Sustainability assessment of cropping systems: A field-based approach on family farms. Application to maize cultivation in Southeast Asia

Lairez Juliette, Affholder François, Scopel Eric, Leudphanane Bounma, Wery Jacques. 2023. Sustainability assessment of cropping systems: A field-based approach on family farms. Application to maize cultivation in Southeast Asia. European Journal of Agronomy, 143:126716, 17 p.

Résumé : Maize cropping has often become the only way for many family farmers in Southeast Asia to rapidly obtain a cash income. However, the intensification of maize-based cropping systems is raising concerns about its environmental sustainability. This study contributed to field-based approaches for ex post sustainability assessment of current cropping systems on farms and for the design of more sustainable prototypes, in conditions where the information required for estimating sustainability indicators are not readily available. A 3-year regional agronomic diagnosis was combined with a multicriteria assessment and a prototyping procedure. The latter aimed to increase the performances on the indicators that showed critical levels on current systems. A local diversity of maize fields in Laos was used to test the approach. We defined and used indicators representing farmers' socio-economic objectives and risks for the environment. Sustainability indicators were calculated using data extracted from farm surveys, direct measurements in fields managed by the farmers and crop modelling. Our analysis showed that the most frequent weaknesses in all current maize-based cropping systems were (i) low land and labour productivity, (ii) high susceptibility to weed infestation, (iii) high risk of herbicide leaching, (iv) risk of soil fertility depletion, (v) risk of soil erosion. None of the current cropping systems performed well simultaneously on both indicators of land/labour productivity and control of herbicide leaching. These sustainability issues mainly resulted from difficulties in mastering mechanised crop establishment. Taking the current cropping system as a starting point, prototypes with successful crop establishment thanks to well mastered mechanisation would significantly improve the following sustainability indicators: control of herbicide leaching (improved by 130–340%), yield (multiplied by 1.3–2.3), gross margin (multiplied by 1.3–2.2), weed control (improved by 180–430%) and labour productivity (multiplied by 1.4–3.4). However, it would increase erosion (erosion control divided by 1.6–7) and seasonal cash outflow would increase (multiplied by 1.1–2). Overall, improving crop establishment would increase sustainability (overall sustainability score multiplied by 1.1–1.6). Our results suggest that providing farmers with enhanced capacity to master crop establishment would not solve all sustainability issues of maize cultivation, but at least help avoid a catastrophic overuse of herbicides in that context.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : système de culture, agriculture durable, durabilité

Mots-clés géographiques Agrovoc : République démocratique populaire lao, Asie du Sud-Est

Mots-clés libres : Diagnostic agronomique, Évaluation multicritère, Indicateur

Classification Agris : F08 - Systèmes et modes de culture
E90 - Structure agraire
E20 - Organisation, administration et gestion des entreprises ou exploitations agricoles

Champ stratégique Cirad : CTS 2 (2019-) - Transitions agroécologiques

Agences de financement européennes : Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid

Agences de financement hors UE : Agence Française de Développement

Projets sur financement : (EU) Effects of natural stress generated by freshwater discharges in the benthic invertebrate estuarine communities and its influence on the assessment of the benthic ecological status

Auteurs et affiliations

• Lairez Juliette, CIRAD-PERSYST-UPR AIDA (BFA) - auteur correspondant
• Affholder François, CIRAD-PERSYST-UPR AIDA (MOZ) ORCID: 0000-0002-3919-4805
• Scopel Eric, CIRAD-PERSYST-UPR AIDA (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0003-2938-6587
• Leudphanane Bounma, Ministère de l'agriculture et des forêts (Laos) (LAO)
• Wery Jacques, Montpellier SupAgro (FRA)

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/603479/)

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