Email this article 
How to measure the governance pillar of agrarian sustainability
Abstract
Abstract. A need to include “the fourth” Governance pillar in the concept for understanding and the assessment system of (overall and) agrarian sustainability is increasingly justified in academic literature and finds place in the frameworks of government, international, private, etc. organizations Nevertheless, still there is no general consensus on: whether and how to include the governance as a new pillar of agrarian sustainability; how to define the governance sustainability; what are the relations between the governance sustainability of a farming enterprise and agriculture; what are the critical factors of governance sustainability; how to formulate, select, measure and integrate diverse sustainability indicators; and how to properly evaluate the level of governance sustainability, etc. In Bulgaria, like in many other countries, practically there are no comprehensive assessments of the governance sustainability of agriculture and its importance for the overall agrarian development. This study tries to fill the gap and suggests a holistic framework for understanding and assessing the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture. The newly elaborated approach is “tested” in a large-scale study for assessing the governance sustainability of country’s agriculture at national, sectoral, regional, eco-system and farm levels.The study has proved that it is important to include the “missing” Governance Pillar in the assessment of the Integral sustainability of agriculture and sustainability of agro-systems of various type. Multiple Principles, Criteria and Indicators assessment of the Governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture indicates that the Overall Governance Sustainability is at a “Good” but very close to the “Satisfactory” level. Besides, there is a considerable differentiation in the level of Integral Governance sustainability of different agro-systems in the country. Last but not least important, results on the integral agrarian sustainability assessment based on micro (farm) and macro (statistical, etc.) data show some discrepancies which have to be taken into consideration in the analysis and interpretation, while assessment indicators, methods and data sources further improved. Having in mind the importance of holistic assessments of this kind for improving the agrarian sustainability in general, and the Governance sustainability of agriculture in particular, they are to be expended and their precision and representation increased. The later requires improvement of the precision through enlargement of surveyed farms and stakeholders, and incorporating more “objective” data from surveys, statistics, expertise of professionals in the area, etc. Since the elaboration of an effective framework for Governance sustainability assessment is far from complete our and other emerging suggestions have to be further discussed, experimented, improved and adapted to the specific conditions of evaluating agricultural system and needs of decision-makers at different levels.
Keywords. Governance sustainability, Assessment, Agriculture, Agricultural systems, Bulgaria.
JEL. Q12, Q13, Q15, Q18.
Keywords
Full Text:
Zotero
MendeleyReferences
Altinay, H. (2012). Global governance audit, global economy & development, Working Paper No.49, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.
ASA, (2019). More than Green, ASA, [Retrieved from].
Bachev, H. (2005). Assessment of Sustainability of Bulgarian Farms. Proceedings, XIth Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists. Copenhagen: EAAE.
Bachev, H. (2010). Governance of Agrarian Sustainability. New York: Nova Science Publishers.
Bachev, H. (2013). Risk Management in agri-food sector. Contemporary Economics, 7(1), 45-62. doi. 10.5709/ce.1897-9254.73
Bachev, H. (2016a). A framework for assessing sustainability of farming enterprises. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, 11(39), 24-43.
Bachev H. (2016b). About governance and evaluation of sustainability of farming enterprise, Social and Administrative Sciences, 3(2), 161-201.
Bachev H. (2016c). An approach to assess sustainability of agricultural darm, Turkish Economic Review, 3(1), 29-53.
Bachev H. (2016d). What is sustainability of farms?, Journal of Economic and Social Thought, 3(1), 35-48.
Bachev, H. (2017). Sustainability level of Bulgarian farms. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 1, 1-13.
Bachev, H., & Petters, A. (2005). Framework for assessing sustainability of farms, in Farm Management and Rural Planning. No 6, (pp.221-239), Kyushu University, Fukuoka.
Bachev, H., & Tsuji, M. (2001). Structures for organization of transactions in Bulgarian agriculture. Journal of the Faculty of Agriculture of Kyushu University, 46(1), 123-151.
Bachev, H. & Nanseki, T. (2008). Environmental management in Bulgarian agriculture – risks, modes, major challenges. Journal of the Faculty of Agriculture of Kyushu University, 53(1), 363-373. doi. 10.17721/1728-2667.2016/179-2/1
Bachev, H. (2010). Governance of Agrarian Sustainability, New York: Nova Science Publishers.
Bachev, H. (2011). Needs, modes and efficiency of economic organizations and public interventions in agriculture, Review of Economics & Finance, 3(1), 89-103.
Bachev, H. (2014). Integration of small-scale farmers in value Chains in Bulgaria, with a case study on agrobusiness 88 Ltd., Skravena, IUP Journal of Supply Chain Management, 11(3), 35-45.
Bachev, H. (2016). A framework for assessing sustainability of farming enterprises, Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, 1(39), 24-43.
Bachev, H. (2016). Defining and assessing the governance of agrarian sustainability, Journal of Advanced Research in Law and Economics, 4(18), 797-816.
Bachev, H. (2017). Sustainability level of Bulgarian farms, Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 23(1), 1-13.
Bachev, H. (2017). Sustainability of Bulgarian farming enterprises during EU CAP implementation, Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, 2(48), 422-451.
Bachev, H. (2018). The Sustainability of Farming Enterprises in Bulgaria, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Bachev, H. (2018). Institutional environment and climate change impacts on sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture, Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 24(4), 523-536.
Bachev, H. (2018). The impact of the institutional environment on agrarian sustainability in Bulgaria, Economic Tought, 4, 33-60.
Bachev, H., Ivanov, B., Toteva, D., & Sokolova, E. (2016). Agrarian sustainability and its governance - Understanding, evaluation, improvement, Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, 7(4), 639-663. doi. 10.14505//jemt.v7.4(16).11
Bachev, H., Ivanov, B., Toteva, D., & Sokolova, E. (2017). Agrarian sustainability in Bulgaria – economic, social and ecological aspects, Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 23(4), 519-525.
Bachev, H., & Terziev, D. (2017). Environmental sustainability of agricultural farms in Bulgaria, Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, 8(5), 968-994.
Bachev, H., & Terziev, D. (2018). A study on institutional, market and natural environment impact on agrarian sustainability in Bulgaria, Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, 3(27), 452-478. doi. 10.14505//jemt.v9.3(27).06
Bachev, H., & Terziev, D. (2018). A study on agrarian sustainability impact of governance modes in Bulgaria. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, 1(55), 227-257.
Baeker, G. (2014): Fourth pillar of sustainability, Economicdevelopment.org, February 18, [Retrieved from].
Bhuta, N., & Umbach, G. (2014): Global Governance by Indicators, European University Institute, [Retrieved from].
Bell, S., & Morse, S. (2008): Sustainability Indicators: Measuring the Immeasurable? Earthscan: London.
Brklacich, M., Bryant, C., & Smith, B. (1991): Review and appraisal of concept of sustainable food production systems, Environmental Management, 15(1), 1-14.
Bosselmann, K., Engel, R., & Taylor, P. (2008). Governance for Sustainability – Issues, Challenges, Successes, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
Burford, G., Hoover, E., Velasco, I., Janoušková, S., Jimenez, A., Piggot, G., Podger, D., & Harder, M. (2013): Bringing the “missing pillar” into sustainable development goals: Towards intersubjective values-based indicators, Sustainability, 5, 3035-3059. doi. 10.3390/su5073035
City of Brooks, (2019): Municipal Sustainability Plan, Five Pillars, City of Brooks. [Retrieved from].
Cruz F., Mena, Y., & Rodríguez-Estévez, V. (2018). Methodologies for assessing sustainability in farming systems, in S. Gokten & P. Okan (Eds), Sustainability Assessment and Reporting, doi. 10.5772/intechopen.79220
CoastalWiki, (2019): Measuring sustainability: The self-assessment of sustainability using indicators and a means of scoring them, Coastal Wiki, [Retrieved from].
EC, (2001). A Framework for Indicators for the Economic and Social Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission.
Edwards, C., Lal, R., Madden, P., Miller, R., & House, G. (1990). Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Soil and Water Conservation Society, Iowa.
EU (2019): European Governance, EU, [Retrieved from].
FAO, (2013). SAFA. Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems indicators, FAO.
Fraser, E., Dougill, A., Mabee, W., Reed, M., & McAlpine, P. (2006). Bottom up and top down: Analysis of participatory processes for sustainability indicator identification as a pathway to community empowerment and sustainable environmental management. Journal Environment Management, 78(2), 114–127.
IFAD, (1999). Good Governance: An Overview, IFAD, Executive Board – Sixty-Seventh Session, Rome, 8-9 September 1999, EB 99/67/INF.4.
Ganev, G., Popova, M., & Bönke, F. (2018). Bulgaria Report, Sustainable Governance Indicators 2018, SGI 2018, 2, Bertelsmann Stiftung.
Georgiev, М. (2013). Impact of the administration structure and transaction costs on the agricultural land market, Trakia Journal of Sciences, 11(11), 527-534.
Gibson, R. (2006). Beyond the pillars: Sustaibaility assessment as a framework for effective integration of social, wconomic and ecological considerations in significant decision-making, Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, 8(3), 259-280.
Hansen, J. (1996). Is agricultural sustainability a useful concept, Agricultural Systems, 50, 117-143.
Hayati, D., Ranjbar, Z., & Karami, E. (2010). Measuring agricultural sustainability, in E. Lichtfouse (ed.), Biodiversity, Biofuels, Agroforestry and Conservation Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture Reviews 5, pp.73-100. Springer Science.
Kayizari C. (2018): Good Governance as a pillar of Sustainable Development in Africa, PPP. [Retrieved from].
Marinov, P. (2019). Index of localization of agricultural holdings and employees in the rural areas of the South Central Region for Bulgaria, Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural, 25(3), 464-467.
Mirovitskaya, N., & Ascher W. (2001). Guide to Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy, Duke University Press, London.
Kamalia F., Borges, J., Meuwissen, M., Boer, I., & Lansink, A. (2017). Sustainability assessment of agricultural systems: The validity of expert opinion and robustness of a multi-criteria analysis, Agricultural Systems, 157, 118-128.
Lewandowski, I., Härdtlein, M., & Kaltschmitt, M. (1999): Sustainable crop production: definition and methodological approach for assessing and implementing sustainability. Crop Science, 39, 184-193.
Lopez-Ridauira, S., Masera, O., & Astier, M. (2002). Evaluating the sustainability of complex socio-environmental systems. The MESMIS framework. Ecological Indicators, 2(1), 135-148.
Lowrance, R., Hendrix, P., & Odum, E. (2015). A hierarchical approach to sustainable agriculture, American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 1(4), 169-173. doi. 10.1017/S0889189300001260
Monkelbaan, J. (2017). Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Theoretical insights and case studies for making sustainability governance more integrative, V.R.F. Series, No.499,
Monkelbaan, J. (2018). Governance for the Sustainable Development Goals Exploring an Integrative Framework of Theories, Tools, and Competencies, Springer.
North, D. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nurse, K. (2006). Culture as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development; Commonwealth Secretariat: London, UK.
OECD, (2001). Environmental indicators for agriculture. Volume 3: Methods and Results. Paris.
Raman, S. (2006). Agricultural Sustainability. Principles, Processes and Prospect. New York: The Haworth Press Inc.
RMIT University, (2017). The four pillars of sustainability. RMIT University. [Retrieved from].
Sarov A. (2019): Assessment of Governance Sustainability of Agricultural Farms in Bulgaria (Оценка на управлнеческата устойчивост на земеделските стопанства в България), Avangard Prima.
Simberova, I., Kocmanova, A., & Nemecek, P. (2012). Corporate governance performance measurement – Key performance indicators, Economics and Management, 17(4), 1585-1593. doi. 10.5755/j01.em.17.4.3033
Scobie, S. & Young, O. (2018). Integrating Governance into the Sustainable Development Goals, Post2015, UNU-IAS, Policy Brief, No.3.
Sauvenier X., J. Valekx, N. Van Cauwenbergh, E. Wauters, H.Bachev. K.Biala, C. Bielders, V. Brouckaert, V. Garcia-Cidad, S. Goyens, M.Hermy, E. Mathijs, B.Muys, M.Vanclooster. & A.Peeters (2005). Framework for Assessing Sustainability Levels in Belgium Agricultural Systems – SAFE, Belgium Science Policy, Brussels.
Singh R., Murty, H., Gupta, S., & Dikshit, A. (2009). An overview of sustainability assessment methodologies, Ecological indicators, 9(1), 189–212.
Spangenberg, J., Pfahl, S., & Deller, K. (2002). Towards indicators for institutional sustainability: Lessons from an analysis of Agenda 21. Ecological Indicators, 2(1), 61–77.
Terziev D., Radeva, D., & Kazakova, Y. (2018). A new look on agricultural sustainability and food safety: Economic viability, in H. Bachev, S. Che, S. Yancheva (Eds.) Agrarian and Rural Revitalisation Issues in China and Bulgaria, pp.231-242. Istanbul: KSP Books.
UCLG, (2014). Culture: Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development, United Cities and Local Governments, Barcelona.
VanLoon G., Patil, S., & Hugar, L. (2005). Agricultural Sustainability: Strategies for Assessment. London: SAGE Publications.
UN, (2015). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), United Nation.
Zvyatkova, D., & Sarov, A. (2018). Process of transfer of family farms for sustainability of agricultural cooperatives, in Role of Family Business for Sustainable Rural Development, 61(2), 125-134.
Williamson, O. (1996). The Mechanisms of Governance. New York: Oxford University Press.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1453/jest.v7i3.2109
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Journal of Economic and Social Thought - J. Econ. Soc. Thoug. - JEST - www.kspjournals.org
ISSN: 2149-0422
Editor: [email protected] Secretarial: [email protected] Istanbul - Turkey.
Copyright © KSP Library
