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Operational Indicators for Measuring Agricultural Sustainability in Developing Countries

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Abstract

This paper reviews relevant literature on the sustainability indicators theoretically proposed and practically applied by scholars over the past 15 years. Although progress is being made in the development and critical analysis of sustainability indicators, in many cases existing or proposed indicators are not the most sensitive or useful measures in developing countries. Indicator selection needs to meet the following criteria: relative availability of data representing the indicators, sensitivity to stresses on the system, existence of threshold values and guidelines, predictivity, integratability and known response to disturbances, anthropogenic stresses, and changes over time. Based on these criteria, this paper proposes a set of operational indicators for measuring agricultural sustainability in developing countries. These indicators include ecological indicators involving amounts of fertilizers and pesticides used, irrigation water used, soil nutrient content, depth to the groundwater table, water use efficiency, quality of groundwater for irrigation, and nitrate content of both groundwater and crops. Economic indicators include crop productivity, net farm income, benefit–cost ratio of production, and per capita food grain production. Social indicators encompass food self-sufficiency, equality in food and income distribution among farmers, access to resources and support services, and farmers’ knowledge and awareness of resource conservation. This article suggests that the selection of indicators representing each aspect of sustainability should be prioritized according to spatial and temporal characteristics under consideration.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Virginia H. Dale and three other anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions in improving the quality of this paper. The authors gratefully acknowledge the comments and suggestions received from Dr. G. B. Thapa, Associate Professor, School of Environment, Resources and Development, AIT, on the earlier version of this paper. The authors also acknowledge Dr. Jonathan Shaw, Associate Professor of AIT Extension for making a thorough proofreading of the article.

This article is based on the review of the first author’s doctoral dissertation, entitled “Sustainability of Farming Practices in Ningjin County of Shandong Province, the North China Plain,” supervised by the second author. Financial support was received from AIT, AIT-NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Project of Cooperation, Regional Office of Food and Agricultural Organisation for Asia and the Pacific, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing and is gratefully acknowledged. This research is under the auspice of the National Key Project for Basic Research on Agricultural Environment (2002CB111506), the Ministry of Science and technology, P.R. China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, Chineese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 9717, Beijing 100101, P.R China

    Lin Zhen

  2. Regional and Rural Development Planning School of Environment, Resources and Development Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

    Jayant K. Routray

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  1. Lin Zhen
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Correspondence to Jayant K. Routray.

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Zhen, L., Routray, J. Operational Indicators for Measuring Agricultural Sustainability in Developing Countries . Environmental Management 32, 34–46 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-003-2881-1

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