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A sustainability evaluation was undertaken with 22 smallholder dairy farms in the highlands of Mexico; following the IDEA method in the agroecological, socioterritorial, and economic scales (all scales are out of 100). Sustainability was highest for the agroecological scale (59/100), intermediate for the socioterritorial scale (53/100), and lowest on the economic scale (43/100). The sustainability of a farm is the lowest score of the three scales. In most farms, the lowest was the economic scale. A cluster analysis led to the identification of five distinct groups: Cluster 1 defined two farms not related to others, cluster 2 farms (4) were those with high agroecological scores, cluster 3 farms (8) were most representative of the area, cluster 4 included two farms with low socioterritorial and economic sustainability scores, and cluster 5 was made up of the remaining six farms with the highest economic sustainability score, but limited by the agroecological and socioterritorial scales. In all farms, there is a high reliance on bought-in inputs. Therefore, given the limited resources of these systems, the better option is to limit the number of cows to those that can be fed mostly with the production of the farm, which increases the economic sustainability. The IDEA method is a useful tool for sustainability assessment of small-scale dairy systems.
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... It includes variables such as economic viability, independence, transferability, efficiency, product and land quality, organization, ethical and human development, diversity, and production methods. Several studies have employed the IDEA approach (Fadul-Pacheco et al., 2013;Gavrilescu et al., 2012;Ikhlef et al., 2015). These farm-level indexes are very useful in revealing three different dimensions of agricultural sustainability. ...
... According to the Indicateurs de Durabilité des Exploitations Agricoles (IDEA) method, which was designed with 41 indicators to demonstrate the sustainability of agribusiness, the food safety variable is included in the socioregional dimension and has a weight of 12%, while the biodiversity variable has a weight of 13% in the agroecology dimension (Zahm et al., 2008). Several studies have adapted the IDEA approach and its weights to animal production; dairy in Algeria, Tunisia and Mexico (Attia et al., 2021;Bir et al., 2019;Fadul-Pacheco et al., 2013;Ikhlef et al., 2015), sheep in Morocco (Araba & Boughalmi, 2016), and livestock in Romania (Gavrilescu et al., 2012). ...
... Tunisian livestock farms scored 63.5 in the agro-ecological, 54.2 in the socioregional, and 63.6 in the economic dimension, according to the index scores determined using the IDEA approach (Attia et al., 2021). A similar study carried out in Mexico using an IDEA method revealed that the farms obtained 59 points in the agro-ecological, 53 points in the socio-regional, and 43 points in the economic dimensions (Fadul-Pacheco et al., 2013), and also the average sustainability score of the ten small dairy farms studied in the same country was found to be 55.3 (Torres-Lemus et al., 2021). In dual-purpose livestock farms in Mexico, the scores according to the IDEA approach are 60 in the economic, 73 in the socio-regional, 87 in the agro-ecological dimension and 73 overall (Salas-Reyes et al., 2015). ...
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Food security continues to be a global concern and its importance has recently increased for many reasons. Composite food security indices have been widely used to calculate and monitor food security, but farm-level studies are limited. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to construct a Farm-level Food Security Index (FFSI) for dairy farms to assess their contribution to food security, identify potential areas for improvement and guide policy makers. Data were collected from 126 farms in the Thrace Region of Turkey through face-to-face interviews. The FFSI was constructed with four dimensions, briefly called economic, quality, social and natural resources, containing twenty-three variables. Principal component analysis was used for the determination of variable weights, data envelopment analysis for calculating technical efficiency, and the Tobit model for examining the factors influencing FFSI scores. To assess the robustness of the FFSI, Monte Carlo simulations-based uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, dimension extraction approach and Shapley effects sensitivity analysis were performed. With an average score of 56.8, the key result of the FFSI is that dairy farms are using almost half of their potential to fully contribute to food security. Moreover, according to the Tobit model, FFSI scores are significantly affected by the farmer’s age and education level, credit use, livestock unit, fodder crop area and milk marketing channel. The FFSI is robust to weights and sensitive to normalisation, and the social sustainability dimension can cause the largest shift in index scores. Based on these findings, numerous agricultural policy proposals have been developed in this study by identifying the priority areas that need to be addressed to guarantee food security.
... En el Estado de México, se han aplicado diversas metodologías para la evaluación de la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de producción, específicamente en los SPLPE del municipio de Aculco, la Evaluación de la Sostenibilidad de los Sistemas Agrícolas y Alimentarios (SAFA), la Respuesta Inducida para la Evaluación de la Sostenibilidad (RISE) e Indicadores de Sostenibilidad de Explotaciones Agrícolas (IDEA), han demostrado las características de los SPLPE y sirven como marco de referencia para el desarrollo de la herramienta TAPE (Fadul-Pacheco et al., 2013;Prospero-Bernal et al., 2017;Torres-Lemus et al., 2021). Los resultados de estos trabajos de investigación indican que la escala agroecológica (es decir, ambiental) es la más alta, seguida de la escala socio-territorial y que la escala económica es la más baja, debido a una alta dependencia de insumos externos, como la compra de concentrado balanceado comercial o forrajes conservados en forma de heno, paja o rastrojos, característico de los SPLPE del Aculco, Estado de México (Fadul-Pacheco et al., 2013;Martínez-García et al., 2015;Prospero-Bernal et al., 2017). ...
... En el Estado de México, se han aplicado diversas metodologías para la evaluación de la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de producción, específicamente en los SPLPE del municipio de Aculco, la Evaluación de la Sostenibilidad de los Sistemas Agrícolas y Alimentarios (SAFA), la Respuesta Inducida para la Evaluación de la Sostenibilidad (RISE) e Indicadores de Sostenibilidad de Explotaciones Agrícolas (IDEA), han demostrado las características de los SPLPE y sirven como marco de referencia para el desarrollo de la herramienta TAPE (Fadul-Pacheco et al., 2013;Prospero-Bernal et al., 2017;Torres-Lemus et al., 2021). Los resultados de estos trabajos de investigación indican que la escala agroecológica (es decir, ambiental) es la más alta, seguida de la escala socio-territorial y que la escala económica es la más baja, debido a una alta dependencia de insumos externos, como la compra de concentrado balanceado comercial o forrajes conservados en forma de heno, paja o rastrojos, característico de los SPLPE del Aculco, Estado de México (Fadul-Pacheco et al., 2013;Martínez-García et al., 2015;Prospero-Bernal et al., 2017). Sin embargo, la información generada a partir de estos estudios de sostenibilidad está fragmentada, debido a la heterogeneidad de cada método en cuanto a las escalas, contextos y plazos de evaluación. ...
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A nivel global, los sistemas de producción agropecuaria enfrentan problemáticas que repercuten sobre los tres pilares de la sostenibilidad: ambiental, económico y social. La adopción de prácticas agroecológicas cada vez más desarrolladas permitiría identificar, generar y proponer estrategias tendientes a una producción respetuosa con el medio ambiente. Para cumplir con ese objetivo, en 2018 la FAO, en conjunto con líderes mundiales, formularon y propusieron la aplicación de una herramienta para la evaluación del desempeño agroecológico TAPE (Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation), cuyo objetivo buscaba evidenciar el impacto positivo de las prácticas agroecologías en los sistemas de producción, y evaluar su desempeño mediante un método homogéneo con datos a escalas y lapsos semejantes, en concordancia con los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible (ODS). Resultados preliminares de la aplicación de la herramienta TAPE en sistemas de producción, evidencian que puede funcionar en una variedad de regiones geográficas y agroecosistemas, además de adaptarse a los diferentes contextos, para evaluar el desempeño agroecológico a partir de elementos que van más allá de los indicadores clásicos de la evaluación de la sostenibilidad, como fue el caso de los sistemas de producción de leche en pequeña escala (SPLPE) del Noroeste del Estado de México.
... Los resultados obtenidos a través de estas evaluaciones han sido alentadores y han servido como punto de partida para el desarrollo de modelos alternativos, particularmente en el contexto de la producción ovina, como se evidencia en el trabajo de Alemán et al. (2007). De esta manera, se abre la posibilidad de contribuir a la promoción de una producción más sostenible, a través de la educación, la extensión y políticas de investigación pertinentes, con la aspiración de que estos enfoques puedan extenderse a sistemas similares en América Latina, como lo han señalado Fadul-Pacheco et al. (2013). ...
... En esta investigación, se empleó la versión 3 del método IDEA, siguiendo el enfoque utilizado previamente por Fadul-Pacheco et al. (2013) y Salas-Reyes et al. (2015). Este método se basa en una estructura compuesta por 17 objetivos subyacentes a cada indicador, tal como lo describen Vilain et al. (2008). ...
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Revista ESPAMCIENCIA 15(1):1-11 DOI: https://doi.org/10.512 60/revista_espamcien cia.v15i1.420 Resumen La sostenibilidad de los sistemas de producción ovina puede estar en riesgo y debe ser evaluada con el fin de identificar acciones para mejorar su desempeño. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de la presente investigación fue evaluar la sostenibilidad de las unidades de producción ovina en la zona del Altiplano del estado de Michoacán, México. Se utilizó el método de Indicadores de sostenibilidad de las explotaciones agropecuarias, a través de las escalas: agroecológica, socio-territorial y económica. Se evaluaron 40 indicadores, mediante una encuesta semiestructurada en 108 unidades de producción. Los indicadores de cada unidad de producción ovina se concentraron en una base de datos y se obtuvieron los puntajes de acuerdo a la guía del método. Con el propósito de agrupar las unidades de producción ovinas con características similares, se realizó un análisis multivariado de conglomerados utilizando el método jerárquico. Se encontraron diferencias significativas (p ≤ 0,05) en las tres escalas evaluadas con: 42,3; 47,7 y 50,0% unidades de sostenibilidad respectivamente. La principal limitante de la sostenibilidad fue la escala agroecológica, en el componente de organización del espacio. Se obtuvieron cuatro conglomerados de las unidades de producción ovinas con diferentes características. Las unidades de producción ovina de la zona no han alcanzado un estado de sostenibilidad aceptable. La limitada superficie de terreno pone en riesgo su permanencia. Estas unidades de producción logran generar recursos económicos y apoyan el autoabastecimiento familiar, lo que les ha permitido permanecer a través del tiempo, debido a la diversidad de las especies agropecuarias que manejan. Palabras clave: Análisis multi-escala, dimensiones agroecológicas, socio-territorial y económica. Abstract The sustainability of sheep production systems may be at risk and must be evaluated in order to identify actions to improve their performance. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the sustainability of sheep production units in the highlands area of the state of Michoacán, Mexico. The method of sustainability indicators of agricultural holdings was used, through the scales: agroecological, socio-territorial and economic. 40 indicators were evaluated through a semi-structured survey in 108 production units. The indicators of each sheep production unit were concentrated in a database and scores were obtained according to the method guide. In order to group sheep production units with similar characteristics, a multivariate cluster analysis was carried out using the hierarchical method. Significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were found in the three scales evaluated with: 42.3; 47.7 and 50.0% sustainability units respectively. The main limitation of sustainability was the agroecological scale, in the space organization component. Four clusters of sheep production units with different characteristics were obtained. The sheep production units in the area have not reached a state of acceptable sustainability. The limited land area puts its permanence at risk. These production units manage to generate economic resources and support family self-sufficiency, which has allowed them to remain over time, due to the diversity of the agricultural species they manage.
... En México, aproximadamente el 78% de la producción de leche está en manos de pequeños productores (Martínez-García et al., 2012). A pesar de ser una alternativa viable para el desarrollo rural (Espinoza-Ortega et al., 2007), el progreso de estos productores se ve limitado por un bajo índice de adopción de tecnologías agropecuarias y los altos costos de producción (Fadul-Pacheco et al., 2013). ...
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p> Background: The adoption of agricultural technologies, such as maize silage is influenced by various factors, as highlighted by studies based on the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. These theories identify key determinants of technology adoption among small-scale dairy farmers in central Mexico, including characteristics like age, experience and production unit conditions. Objective: The aim of this work is to identify factors influencing small-scale dairy farmers to adopt corn silage and to explore the role of their friendship networks in spreading innovation. Methodology: The study was conducted in the municipality of Aculco, State of Mexico. The information was collected through a questionnaire administered to 106 farmers, who were selected through snowball sampling method. Farmers' intention and the three components of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB): Attitude, Subjective Norm, and Perceived Behavioural Control, were measured using a five-point Likert scale. A hierarchical multiple regression model was conducted to analysed the data. To identify the friendship network among farmers, a binary symmetric matrix was created. It is characterized by an equal number of rows and columns. Each cell contains a value of 1 or 0, where 1 indicates the presence of friendship and 0 indicates absence. The Social Network Analysis (SNA) identified key actors for innovation diffusion based on centrality measures such as degree, betweenness, and closeness. Results: Dairy farmers' intention to adopt maize silage were influenced by their beliefs about the innovation, social referents, age, and the number of lactating cows. A lack of knowledge and training was identified as a significant constraint. Additionally, 79% of farmers were involved in the friendship network. Implications: Two key nodes in the network were identified as potential drivers for disseminating information to other farmers. These individuals could play an important role in promoting maize silage adoption among those who have not yet implemented the innovation. Conclusions: Farmers' intentions were shaped by beliefs, social referents, age, and the number of lactating cows. Additionally, friendship networks emerged as a valuable channel for communicating and spreading information about maize silage adoption, highlighting the importance of social connections in agricultural innovation.</p
... The assessment of the sustainability of SSDS (Fadul-Pacheco et al. 2013) demonstrated that the limiting factor in the sustainability of these systems is the economic dimension, given mostly by high costs due to a reliance on bought inputs. ...
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Higher energy prices and policies that promote bio-fuels lead to an increased use of crops for energy production and, thereby, push up the prices of feed and land. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) forecast that, in the long term, feed price levels will increase to about 50 percent above those of 2002-2006. The milk:feed price ratio is one of the main factors determining the choice of dairy production system. The highest milk:feed price ratio (more than 2.5) is seen in North America, where, as a likely consequence, the most intensive milk production systems are found. Farming systems with lower milk yields, making little use of compound feed, are generally observed in countries with a milk:feed price ratio of less than 1.5. Very few countries are self-sufficient with regard to milk. The main milk-surplus countries are Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Uruguay and countries of the European Union (EU) and Eastern Europe. The main milk-deficit countries are Algeria, China, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines and Russia. Over the period1990-2004, global milk exports increased from 4.4 to 7.1 percent of production, while the share delivered to formal milk processors increased from 14 to 24 percent. International competitiveness of ‘typical’ dairy farms Farms representative of various dairy farming systems in Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Uganda and Viet Nam were subjected to detailed technical and economic analyses. For industrialized countries, similar analyses were conducted for farms in Germany, New Zealand and the USA. Milk returns account for 55 to 95 percent of the returns of all farm types analysed and range from US12toUS12 to US36/100 kg of ECM. Non-milk returns range from US2to38/100kgECM.NonmilkreturnswereverylowforthefarmsinIndiawhereastheywereveryhighinGermanyandMorocco.AveragemilkproductioncostsinthethreeindustrializedcountriescoveredbythestudystandatUS2 to 38/100 kg ECM. Non-milk returns were very low for the farms in India whereas they were very high in Germany and Morocco. Average milk production costs in the three industrialized countries covered by the study stand at US31.4/100 kg, or 56 percent above the average production cost of US20.2/100kgcalculatedforthetendevelopingcountrieswhiletheaveragepriceofmilkinthethreeindustrializedcountries(US20.2/100 kg calculated for the ten developing countries while the average price of milk in the three industrialized countries (US31.2/100 kg) is only 30 percent higher than that in the developing countries (US24.0/100kg).Thus,theoverallprofitabilityofmilkproductionappearstobehigherindevelopingthaninindustrializedcountries,whichmaybeoneofthereasonswhydevelopingcountriesareincreasingtheirsharesinglobaldairyproduction.©IFCN20087Giventhemajordifferencesinagriculturalwageratesbetweenindustrializedanddevelopingcountries,itcouldbeassumedthatinthelatterfarmshavealabourcostadvantage.However,thiswasfoundnottobethecasewhencomparinglabourcostsperlitreofmilk,mainlybecausecountrieswithhighersalariesalsotendtohaveasignificantlyhigherleveloflabourproductivity.Perlitreofmilk,thelabourcostsofaninecowdairyfarminPunjab,India,aresimilartothoseofa350cowfarmintheUSA.Themaincostadvantageofsmallholderdairyfarmingliesintheuseoflow(er)costfeedandtheoveralllowtechapproachtomilkproduction.Cowsfedoncropresidues,suchasstraw,aresignificantlylowercostproducersofmilkthanhighyielding,grainfeddairycows.Giventherapidincreasesinfeedpricesovertherecentpast,itisimportanttoconsiderhowthistrendaffectsthecompetitivenessofsmallscaledairyfarmersindevelopingcountries.Asthesesmallholderdairysystemsnormallyusemuchlesscompoundfeedperkilogramofmilkthandairyfarmsinindustrializedcountries,risingfeedpricesincreasethecostofmilkproductioninthelattertoalargerextentthaninthelowyieldsystemspredominatingindevelopingcountries.Thus,asfeedpricesincrease,typicalsmallholderdairyfarmsbecomemorecostcompetitive.Fordairyfarmingtoremainsustainable,itmustbeabletocompeteforlabouronlocallabourmarkets.Ifthereturntolabourindairyfarming(i.e.thevalueaddedperhouroflabourputintodairyfarming)ishigherthantheaveragelocalwagerate,thedairyfarmingsystemcanpaycompetitivewagesandshouldbesustainablefromthelabourstandpoint.TheaveragereturntolabourobservedinthedevelopingcountriescoveredbythisstudyisUS24.0/100 kg). Thus, the overall profitability of milk production appears to be higher in developing than in industrialized countries, which may be one of the reasons why developing countries are increasing their shares in global dairy production. © IFCN 2008 7 Given the major differences in agricultural wage rates between industrialized and developing countries, it could be assumed that in the latter farms have a labour cost advantage. However, this was found not to be the case when comparing labour costs per litre of milk, mainly because countries with higher salaries also tend to have a significantly higher level of labour productivity. Per litre of milk, the labour costs of a nine-cow dairy farm in Punjab, India, are similar to those of a 350-cow farm in the USA. The main cost advantage of smallholder dairy farming lies in the use of low(er)-cost feed and the overall ‘low-tech’ approach to milk production. Cows fed on crop residues, such as straw, are significantly lower-cost producers of milk than high-yielding, grain-fed dairy cows. Given the rapid increases in feed prices over the recent past, it is important to consider how this trend affects the competitiveness of small-scale dairy farmers in developing countries. As these smallholder dairy systems normally use much less compound feed per kilogram of milk than dairy farms in industrialized countries, rising feed prices increase the cost of milk production in the latter to a larger extent than in the low-yield systems predominating in developing countries. Thus, as feed prices increase, ‘typical’ smallholder dairy farms become more cost-competitive. For dairy farming to remain sustainable, it must be able to compete for labour on local labour markets. If the ‘return to labour’ in dairy farming (i.e. the ‘value-added’ per hour of labour put into dairy farming) is higher than the average local wage rate, the dairy farming system can pay competitive wages and should be sustainable from the labour standpoint. The average return to labour observed in the developing countries covered by this study is US0.45/hour, which is 45 percent higher than the average local wage of US0.31/hour.Inthethreeindustrializedcountriescovered,theaveragereturntolabourisUS0.31/ hour. In the three industrialized countries covered, the average return to labour is US16.30/hour, which is still 22 percent above the average estimated wage of US$13.30/ hour. These figures indicate that it would be possible for dairy farming to compete on local labour markets in both groups of countries. However, milk production quickly loses its competitive advantage when local wages rise faster than labour productivity. Conclusions for smallholder dairy development The various analyses and case studies presented in this document indicate that: small-scale milk production not only improves the food security of milk-producing households but also helps to create numerous employment opportunities throughout the dairy chain, i.e. for small-scale rural processors and intermediaries; and small-scale milk producers incur low production costs. Thus, if well organized, they should be able to compete with large-scale, capital-intensive ‘high-tech’ dairy farming systems in industrialized (and developing) countries. Dairy development may therefore serve as a powerful tool for reducing poverty. Devising a viable dairy development strategy for smallholders calls for a detailed analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats posed by the external environment. The strengths of smallholder dairy systems are low production costs; high profit margins; low liabilities; limited liquidity risk; and relative resilience to rising feed prices – strengths that enable smallholders to serve as a competitive source of milk supply. However, smallholder milk producers are also beset by a number of weaknesses: lack of knowledge and technical know-how; poor access to support services; low capital reserves and limited access to credit; low (labour) productivity; and poor milk quality – all of which limit their ability to take advantage of market opportunities. Major opportunities for smallholder producers engaged in dairy production are: (i) growing demand for dairy products in developing countries; (ii) probable milk price increases; (iii) potential to increase milk yields through relatively few additional inputs; (iv) potential to increase dairy labour productivity; and (v) employment generation in the dairy value chain (for example, absorbing family labour released by higher on-farm labour productivity). However, smallholders in developing countries also face major threats, namely (a) policy support for (and competition from) dairy farmers in OECD countries; (b) increased consumer demand for food safety; (c) environmental concerns (low-yield dairy systems are estimated to have higher carbon footprints per 100 kg of milk produced than high-yield systems); (d) increasing local wage rates; (e) intergenerational discontinuity (children of the betterperforming farmers leave the system); (f) under-investment in dairy chain infrastructure; and (g) inappropriate dairy development policies and investment plans. Given the increasing ‘interconnectedness’ of global agriculture, the ability of smallholder milk producers to participate in the dairy market in a profitable manner will depend not only on their own competitiveness, mainly determined by production costs, but also, and to an increasing extent, on the efficiency of the dairy chains of which they are part. Therefore, recommendations for smallholder dairy development must include strategies to increase the competitiveness in all segments of the dairy chain, namely, input supply, milk production, processing, distribution and retailing. In other words, to be successful, any dairy development strategy must be based on the principle of ‘creating value’ in each and every segment of the dairy chain. This makes formulation of a dairy development strategy a complex task, involving a large number of stakeholders and requiring comprehensive analysis and continuous reassessment.
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