TY - JOUR

T1 - Integrating agri-environmental indicators, ecosystem services assessment, life cycle assessment and yield gap analysis to assess the environmental sustainability of agriculture

AU - Bergez, J-E

AU - Bethinger, A.

AU - Bockstaller, C.

AU - Cederberg, C.

AU - Ceschia, E.

AU - Guilpart, N.

AU - Lange, S.

AU - Müller, F.

AU - Reidsma, P.

AU - Riviere, C.

AU - Schader, C.

AU - Therond, O.

AU - van der Werf, H. M. G.

N1 - Funding Information: This study was funded by INRAE with a grant from Tempag (OECD). The authors wish to thank the INRAE librarians (S. Le-Perchec and V. Lelièvre) who helped in starting the project by a general literature query and A. Lewer for the English editing.

PY - 2022/8

Y1 - 2022/8

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Multi-criteria assessment

KW - Environmental issues

KW - Environmental policies

KW - Conceptual framework

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133331912&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109107

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109107

M3 - Article

VL - 141

JO - Ecological indicators

JF - Ecological indicators

SN - 1470-160X

M1 - 109107

ER -