A qualitative framework to identify variables influencing ecological sustainability in tropical small-scale agriculture

IF 4.7 2区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Development Pub Date : 2025-02-27 DOI:10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101180

Roberto Carlos Forte Taylor , Osborne Grant Clark , Julien Jean Malard-Adam

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Small-scale agriculture continues to be the sector with the largest number of food-producing farms worldwide. According to literature, this sector is highly diverse, not highly mechanized, and has low environmental impact. As a result, smallholders play a crucial role in ensuring food security and sustainability. Despite their small scale, these systems must be evaluated and compared based on a wide variety of factors influenced by their specific contexts. Environmental conditions, personal preferences, economic constraints, government regulations, and social norms all contribute to these contexts. A comparison of the ecological sustainability of agricultural systems has shown potential, but is often hindered by substantial limitations. Many of these approaches fail to engage stakeholders comprehensively and elucidate the intricate structures, components, and feedback mechanisms of agricultural ecosystems. Incomplete portrayals of these systems' complex interdependencies lead to inaccurate sustainability assessments. A novel method for analyzing and comparing the ecological sustainability of small farming systems in the tropics is presented using semi-structured interviews, content analysis, and causal loop diagrams. Using interviews, we identified key drivers and challenges in the development of these systems. Through causal loop diagrams, we visualized each system and identified its feedback loops. Several important conclusions have been drawn from the study of these systems in Mariato, Panama:

1.Ecological sustainability is driven by production, regenerative practices, and soil quality

2.Subsistence and respect for nature motivated the farmers

3.Degradation of soil and extreme dry seasons were major challenges

4.All three system types that were compared tended towards equilibrium

查看原文本刊更多论文

小规模农业仍然是全世界粮食生产农场数量最多的部门。根据文献资料，这一部门的产品种类繁多，机械化程度不高，对环境的影响较小。因此，小农在确保粮食安全和可持续性方面发挥着至关重要的作用。尽管这些系统规模较小，但必须根据受其具体情况影响的各种因素对其进行评估和比较。环境条件、个人偏好、经济限制、政府法规和社会规范都会对这些环境产生影响。对农业系统的生态可持续性进行比较已显示出其潜力，但往往受到实质性限制的阻碍。其中许多方法未能让利益相关者全面参与，也未能阐明农业生态系统错综复杂的结构、组成部分和反馈机制。对这些系统复杂的相互依存关系的不完整描述导致了不准确的可持续性评估。本文介绍了一种利用半结构式访谈、内容分析和因果循环图分析和比较热带地区小型农业系统生态可持续性的新方法。通过访谈，我们确定了这些系统发展过程中的关键驱动因素和挑战。通过因果循环图，我们将每个系统形象化，并确定了其反馈回路。通过对巴拿马玛丽亚托的这些系统的研究，我们得出了几个重要结论：1.生态可持续性由生产、再生实践和土壤质量驱动2.自给自足和尊重自然是农民的动力3.土壤退化和极端干旱季节是主要挑战4.比较的三种系统类型都趋于平衡

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来源期刊

Environmental Development Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

1.90%

发文量

审稿时长

74 days

期刊介绍： Environmental Development provides a future oriented, pro-active, authoritative source of information and learning for researchers, postgraduate students, policymakers, and managers, and bridges the gap between fundamental research and the application in management and policy practices. It stimulates the exchange and coupling of traditional scientific knowledge on the environment, with the experiential knowledge among decision makers and other stakeholders and also connects natural sciences and social and behavioral sciences. Environmental Development includes and promotes scientific work from the non-western world, and also strengthens the collaboration between the developed and developing world. Further it links environmental research to broader issues of economic and social-cultural developments, and is intended to shorten the delays between research and publication, while ensuring thorough peer review. Environmental Development also creates a forum for transnational communication, discussion and global action. Environmental Development is open to a broad range of disciplines and authors. The journal welcomes, in particular, contributions from a younger generation of researchers, and papers expanding the frontiers of environmental sciences, pointing at new directions and innovative answers. All submissions to Environmental Development are reviewed using the general criteria of quality, originality, precision, importance of topic and insights, clarity of exposition, which are in keeping with the journal''s aims and scope.