Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 16 ISSUE 1
Written by Vida DABKIENĖ

This paper reviews recent reports on the farm sustainability assessment, in particular, the farm sustainability assessments based on EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The most commonly-used data source for evaluation of farms economic, social and environment sustainability is farmers’ survey, employing structured questionnaire or/and in-depth interview. Therefore, recently the available databases as information sources such as EU FADN have been employed. As FADN originally was developed for measuring farms’ income and economic performance, the developed farms’ sustainability tools based on FADN data should be verified in the new context. The analysis is presented in two steps. First, an analytical overview of farm sustainability tools in terms of their research purpose, subject, developed indicators by economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability and the key elements of the methodology is presented. In a second step, the economic, environmental and social subthemes of the Sustainability Assessment in Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) Guidelines were employed. The results of analysis revealed, that tools differ and this limits the possibilities to compare the research results. FADN data in terms of coverage the SAFA developed subthemes revealed medium coverage of the SAFA economic and environmental subthemes, and low coverage of social SAFA subthemes. The presented analysis opens the scientific discussion about the need and possibilities to develop a tool for farm sustainability assessments using FADN data and to assess sustainability of farms across Europe.

[Read full article] [Citation]

SPUPOPUPNO1