Abstract
A French agriculture sustainability assessment model (IDEA) was modified to fit the Lebanese agriculture context. IDEA is structured around several objectives grouped together to form three sustainability scales: agro-ecological, socio-territorial and economic scale which in turn are translated into measurable indicators. Based on this model, various components of a farming system are assigned by numerical scores that are then weighted and aggregated to give the farm a score for each of the three scales of sustainability. To fit the Lebanese model, some indicators had to be modified. The modified model was initially tested on three farms, and then a full survey was carried out for 1 year over 34 farmers. The modified IDEA model proved to be a useful assessment tool to guide farmers and development agents in assessing agriculture sustainability of small farms in semi-arid areas. It showed high sensitivity within the Lebanese context unveiling differences between and within farming systems and identifying levels of intervention to improve sustainability.
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Ghadban, E., Talhouk, S., Chedid, M., Hamadeh, S.K. (2013). Adapting a European Sustainability Model to a Local Context in Semi-arid Areas of Lebanon. In: Marta-Costa, A., Soares da Silva, E. (eds) Methods and Procedures for Building Sustainable Farming Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5003-6_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5003-6_17
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