Integrating agri-environmental indicators, ecosystem services assessment, life cycle assessment and yield gap analysis to assess the environmental sustainability of agriculture

authored by

J-E Bergez, A. Bethinger, C. Bockstaller, C. Cederberg, E. Ceschia, N. Guilpart, S. Lange, F. Müller, P. Reidsma, C. Riviere, C. Schader, O. Therond, H. M. G. van der Werf

Abstract

Agriculture's primary function is the production of food, feed, fibre and fuel for the fast-growing world population. However, it also affects human health and ecosystem integrity. Policymakers make policies in order to avoid harmful impacts. How to assess such policies is a challenge. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to help evaluate the impacts of agricultural policies on the environment. Our framework represents the global system as four subsystems and their interactions. These four components are the cells of a 2 by 2 matrix [Agriculture, Rest of the word]; [Socio-eco system, Ecological system]. We then developed a set of indicators for environmental issues and positioned these issues in the framework. To assess these issues, we used four well-known existing approaches: Life Cycle Assessment, Ecosystem Services Analysis, Yield Gap Analysis and Agro-Environmental Indicators. Using these four approaches together provided a more holistic view of the impacts of a given policy on the system. We then applied our framework on existing cover crop policies using an extensive literature survey and analysing the different environmental issues mobilised by the four assessment approaches. This demonstration case shows that our framework may be of help for a full systemic assessment. Despite their differences (aims, scales, standardization, data requirements, etc.), it is possible and profitable to use the four approaches together. This is a significant step forward, though more work is needed to produce a genuinely operational tool.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Physical Geography and Landscape Ecology
Physical Geography Group

External Organisation(s)

Universite de Toulouse
Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE)
Université de Lorraine (UL)
Chalmers University of Technology
Université Paris-Saclay
Kiel University
Wageningen University and Research
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)

Type

Article

Journal

Ecological indicators

Volume

141

ISSN

1470-160X

Publication date

08.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Decision Sciences(all), Ecology

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 15 - Life on Land, SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 - Climate Action, SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109107 (Access: Open)