Abstract
An increasing interest and sensitivity of consumers and public opinion toward high-quality food products obtained with environmentally-friendly production methods has recently been detected. To this end, one of the key roles could be played by an environmental evaluation of the crop production. This research was performed to test a new multi-attribute decision model (DEXi-met) that is able to estimate the environmental sustainability of different agronomic practices in horticultural rotations. The model was used at the cropping system level on the basis of data from a long-term experiment in organic horticulture. It was tested on different cropping managements under climate change conditions. The DEXi-met mixed model (qualitative and qualitative basic attributes) generated four aggregated attributes to assess sustainability indicators (production capacity, soil, water and resources preservation, and biodiversity conservation) and the overall environmental sustainability. The model validation indicated that the introduction of agro-ecological services crops can increase the environmental sustainability of an organic cropping systems by promoting the whole soil–plant system equilibrium. The application of this tool could help maximize the efficient use of agronomical practices and quantify their environmental sustainability. DEXi-met could help agricultural advisors and policymakers schedule their decisions to find the right compromise between crop yield increase and the impact of agricultural activities.
Highlights
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines “climate change” as the statistically significant variations in climate that persist for an extended period, typically a decade or longer [1]
We decided to operate at the cropping system level, with the idea that the model might be used by the agricultural advisors, researchers, or policymakers, for ex-post overall environmental sustainability assessment
In our model, we consider a cropping system and a single cash crop, in order to have a broader idea of the environmental sustainability of the system
Summary
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines “climate change” as the statistically significant variations in climate that persist for an extended period, typically a decade or longer [1]. This change includes the increase in both the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events, and in particular the rise in global mean surface temperature, storms, droughts, etc. It ithashas been demonstrated that sustainable agriculture, which of is maintaining capable of its productivity while preserving ecosystems and non-renewable resources [4], has great maintaining its productivity while preserving ecosystems and non-renewable resourcespotential [4], has to mitigate climate change in comparison with conventional farm management.
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