(Eco)efficiency in food production: A systematic review of the literature

Abstract

A systematic review of the literature on (eco)efficiency of agricultural and cattle raising was undertaken. MethodiOrdinatio filtered 100 articles from databases Science Direct and Web of Science, of which 69 articles were analyzed in depth to elucidate main approaches, variables and methods in studies on agriculture and cattle raising. Results revealed that 14% of the articles were published by the Journal of Cleaner Production and revealed its representativity and importance for the debate on current issue. Within the main approaches and in accordance to the acknowledgement of the environmental degradation capacity of agriculture and cattle raising, there was a significant growth in (eco)efficiency studies. The review of the literature showed that in 75% of the articles, research method was Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) or Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). The addition of a second stage, or rather, the employment of DEA, showed the relevance of analyzing the influence of non-controllable factors in (eco)efficiency in agriculture and cattle raising.