Abstract
As agriculture continues to be under pressure due to its negative environmental impacts, resource-efficiency and the use of clean technologies gain importance. Meanwhile, there is an abundance of technological solutions that help “clean” agriculture’s hotspots, either by reducing inputs, by producing renewable energy or by protecting ecosystems. Decisions about clean technologies remain difficult due to the variety of options, difficulties in cost-benefit calculations, and potential trade-offs in sustainability. We therefore addressed the issue of decision-making regarding clean technologies in agriculture. A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was used to rank the most sustainable technologies. Evaluation of 17 selected clean technologies was based on literature information and expert opinion. Wireless sensor irrigation networks, frequency converters for vacuum pumps and stable air conditioning, PV electricity and drip irrigation were the five technologies with the highest sustainability scores, outperforming the 12 other clean technologies. When all sustainability dimensions and criteria were equally weighted, PV electricity was superseded by variable speed drive technology for irrigation in the top five. This paper shows that MCDAs are a useful method for choosing between sustainable clean technology options. By applying different weighting, the MCDA can reflect the priorities of the decision maker and provide customised results.
Highlights
Global agriculture is challenged by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for 2030 [1]
These criteria were selected by the authors of this study based on their experience in transdisciplinary sustainability science for agriculture and in order to enable an multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) analysis adapted for agriculture
Benefit values of the different clean technologies assigned to the sustainability criteria were discussed with Simon Gisler from AgroCleantech AG, a company with consulting experience in cleantech solutions for agriculture in Switzerland and with Urs Hohl from ZHAW, a lecturer for sustainable development and renewable energy solutions
Summary
Global agriculture is challenged by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for 2030 [1]. In addition to greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, agriculture is the single largest consumer of water in most countries, and is a significant source of water pollution. These dependencies and externalities force agriculture to improve its production and become cleaner by using fewer resources and causing fewer emissions. A successful implementation of clean technologies, which are commonly defined as “means of providing a human benefit which, overall, uses less resources and causes less damage than alternative means with which it is economically competitive”, could support the transition of the global agricultural system towards these goals [5]
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