System for Assessing the Environmental Sustainability of Agriculture

Dilyana Mitova

Abstract: The issue of sustainable development (SD) of the economy and in particular agriculture is among the most important in recent decades, in the context of ongoing global processes of climate change and the public and policy concerns about humankind and environment. All aspects of sustainability (economic, social, environmental, and institutional) have their importance and role. However, agriculture can be seen as a sector that has a particularly strong impact on the environment due to the nature of the activity – resources such as land, water, plants, animals, etc. are being used. That is why the environmental pillar of agrarian sustainability is of utmost importance in the assessment of the overall one. Sustainability assessment approaches are subject to discussion and, depending on the concept, objectives, time and scope, different conceptual frameworks and approaches are available with different types and numbers of indicators. The aim of the present study is to propose a system for assessing the ecological sustainability of agriculture in our country, based on the existing approaches and the relevant rationale for choosing principles, criteria and indicators. The subject of the survey is the system of principles, criteria and indicators for environmental sustainability of agriculture, which is an integral part of the system for assessing the overall agrarian sustainability. Based on a critical review of a number of literary sources, studies, official documents and consultations with responsible institutions on these issues, initial principles, criteria and indicators for the ecological sustainability of agriculture in the country were initially proposed. As a next step, the initial version of the selected indicators is sent to two independent experts to evaluate the indicators according to the relevant criteria. The purpose of this assessment is to obtain information on the significance of each indicator and on the extent to which the sustainability of agriculture is reflected. Taking into account the experts’ opinion, a model system with potential principles, criteria, indicators and reference values for assessing the ecological sustainability of agriculture in Bulgaria is proposed as an integral part of the system for determining the overall sustainability of agriculture.

Keywords: agriculture; approach; ecology; sustainability; system

Date published: 2019-02-28