Evaluation of Sustainability Determinants of Small Farming Systems via Participatory Modeling and Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Processes: The Case Study of Heliciculture in Greece

Marianthi Hatziioannou,Konstantinos Kokkinos

doi:10.3389/frsus.2021.629408

Abstract

Feasibility and sustainability of small-scale farming systems are the most critical factors that determine future investments of urban agro-farming while promoting eco-systematic livelihood development and biodiversity. The determination and the diversification of the ambivalent and heterogeneous factors that affect the investment decision making of small farming systems is studied in this work via the application of participatory modeling methodology of regional stakeholders. Defuzzification of the participants' categorical feedback is succeeded applying Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) to set the pairwise weight matrix of the determinants suggested by the stakeholders. At a second phase, an innovative Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) model is utilized to determine the weighted inter-causalities between all agricultural, environmental, and socio-economic criteria from the F-AHP output. Apart from the concept circumscription, we use the FCM to provide an in-depth scenario analysis including steady state and dynamic evaluation of driver concepts to receiver concepts in the model. The methodology is applied for the case study of heliciculture farming systems in Greece. Results show that sustainability is affected primarily by agricultural and inventory factors and secondarily by social and environmental factors identifying such cradle-to-farm gate life cycle assessment to be of low carbon footprint.

Highlights

As the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2017) suggests, and (Dutta et al, 2020) applies in different adaptation strategies, agricultural transitioning toward sustainable development plays an important role in the 2030 Agenda for global rural economic progress
The utilization of the same stakeholders is due to the following reasons: (a) credibility of responses since this group is the most appropriate group of people to evaluate the recognition of the scenario designed and how plausible it is, (b) relevance (i.e., the ability of the stakeholders to estimate the relevance of the concepts to end users, (c) legitimacy, and (d) creativity
The criteria importance was considered for suitability of heliciculture farming systems to maximize production

Summary

Introduction

As the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2017) suggests, and (Dutta et al, 2020) applies in different adaptation strategies, agricultural transitioning toward sustainable development plays an important role in the 2030 Agenda for global rural economic progress This development includes a whole repertoire of methodologies and approaches for agricultural planning. Sustainability Determinants in Heliciculture must abnegate traditional methodologies assuming: (a) low or no-cost water, (b) fertilizers and infrastructures, and (c) undergo the necessary changes in levels of urbanization and rural markets to maintain viability and profitability For this transition to be digested and become the base in agricultural development for the southern European countries, the societal acceptance is critical since, it boosts local residents to further investing into autonomous farming systems. At the same time, such initiatives generate additional residential income, employment, food sustainability, and fight poverty in the underdeveloped European regions

Methods

Results

Conclusion