1,721,014 research outputs found
Ranking Farms Using Quantitative Indicators of Sustainability: The 4Agro Method
No full textAbstractThe paper presents 4Agro, a new model for the assessment of environmental, social and economic sustainability of farms. The framework is based on a set of 42 indicators. The process has involved the following steps: identification of the most relevant variables that characterizes sustainability performances of farms, choice of the appropriate indicators, assignment of their range scores, data collection, calculation of the score for each farm and their visualization by graphic representation. The case study was represented by fifty farms from the South Milan Agricultural Park (Northern Italy). The method allows a comparison among farms or homogeneous groups of them, showing the sensitivity to their characteristics and farmers’ choices. The research shows the framework of 4Agro and discusses some relevant points related to the selection and weighting of indicators
AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT AT THE FARM LEVEL: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ON THE PARCO AGRICOLO SUD MILANO
Get PDFIn recent years, the scientific community has offered countless approaches for the definition and the evaluation of sustainability in agriculture. Nevertheless, these tools have not yet determined the concept in a complete way. In addition, the complexity and diversity of the agricultural sector contribute to increase the difficulties. Despite these issues, there is a certain sharing in the paradigm of its multidimensionality that integrates the popular environmental goals with the economic and social rights.
Numerous studies have contributed to the definition of sustainability but only few were able to offer a common approach able to determine whether a farm is sustainable or not. For this reason researchers are frequently asked to find objective tools useful to the achievement of a shared methodological approach. This is a difficult task due to different reasons: conceptual, related to the difficulty of determining what is required to a farm to be defined as "sustainable", methodological, because of the complexity of an evaluation based on both temporal and spatial dimensions, and politic because of the involvement of many stakeholders with different, and sometimes even opposite, objectives.
At the farm scale, the use of quantitative indicators is particularly popular because of their ability of adaptation to different territorial systems and the use of accessible data.
This work wants to be a participation in the debate on the sustainability of farms and a contribution in the discussion about the most important methodological issues. Therefore, a tool for the assessment of environmental, social and economic performances of farms is here proposed. The aim of this work was to illustrate a new methodological process in order to formulate a framework focused on a general context, as a tool for decision support useful for farmers, policy-makers and researchers.
The work was carried out on a sample of 50 farms of the region of the South Milan Agricultural Park (PASM) that covers an area of about 40,000 hectares surrounding the city of Milan (Northern Italy). Data collection involved interviews to farmers through questionnaires, the use of the SIARL database, documents and previous projects.
The method is named 4Agro. From the methodological point of view, the approach has been created in order to provide indexes of evaluation of each pillar of sustainability (environmental, social, economic and a theoretical proposal for the evaluation of the institutional issues) of farms starting from their raw data. These information are then concerted in indexes by indicators, previously selected by a literature review, edited and weighted according to the objective of the case study.
The direct processing of the results, called Farm ranking approaches, are evaluation processes that allow the classification of different farms, homogeneous groups of them or of the same farm during time.
In order to assess the robustness of the methodological framework and to find out the presence of redundant information, a statistical analysis was carried out on the results of each indicator. Moreover, considering the critical issues related to the data availability and cost, the survey proposed a statistical approach for the indicators reduction and, consequently, the data requirement.
In conclusion, this study proposed a new framework for the assessment of farm sustainability. The survey provided some relevant methodological solution but further developments seem to be anyway needed. Firstly, the objective of finding a shared framework for different contexts is conceptually reasonable. However, methodologically, this goal requires necessary adjustments and the need of a good knowledge of the case study. Secondly, issues related to farms’ data (selection, security, utilization) have raised some relevant practical problems. In the present study, a statistical approach has been proposed with the main goal to achieve a proper balance between quality and quantity of information. While the approach has proved to be methodologically appropriate, its application for the present case study has raised some important questions about the plausibility to include other quantitative variables such as the source of data and their cost. Finally, the use of Farm ranking approaches seemed particularly suitable to be used at different levels. Furthermore, the tool is a valuable support for policy-makers to assess the level of sustainability achieved by farmers who have adopted or who should take their policies. This research has highlighted a certain reasonableness in the proposal of assessing of a fourth scale, that could be useful in order to determine the effectiveness of the policy-makers’ decisions
Sustainable development for a model of agriculture in the metropolitan systems
No full textConstant innovation in the production techniques of the primary sector has contributed to the exploitation of natural and agricultural systems, particularly significant in high populated areas.
The work is based on the study of the interactions between the metropolitan area of Milan and the agricultural activities around it. Our project aims to develop a support for the Parco Agricolo Sud Milano (47,000 ha). We decided to assess the 3 scales of sustainability (environmental, social, economic) of farms. The idea was to create a means to guide farmers, institutions and researchers towards innovative and sustainable solutions: a seemingly difficult territory for agriculture, localized close to a large city, instead can be used positively.
The survey were carried out through IDEA, a calculation tool that compares farms through 42 indicators that characterize the 3 scales using calculations, measurements, evaluations. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the production system and the ways to improve the level of sustainability.
We sampled 50 farms and collected them data (from database, interviews, estimates, observations, tabulated data). The approaches are many, thus we can focus our work on the indicators that affect the goals of the farms. We evaluated and edited the method by following what European policies have addressed, integrating agricultural production to environmental protection.
The results highlight the need to link these assessments with the income prospects of the farms provided by the institutions: a high-quality production, the maintenance of biodiversity and rural traditions, promotion of the competitive farms.
Farms will have a method to assess their performance and the cost of production of products, to compare them with other farms and obtain explanations of a higher or lower profitability. It will be evaluated the impact of the product differentiation, the use of different agricultural practices, the energy efficiency, the marketing decisions
A new framework for the assessment of the environmental sustainability of farms
No full textThe present research contributes to the literature proposing a new model for the assessment of environmental sustainability of agricultural activities at the farm scale and discussing some relevant points related to the process of selection and weighting of the indicators. The framework is based on a set of 18 indicators that evaluate 5 main environmental components by the following steps: identification of the most relevant variables representing for environmental impact of agricultural activities, choice of the indicators, assignment of their range scores, data collection, calculation of the score for each farm and visualization of the data. The method is applied to a case study represented by fifty farms from the South Milan Agricultural Park (Italy), that have been selected in order to represent different farming systems and economic dimensions. The method allowed a comparison at farms and farming system level, showing sensitivity to farms’ characteristics and farmers’ choices
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
The hidden costs of animal health in dairy cattle breeding: evidences from a case study
No full textInaccurate management of dairy cattle health entails problems of animal health and represents a cost that need to be correctly evaluated in order to ensure the economic success of breeding activity. The analysis proposes an economic efficiency index of veterinary cost per livestock unit (€/LU) in order
to evaluate the total costs of sanitary treatments in dairy cattle breeding and compare different farms’ performance. Results shows that farmers can spend from 89.43 to 211.98 €/LU per years due to cows’ pathologies, and sometime hidden costs (i.e. implicit costs) overcome explicit expenditures. The study suggests the importance of managing and monitoring in order to provide targeted interventions. No process monitoring, i.e. lack of information, implies difficulties related to problem solving and decision-making issues
National Brands versus Private Labels versus Niche Products: a graphical representation of consumers' perception
Get PDFThe more consumers’ needs evolve, the more food market’s stakeholders require information
in order to make rational choices responding to consumption patterns’ changes. In the present
research the perception of well-established and niche food products is discussed. Five macro-categories of food have been considered: national brands, private labels, organic products,
Protected Denomination of Origin products and local food.
After decades of diversification strategies, we analyze similarities and dissimilarities between products on the basis of their perceived quality.
The survey was conducted in Milan (Italy) between May and July 2014, collecting information about 360 adult consumers. Perception of products have been evaluated asking to interviewees to pick from a list of attributes, which ones they attach to each products. Data are elaborated through simple correspondence analysis, obtaining a perceptual map, which provides a graphical representation of links between attributes and products.
Results suggest that consumer perceive national brands and private labels as similar and organic
and local food distinctively differentiated by other products for sale in food market, but do not provide a completely reliable interpretation for PDO products. National brands and private labels remain the most convenient food, organic food are perceived as healthy, environmental-friendly, expensive and respectful of animal welfare, while local food is represented as traditional, fair and flavorful. No differences have been found controlling for gender, while consumer who are used to direct-sale recognize to PDO products the same characteristics of local food
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