Organic vegetable crops managed with agro-ecological practices: Environmental sustainability assessment by DEXi-met decision support system

Abstract

In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in sustainable agricultural techniques and the environmental evaluation of the effects of agricultural practices. In the present study, we evaluated both the production capacity of organic horticultural systems, and the ex-post sustainability through a new multi-attribute decision model named "DEXi-met". This qualitative model is able to estimate the environmental sustainability of cropping systems managed with different agro-ecological approaches. In particular, we compared the following three horticultural systems: (i) ECO, an organic system with full implementation of agro-ecological strategies (agro-ecological services crops (ASC), strip cultivation, and organic amendment); (ii) GM, an organic system with the introduction of the ASC; (iii) NO ASC, an organic system without ASC. The treatments with ASC presence (ECO and GM) showed similar total energy outputs (substantially higher than the NO ASC), indicating the positive effect of this agro-ecological practice. The findings pointed out that the ECO system, which followed the principles of natural ecosystems, can contribute to building up more complex agro-ecosystems, increasing both resilience and biodiversity. This management strategy reached a good compromise between the production of vegetable cropping systems and environmental sustainability achievement. Then, it is possible to optimize the use of natural resources, support climate adaptation, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.