate progress, encourage accountability, identify priorities for improvement, and
inform national policies and actions towards sustainable agriculture
around the globe.


========================================================================== "This Sustainable Agriculture Matrix is an effort to promote
accountability for nations' commitments towards sustainable agriculture,"
said project leader Xin Zhang of the University of Maryland Center
for Environmental Science. "We hope this can serve as a tool to
bring the stakeholders together. Agriculture production is not only
about farmers. It's about everyone." Agriculture is fundamental to sustainability. However, the definition of "sustainable agriculture"
and the ability to measure it have been difficult to quantify. The
project to create the Sustainable Agriculture Matrix began in 2017
by bringing together about 30 stakeholders and experts from around
the world -- including Oxfam, the International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis, the International Food Policy Research Institute,
and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, as well as
academic partners such as University College London, University of
Queensland, University of California Berkeley and the University of
Maryland Center for Environmental Science -- to assess the impacts of agricultural production on a national scale around a diverse range of environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability.

"Sustainable agriculture is a very complex concept and it means different things for different people, making it hard to assess," said Zhang. "To
make the commitment to sustainable agriculture accountable, independent
and transparent measurements of countries' sustainability are essential."
"The assessment of sustainability is not easy, especially given the
dearth of social data across all countries. We hope with this matrix we
can demonstrate the value of greater investment in social data to assess
how agriculture affects and contributes to social equity as a critical dimension of agricultural sustainability," said co-author Kimberly
Pfeifer from Oxfam America.

Globally, agriculture faces the challenge of increasing productivity to
meet growing population demands for food, materials, and energy. Nations
are tasked with developing a sustainable agriculture sector that is
not only productive, but also nutritionally adequate, compatible with
ecosystem health and biodiversity, and resilient. As a result, sustainable agriculture has been included as part of the Sustainable Development
Goals ratified by all member countries of the United Nations in 2015.



==========================================================================
The first edition of the matrix is composed of 18 indicators that measure
the direct impacts of agricultural production on the environment and
economy, and broader impacts on the whole society, recognizing that
agriculture is deeply interconnected with other sectors. An emphasis
in this first edition is on identifying trade-offs between performance indicators, such as between improved economic performance and reduced environmental performance, and also some less common examples of
trade-offs such as increased agricultural subsidies did not necessarily
improve human nutrition.

"There haven't been efforts that provide a comprehensive look at all
three dimensions of agricultural impacts for countries around the world,"
said co- author Eric Davidson from the University of Maryland Center
for Environmental Science. "The underlying concept of this matrix is
a recognition that the agricultural system may have multiple impacts
on sustainability." For instance, while agricultural production may
provide vibrant economic benefits to the farming community and national economic development, it might also add stress on the environment in
terms of water use, nutrient pollution, and biodiversity loss. How and
if the national agricultural sector provides a healthy and sufficient
diet for its own population may influence social equality.

"The comprehensive assessment for the sustainability of a country's
agriculture provides a great opportunity to reveal the full range of
potential tradeoffs, as well as synergies, among multiple sustainability
goals, and allows informed choices in view of local or policy priorities,"
said co-author Amy Heyman of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

"While most countries have demonstrated strong tradeoffs between
environmental and economic dimensions of agricultural sustainability,
there are countries, such as the United States, showing some promising
signs of achieving synergies between enhancing agricultural productivity
and reducing environmental impacts," said co-author Guolin Yao from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.



==========================================================================
"I want to broaden the view of agricultural management. It's not only
about what's going on farm but what's going on in the market, during
policy debates, and on our plates. Day-to-day consumer choices have a fundamental impact on what's being produced, as well as where and how
it's being produced," Zhang said.

"The green revolution made it possible for humanity to feed huge
population growth in past decades, but this came at the price of
large impacts to the environment and a neglect of human nutrition
and overall well-being," said co- author Kyle Davis of the University
of Delaware. "Our SAM approach provides a promising step beyond the shortcomings of the green revolution while trying to build on the past successes of global agriculture." As a next step, the SAM consortium,
a project funded by the Belmont Forum, is launching with six pilot
countries and regions, including USA, Austria, Brazil, Turkey, South
Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa. The consortium will use the first edition
of SAM indicators as a starting point to engage conversations and
coordination among stakeholders, and to co-develop country cases to
identify strategies towards sustainable agriculture.

"Having the assessment is an important first step toward agricultural sustainability, especially in marginal production areas in Africa,"
said SAM consortium partner Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

"This is a useful starting point for not only evaluating progress,
but also identifying priorities for improvement, and informing national policies and actions towards sustainable agriculture," said co-author
and SAM consortium partner Christian Folberth from the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

Funding for the Sustainable Agriculture Matrix effort was
provided by National Science Foundation and the National
Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center. More information about the
SAM project is available here: http:// research.al.umces.edu/sam/ ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Maryland_Center_for_Environmental_Science.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Xin Zhang, Guolin Yao, Srishti Vishwakarma, Carole Dalin, Adam M.

Komarek, David R. Kanter, Kyle Frankel Davis, Kimberly Pfeifer,
Jing Zhao, Tan Zou, Paolo D'Odorico, Christian Folberth, Fernando
Galeana Rodriguez, Jessica Fanzo, Lorenzo Rosa, William Dennison,
Mark Musumba, Amy Heyman, Eric A. Davidson. Quantitative
assessment of agricultural sustainability reveals divergent
priorities among nations. One Earth, 2021; 4 (9): 1262 DOI:
10.1016/j.oneear.2021.08.015 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210917110900.htm

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