Multidimensional framework for measuring sustainability andresilience of farming systems

Natural resources, are fundamental for the structure and function of agricultural systems and for social and environmental sustainability in support of life on earth. Historically, global agricultural development has been narrowly focused on increased productivity rather than on a more holistic integration of natural resource management with food and nutritional security. Now it is strongly suggested that a holistic, or systems-oriented approach, will be needed to address the intractable challenges associated with the complexity of food and other production systems in different ecologies, locations and cultures. In the present study we have developed and piloted a multidimensional framework for assessing farming systems sustainability and resilience (FSSR). The quantification framework is easily measurable and comparable across farm households, farming systems and beyond. It considers five major domains of the farming systems namely environmental, economic, productivity, social and human well-being. In the subsequent stages of measurement each domain is divided into different themes, then sub-themes and indicators. The indicators in our study have been finalized with rounds of stakeholders’ consultations involving farmers, researches, development experts besides literature. Finally, we identified a total of 115 indicators: environmental (34), economic (29), productivity (12), social (25) and human well-being (15) in the final framework which are measurable and would be able to provide an index value representing level of sustainability of farming systems at different scales: farm household, domain and farming system considering appropriate weights of different domains. The FSSR framework could be a very useful tool for designing the context specific strategies to address farm sustainability challenges.