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Methods and Procedures for Building Sustainable Farming Systems pp 47–61Cite as

Assessing the Sustainability of Activity Systems to Support Households’ Farming Projects

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Abstract

This chapter aims to introduce the setting up of an evaluation tool assessing the sustainability of activity systems and supporting farming households’ projects at the establishment stage. This chapter analyses three methods used to appreciate the farm sustainability and identifies not only their limits but also their contributions to our own methodology, at the level of complex activity systems in which farming production is combined with transformation, sales or outside activities. We propose to recognise two different contributions to sustainable agriculture: a farm-focused sustainability and an extended sustainability, which means a contribution to the sustainable development at a regional scale. These theoretical elements were regularly confronted with the analysis of advisors’ practices and comprehensive surveys with households in Southern France, where an analysis was carried through a partnership with researchers and local actors. It produced a tool to appraise agricultural projects, with pluriactivity or without, distinguishing farm-focused and extended sustainability.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the following people who participated to this action research project in various ways: Aurélie Brès (ADEAR 11, France), Chloé Cadier (AIRDIE, France), Michel Dulcire (CIRAD, France) and Patrick Mundler (ISARA, France). This study was funded by the project Intersama (Insertion Territoriale des Systèmes d’Activités des Ménages Agricoles) in the framework of the regional development programme PSDR3 Languedoc-Roussillon (2008–2010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CEMAGREF, UR DTM, 2 rue de la papeterie BP 76, F-38402, Saint Martin d’Hères Cedex, France

    Médulline Terrier

  2. INRA, UMR951 Innovation, 2 place Viala, F-34060, Montpellier Cedex 1, France

    Pierre Gasselin

  3. ADEAR-LR, Mas Saporta, F-34875, Lattes, France

    Joseph Le Blanc

Authors
  1. Médulline Terrier
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  2. Pierre Gasselin
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  3. Joseph Le Blanc
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pierre Gasselin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Economy, Sociology and Management, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Do, Av. Almeida Lucena 1, Vila Real, 5000-660, Portugal

    Ana Alexandra Marta-Costa

  2. , Agricultural Sciences Department, University of Azores, Rua Capitão João de Ávila, Angra do Heroísmo, 9700-042, Portugal

    Emiliana L. D. G. Soares da Silva

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Terrier, M., Gasselin, P., Le Blanc, J. (2013). Assessing the Sustainability of Activity Systems to Support Households’ Farming Projects. 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_5

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