MEASURING THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: THE CONSTRUCTION AND ANALYSIS OF FARM LEVEL INDICATORS

Abstract

The concept of sustainable agriculture is based on the paradigm of sustainable development. Sustainable agriculture refers to farm production systems and combines economic, social and environmental dimensions. Most often it covers issues related to environmental protection and improving the quality and standard of living of farmers. In conducting scientific research, the basic problems are measuring the degree of sustainability and classification of farms. The aim of the research was to develop an indicator measuring the economic dimension of sustainable agriculture and determine its size in various farm types. The assessment of individual groups of farms was based on an original set of indicators determining their economic situation. Consequently, the synthetic economic dimension indicator of sustainable agriculture (ESD) was used for farm evaluation. The conducted research showed that over 60% of groups of farms operating in 2010-2017 reached the target value of the indicator of the economic dimension of sustainable agriculture. Economic size and farm type were determinants of this situation. The results obtained indicate an increase in the economic dimension indicator of sustainable agriculture together with a higher class of economic size. Whereas the farms dealing with dairy were the type of farm with the highest values of the built indicator. Analysis of literature sources and the conducted research confirmed the complexity of the assessment of production systems and the impact of the choice of indicators on the degree of their sustainability.