Assessment of sustainability of livestock farming system
- Concept and measurement -
- Part 1 -

Saidur Rahman, Lalhumliana Tochhawng, Nancy Laldinpui, Sumit Kr. Bebnath *

Sustainable development has become a catchphrase and the idea has turned out to be popular in the contemporary world. Sustainability is a multifunctional concept and thus is not easy to assess or to evaluate. People from different disciplinary backgrounds view sustainability quite differently. The Brundtland Report formed the basis for policy on sustainability.

It declared that for a condition of sustainability to exist, it must meet four criteria: environmentally sustainable; economically sustainable; socially sustainable and societally sustainable. Sustainability refers the ability to meet present needs without impacting on future generations to meet their needs Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sustainability implies an ongoing dynamic development, driven by human expectations about future opportunities based on economic, social, and ecological information. Concept of Sustainable Agriculture The concept of sustainable agriculture emphasises different aspects of agriculture in the context of different countries and regions.

American society of Agronomy conceptualized sustainable agriculture as one that over long term enhances environmental quality, and the resource base on which agriculture depends, provides for basic human food and fibre needs, is economically viable and enhance the quality of farmers, and the society as a whole. A sustainable agriculture as "capable of maintaining its productivity and usefulness to society over the long run.

It must be environmentally-sound, resource-conserving, economically viable and socially supportive commercially competitive, and environmentally sound". Agriculture is the most important user of environmental resources, including water, forests, pastures and nutrients, and its sustainability depends upon their availability. Sustainable agriculture defined as ecosystem management of complex interactions among soil, water, plants, animals, climate, and people.

The goal is to integrate all these factors into a production system that is appropriate for the environment, the people, and the economic conditions where the farm is located.

Sustainable agriculture in developing countries implies:
intensive farming, diversified cropping patters, such as intercropping, mixed cropping and multiple cropping;
Maximum use of internal resources and balanced use of external resources;
Profitable and efficient production;
the inherent capacity of soil and water resources that support agricultural production are maintained or improved over time;
and a greater productive use of local knowledge and practices,
and enhanced innovation and application of resource conservation technologies.

Sustainable agriculture is one that produces abundant food without depleting the earth's resources or polluting its environment. An agricultural system is sustainable when the trade-offs between the objectives considered for public evaluation of its performance (economic objectives -as the income growth or the macro-economic stability, social objectives as the equity or the cover of basic needs, and ecological objectives —as the ecosystem protection or natural resources regeneration) reach acceptable values for the society as a whole.

Sustainable farming system is socially responsible practice that allows economic viability of farms maintaining resources and ecosystems in same or improved shape for future generations. A broadly acceptable definition of sustainable agriculture, from a biophysical perspective, has been proposed by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR): "sustainable agriculture involves the successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy changing human needs, while maintaining or enhancing the quality of environment and conserving natural resources".

Assessment of Farm Level sustainability Sustainability assessment is being increasingly viewed as an important tool to aid in the shift towards sustainability. Sustainability assessment is often described as a process by which the implications of an initiative on sustainability are evaluated where the initiative can be proposed or existing policy, plan, programme, project etc. indicators inform about the state of functioning of a system, whether a machine, a human being, an ecosystem or a country.

They help to define goals, link them to objectives, and assess progress toward meeting them. Sustainability indicators have multidimensional attributes -economic, environmental and social. Indicators can be meaningfully integrated into an aggregated index. An indicator is an alternative measure to used to describe a state or situation when direct measurement is not possible. An indicator is a variable that reflects or explains other variables that are more difficult to understand or quantify.

Indicators inform about the state of functioning of a system, whether a machine, a human being, an ecosystem or a country. Indicators can be meaningfully integrated into an aggregated index. Sustainability indicators are tools that can be used by the farmers at the farm or field level to assess the effects of managerial changes. For the last three decades a lot of initiatives have been proposed with a very broad array of indicators.

Equal access to resources such as per capita availability of arable land, irrigation water, and support services such as extension and training services, marketing, and credit services among farmers are considered as underlying factors ensuring social sustainability. Economic indicators are used to measure the productivity, profitability, and stability of farming activities.

Productivity is the efficiency of input on output. Productivity is measured from two standpoints: technical efficiency of resources, expressed in terms of physical amounts, and economic efficiency in terms of monetary value. Over the long term a sustainable production system should maintain or enhance the following areas: the environment and the resource base (land, water, air, and human); the quality of life for producers and society.

The long-term sustainability of animal agriculture is examined in an ecological context. Drought, flood, soil erosion, weed infestations, and other such confounding occurrences provide uncertainty and impose new constraints on production. There are thirteen agri-environmental indicators set by using two participatory processes: the Delphi method and focus group.

These thirteen indicators were divided into four components: Soil quality, cropping practices, fertilizer management and farmland management. Farm level sustainability indicators encompassing four facets of sustainability, economic environmental, social and innovation to gauge the current sustainability of Irish dairy farms. Productivity of labour, productivity of land, profitability, viability of investment and market orientation are economic indicators.

Under environmental dimensions, 01-10 emission per farm, 0110 emissions per kg of output, nitrogen balance, and emissions from fuel and electricity are considered while five indicators, namely, household vulnerability, education level, isolation risk, high age profile and work life balance are included for social facet of sustainability.

Indicators under innovation dimensions were developed for representing innovations in farm processes, management and farm products. Nine (9) key indicators for sustainable dairy production are
Animal health,
Animal welfare,
Economic viability,
Working conditions,
Emissions to air,
Water quality,
Water use efficiency,
Soil fertility,
Health and
Biodiversity conservation.

For each indicator, a range of metrics could be used, depending on the type of farming system or geographic location.

Elements of a Good Indicator

o System oriented
o "Quantitative
o Predictive
o Stochastic
o Diagnostic
o Readily measurable


To be continued...