Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 77 2000 111–123
An inputoutput methodology to evaluate farms as sustainable agroecosystems: an application of indicators to farms in central Italy
Vittorio Tellarini
a,∗
, Fabio Caporali
b
a
Dipartimento di Economia dell’Agricoltura, dell’Ambiente Agro-Forestale e del Territorio, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy
b
Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale, Università della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy Accepted 19 July 1999
Abstract
Agricultural researchers recognize the importance of the sustainability of agricultural systems and the need to develop appropriate ways to measure sustainability. The search for agroecosystem performance indicators APIs is an urgent task
to develop understanding and to facilitate decision-making processes. The paper provides an inputoutput methodology for a farming system analysis in terms of both energy and monetary values, measurements that are sufficiently homogenizing
and comprehensive to document patterns of agroecosystem transfers of bio-physical entities and socio-cultural values. This methodology was applied to two adjacent farms located in Central Italy, which differed in the farming system adopted mixed
farming and arable farming and in the level of external input applied. A broad range of APIs structural and functional, direct and crossed was developed to analyze both the fundamental energy transfers and associated allocation of monetary values
between the crucial agroecosystem components and the overall efficiency of the farming system in transforming different external input into output. This analysis shows that energy and monetary values do not offer a single, coherent account of the
functioning of farm systems. The study stresses the need for the development of an environmental accounting method, which integrates ecological and economic aspects. For the present, it is recognized that structural and functional APIs calculated
according to energy, rather than monetary, values are more meaningful in both the designing of sustainable farming systems and in decision-making processes. ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Sustainability; Agroecosystem performance indicators; Inputoutput model; Farming systems
1. Introduction
In an other paper Caporali et al., 1989, the criteria for the construction of environmentally sound agroe-
cosystems, the advantages of studying agroecosystem processes and performances at farm level, and the
∗
Corresponding author.
Tel.: +39-050-540260;
fax: +39-
050-572511 E-mail address:
vittotelvet.unipi.it V. Tellarini
need to promote research into the development of agroecosystem performance indicators APIs were re-
ported. A similar position was contemporarily taken by Lynam and Herdt 1989 and has recently been rein-
forced by Tisdell 1996, Yridoe and Weersink 1997 and Webster 1997. Lynam and Herdt 1989 empha-
sized that agricultural researchers should
a. recognize the importance of the sustainability of agricultural systems,
b. devise appropriate ways of measuring sustainabil- ity,
0167-880900 – see front matter ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 7 - 8 8 0 9 9 9 0 0 0 9 7 - 3
112 V. Tellarini, F. Caporali Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 77 2000 111–123
c. empirically examine the sustainability of some well-defined cropping or farming systems,
d. define the externalities present in such systems, and
e. develop methods to measure those externalities. Tisdell 1996 reviews suggestions made in the litera-
ture for developing appropriate indicators and recog- nizes that obtaining operational and predictive indi-
cators of the economic viability of a farming system depends on a variety of attributes. Indeed, economic
viability is also related to the sustainability of the nat- ural productivity of soils and other natural resources
on which economic production partially depends, so economic indicators depend in part on non-economic
factors, and a holistic approach is needed. In a re- view of the evaluation of agroecosystem health, Yridoe
and Weersink 1997 affirm that “there has so far not been an integrated economic framework within
which indicators can be developed and interpreted as a basis for evaluating agroecosystem health.” Webster
1997 stressed that current farming systems are de- veloping an undesirable rural environment in the so-
cial, economic and ecological sense, and that there is a need to move from existing farming systems to ‘stain-
able’arming systems. Sustainability should involve a reduction in external inputs and a move towards inter-
nal self-sufficiency, but it is recognized that the iden- tification and measurement of sustainability indicators
is still under development. In an attempt to present a systematic framework of sustainability indicators,
Azar et al. 1996 emphasize societal activities that af- fect the nature and internal societal use of resources,
as opposed to environmental quality indicators. In this way, socio-ecological indicators may provide a warn-
ing of an unsustainable use of resources and thus serve as a tool in planning and decision-making processes.
In general, there is a shared awareness that obtain- ing acceptable indicators for sustainability assessment
is still both an unsolved problem and an urgent chal- lenge for researchers. In this context, results obtained
in case-study surveys carried out at farm level in Cen- tral Italy are presented to illustrate the above con-
cerns. The aim was to develop APIs that have both an epistemological and a practical significance, represent-
ing, respectively: a an efficient instrument of inquiry for studying agroecosystem functioning and perfor-
mance according to an inputoutput approach; and b a relevant knowledge base for both the designing
of sustainable agroecosystems and decision-making processes.
2. Methodology for evaluation of the farm as a sustainable agroecosystem
