Sustainable Agriculture: An Evaluation Using ANFIS

Sustainable Agriculture: An Evaluation Using ANFIS

Debesh Mishra, Suchismita Satapathy
DOI: 10.4018/IJSESD.287124
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Abstract

In this study, based on an extensive review of the literature, the variables influencing the sustainability of agriculture were identified. Next, the responses were obtained from 144 farmers of Odisha in India by the use of questionnaires on the extent of influence of these variables on sustainability. Subsequently, the factor analysis was done to find the most significant influencing variables. Then, the ANFIS model was created and found as appropriate for the prediction of agricultural sustainability based on the most significant influencing variables as inputs.
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1. Introduction

Agricultural frameworks are formed by accumulated knowledge, technology, integrated value chains, institutional innovations (Byerlee et al., 2009); globalization (Von Braun and Diaz-Bonilla, 2008); and physical, cultural & biological environments (Vasey, 2002). Consequently, agribusiness has impacts on environments because of land clearing, leaving space discontinuity, change of biological communities, desertification, soil disintegration, eutrophication, and loss of biodiversity (Conway and Barbier, 2013; Fanet al., 2012). Ecosystems are polluted (Conway and Pretty, 2013; Diaz and Rosenberg, 2008) and human health is affected (WHO, 1996) by the use of agrochemicals like fertilizers and pesticides. Agricultural sectors are likewise subjected to environmental change impacts as far as its degree and productivity over the world is concerned (Battisti and Naylor, 2009; Turral et al., 2011). Sustainability fundamentally includes a far reaching and incorporated way for the wellbeing to deal with social, economic, and environmental processes (Sathaye et al., 2007; Tracey and Anne, 2008) and the support of various stakeholders and points of view are required to build up a shared activity plan for advancement (Kates et al., 2005). Environment, Equity and Economy were combined into a sustainability model to think about monetary improvement, the preservation and rebuilding of the indigenous environment and empowering social values, simultaneously (Daly, 2010). Agricultural sustainability has a major impact on food productions, and because of its persistent use of natural resources and environmental effects, it has been a central concern (Bell and Morse, 2008). The concern for the development of sustainable agriculture was first focused on the environmental factors and then included economic, social and political factors (DFID, 2003). Different studies have reported that through a variety of initiatives the present and future food demands can be fulfilled by the sustainable agriculture (DFID, 2004; FAO, 2013; Godfray et al., 2010). For instance, the initiatives were as follows: tillage reduction (Lal, 1991), rotation of crops (Caporali and Onnis, 1992), management of water (Tilman et al., 2002), integral pest-management (Gurr et al., 2003), management of nutrient, enhancement of wild habitat, genetic resistance enhancement, farm enterprises diversification, and community wellbeing improvement (Jackson-Smith, 2010). Agricultural sustainability was reported to include the economic, social and environmental issues (GIZ, 2012; Jackson-Smith, 2010). Economic sustainability included the capacity of farmers for producing sufficient food to feed themselves, their community, and to maintain the economic viability of agriculture (Jackson-Smith, 2010; Van Calker, 2008). Social sustainability referred to the equity and quality of life of farmers as well as consumers, and the members of the community. Moreover, the enhancement of the quality of environment of the landscape and natural resource base, were included in environmental sustainability (Sydorovych and Wossink, 2007; Jackson-Smith, 2010). Social, economic and environmental system of systems (SOS) was reported to constitute the agricultural systems (Francis et al., 2003). By improving & protecting the social, economic, and environmental systems of agriculture cyclically, the agricultural system can be sustainable, and in order to achieve this, a vigorous system to balance and synergize trade-offs between SOS was suggested to be essential (Jackson-Smith, 2010). For resolving the complexities to interpret and apply agricultural sustainability from local to global at different scales with increased consideration of social, economic and ecological flexibility in agricultural systems, an effective and comprehensive evaluation methods would be useful. The assessment of sustainability was revealed to rely on human & ecological well-being required to maintain, progress, and increase the integrated attention for sustainability (Astier et al., 2012; Gibson, 2012). Gaviglio et al. (2017) have considered the ‘South Milan Agricultural Park’ in Italy, and developed a framework for the assessment of farm sustainability based on three main steps: (i) collection of data through interviews with farmers and institutions, (ii) elaboration of data through an aggregative structure, and (iii) analysis of scores. Sulewski et al. (2018) have assessed the inter-dependencies between different dimensions for sustainability of farms, which was carried out by considering 601 farms participated in the “Polish Farm Accountancy Data Network”. These data were supported by supplementary information from interviews, and on the basis of a number of variables, economical, social, environmental, and composite indices were collected for sustainability. Irfan et al. (2018) have used survey-based method and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLSSEM) in their study by considering 425 respondents from public-sector organizations in Pakistan. They found a positive relationship between economic, environmental, as well as social sustainability and the corporate reputation. The inaccessibility of pertinent and quantifiable indicators discourages specialists for sustainability performance assessments. Rather than having general as well as overall indicators, relevant and weighted indicators for sustainability should be utilized for specific industrial sectors (Hsu et al., 2017; Hegab et al., 2018). Ahmad et al. (2019) have demonstrated an integrated sustainability assessment method by using the Monte Carlo simulation and fuzzy logic approaches in a case study of a “Malaysian food manufacturing company”. It was found for the company to improve its sustainability performance more effectively by decreasing the amount of polluted wastewater, air emissions, etc., and through improvement in the working conditions.

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