Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
3 Decision Making Support Models for Agriculture
Although that the methodologies based on the Multi-Criteria decision theory be
used in a context of multiple objectives, the fact is that they are associated with
specific themes being the pursuit of sustainability in agriculture who has more
gained space in the research of decision making. The agricultural sustainability
concept, since it integrates the environmental, economic, and social dimension,
came to significantly increase the complexity of decision making process, given the
multiplicity of objectives involved and the conflict often generated in its optimiza-
tion (Carvalho
2006
). In fact, agricultural farm units are faced, on the one hand, to
the maximization of the economic performance and, on the other hand, to the need
to preserve and to protect the environment and natural resources, taking into
account issues of social equity. Such a challenge requires, among other things, an
appropriate consumption of production factors (such as fertilizers and crop protec-
tion products), and a readjustment of the used technologies (mainly through the
adoption of energy saving measures), without jeopardizing food safety standards
that society expects (Marta-Costa
2008
,
2010
; Marta-Costa et al.
2013
).
The first researches that aimed to solve problems with objectives of economic
efficiency, environmental quality, social welfare, and economic and regional devel-
opment were of Neely et al. (
1977
). In this study, the technique of goal program-
ming was applied, the model being developed in projects dedicated to water
resources.
Other works that followed with the application in water management in agricul-
ture, reconciling economic and environmental goals, were the ones of Zekri and
Romero (
1993
), Heilman et al. (
1997
), Carvalho (
2006
), Raju and Vasan (
2007
),
and Zhang et al. (
2007
). However, the planning of the agricultural systems and land
use, in order to coordinate multi-sectorial goals, has been the main target of the
study by Bartlett and Clawson (
1978
), Shakya and Leuschner (
1990
), Antoine
et al. (
1997
), Dunn et al. (
1998
), Thankappan et al. (
2006
), and Silvestri
et al. (
2007
), while Mardle et al. (
2000
) have been dedicated to the management
of fish activity and Diaz-Balteiro and Romero (
2004b
) applied the goal program-
ming for the development of a plan for a sustainable forest management.
Also, the development and evaluation of the effects of regulatory policies or
supporting activity have been developed based on the multi-criteria theory. It was
the case of Willet et al. (
1997
), K¨brich and Rehman (
1998
), Flury et al. (
2000
), and
Rozakis et al. (
2001
) works. Recently Bartolini et al. (
2007
) stand out by assessing
the impact of various scenarios of agricultural policies and water on sustainability
of selected agricultural irrigation systems in Italy.
The analysis of critical framework of methodologies applied in farm planning on
the context of multiple objectives (Fig.
10.1
) allows to emphasize that under the
multi-criteria decision theory, several methodological alternatives can be identified.
The assumptions on which they are based as well as the advantages and limitations
they present lead to the claim that there is no “better” methodology than another;
Search WWH ::
Custom Search