Developing an assessment tool to evaluate the sustainability of sheep and goat farming systems in Europe

Zaralis, K., Smith, L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9898-9288, Belanche, A., Morin, E., Mullender, S., Martín-García, I. and Yanez-Ruiz, D. (2017) Developing an assessment tool to evaluate the sustainability of sheep and goat farming systems in Europe. In: 8th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture, Food and Environment (HAICTA 2017), 21-24 September 2017, Chania, Greece, pp. 633-641.

Abstract/Summary

Assessing the sustainability of small ruminant systems is crucial to ensure their long-term viability, to identify potential areas of improvement, to uncover trade-offs between different aspects of performance and to, potentially, demonstrate benefits of particular management strategies. However, there is scarce literature and guidance regarding optimal tool choice and effective practical use of such tools with regards to the evaluation of the sustainability of small ruminant systems. The overall aim of this work was to select the most appropriate indicators following the coverage of the sustainability criteria defined by the SAFA framework and to select or create - if appropriate, a rapid, but effective, assessment tool. Ease of tool use and it’s easiness of adaptation to include new indicators were key criteria. This paper describes the selection of the most appropriate indicators and their incorporation into an adapted version of the Public Goods Tool (PG Tool)