http://www.fao.org/europe/events/detail-events/en/c/429132/ Presentation of Karlheinz Knickel, from the Universidade de Evora / Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas (ICAAM) in Portugal, on multiple criteria for assessing the performance of agriculture systems beyond productivity. The presentation was prepared and delivered in occasion of the Regional Symposium on Agroecology in Europe and Central Asia, held in Budapest, Hungary on 23-25 November 2016.

1. BEYOND PRODUCTIVITY:
MULTIPLE CRITERIA FOR ASSESSINGTHE
PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS
Karlheinz Knickel
Universidade de Évora / ICAAM - Instituto de Ciências
Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas

2. Some basic considerations
■ Contemporary societal demands regarding agriculture go far beyond (low-cost) (food) production.
■ Key (farm) performance parameters used in the past have lost much of their credentials
■ Intensive agricultural production systems are hardly resilient as they depend excessively on external
inputs (nutrients, finance, etc.) and have a low buffer capacity.
■ The same systems tend to be heavily affected by changes in market prices and have a low adaptive
capacity, e.g. due to a high level of capital investment and debt
■ A diversity of farm development trajectories can be observed in practice –we need to recognise this
diversity as an asset and a source of inspiration
■ There is an enormous number of smaller farms with particular socio-economic situations, strategies
and needs – they must not be overlooked
■ A substantial paradigm shift is needed regarding agricultural modernisation (OECD Environmental
Outlook, Rise Foundation, Forum for the Future of Agriculture … Janez Potočnik)

3. J D van der Ploeg
(2003)
The virtual
farmer

4. From data to information to knowledge
■ 'Big data' – a rapidly increasing amount of data is captured by sensors, satellites,
cameras, pedometers and many other devices.
■ Farms are becoming wired and data-intensive
■ The main challenge is to integrate the data and to make them meaningful
– To develop (agronomic and farm management) models that interpret the data and
generate actionable advise in decision support
– Food chains might become much more data-driven … value chain integration
■ New initiatives for data sharing, e.g. in the US around 'prescriptive farming', are based
on new business models and governance structures
– Potential risks and impacts on agricultural structures

5. Economic parameters
■ Given economic conditions do not favour resource-efficient, resilient, low-carbon
systems and practices
■ The current one-sided emphasis on economic performance, competitiveness and
growth is counterproductive
■ New approaches for assessing farms’ performance need to extend beyond the current
narrow focus on production functions, unit costs, and economic performance
■ Lock-ins and path dependency are major issues
■ Performance measures need to be able to assess the effectiveness of different scales,
types and styles of farming in addressing wider societal demands

6. Socio-economic parameters and
cohesion
■ Many highly rationalised, capital-intensive 'modern' farms are not really resilient – not
in financial and resource use terms (e.g. DK), and not in social terms (e.g. IE)
■ Most farmers are also concerned with non-economic parameters
– social and community well-being
– autonomy – at the level of the farm and at community/regional level
– quality of life, work-life-balance
– quality of the natural environment
■ On a societal level, fair trade, cooperation, networks, cohesion are becoming more
important

7. Resource use efficiency
■ Resource-intensity of industrialised production systems is problematic
– High energy inputs
– GHG emissions
– Water use
■ Need to reconfigure the farming system to take full advantage of natural resources
and ecosystem services
– Design and management of sustainable agroecosystems
– Crop-livestock integration, agro-forestry, permaculture, …

8. SAFA tool
(FAO, 2014)
• SAFA is a holistic global
framework for the assessment
of sustainability along food and
agriculture value chains
• SAFA is intended primarily for
self-evaluation and internal
communication about
sustainability goals and
performance

9. More integrated perspectives needed
The "bio-based economy"
Ecosystem services
Consumer, civil society
Agri-food systems

10. Perspective matters more than anything
else
■ time dimension – short term goals vs. longer-term outlook
■ spatial dimension – field and farm vs. community/landscape/watershed level
■ reference system – business/farm household vs. societal/whole economy perspective
More work needed on different perspectives and how they can be
reconciled, and on more integrative systems-based analyses
Multi-perspectival reflexive analyses needed

11. Summary of key points
■ Performance? New orientations and pathways means new assessment methods
■ We need an acknowledgment of the diversity of pathways, and of territory and
community as reference systems (going beyond field and farm level)
■ Fostering learning processes and self-evaluation should be a primary goal …
experimentation, learning and adaptation, reflexive governance
■ A Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) is much more than biotechnology,
bioenergy and industry-led or industry-scale processes
– 'intelligent', i.e. knowledge-intensive natural resource efficient production systems,
eco-functional intensification, resilient agricultural systems and adaptive
management approaches

12. Contact / cooperation
Karlheinz Knickel
■ karlheinz.Knickel@gmail.com
■ LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/kknickel
■ Frankfurt/M. – Évora –Trondheim 
■ FP7 ERA-NET project RETHINK (just concluded): http://www.rethink-net.eu/
■ H2020 SALSA project (on-going): http://www.salsa.uevora.pt/