Hrabrin Bachev
The issue of understanding and evaluating sustainability of farming organizations such as family farms, agrifirms, agro-corporations, agricultural cooperatives, etc. is among the most debated by the researchers, farmers, investors, policy-makers, interest groups, and public at large around the globe. This paper tries to unpack the sustainability suggesting a holistic framework for defining and assessing sustainability of farming enterprises. It gives answers to two important questions: “what is sustainability of farming enterprise?” and “how to assess sustainability of farms of different type?” First, evolution of the “concept” and the major approaches for assessing sustainability of farming organizations is discussed. More adequate definition of the sustainability is suggested as ability of a particular of farming enterprise to maintain its governance, economic, social and ecological functions in a long term. Next, a framework for assessing sustainability of farming enterprises is proposed, including a system of appropriate principles, criteria, indicators, and reference values for evaluating governance, economic, ecological and social aspects of sustainability as well as an approach for their integration and interpretation. The ultimate objective of this study is to work out an effective framework for assessing sustainability of farming organizations in the specific economic, institutional and natural environment in which they exist and evolve, assist agri-business management and strategy formation, and agricultural policies and forms of public intervention in agrarian sector.
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