Multicriteria assessment of cropping systems under contrasted soil fertility managements: evidence from mixed farming in the Madagascar highlands

Abstract

Agricultural intensification by smallholder farmers in Madagascar often combines conventional and agroecological practices. Assessing the performance of these practices through a multicriteria approach is essential to capture their economic, environmental and social performance. This study aimed to assess how the adoption of different cropping systems based on agroecological principles performs across sustainability indicators. We used survey data from 455 farmers to characterize and select 9 cropping systems across upland and lowland areas. A set of 11 indicators were chosen to represent systems' performances and perform field-scale evaluation, while addressing issues at farm and territory levels. Results revealed that most cropping systems exhibited trade-offs among indicators, suggesting that agroecology may not perform optimally across all indicators. Crop rotations had better environmental performance but were less effective in terms of social indicators, particularly labor. Monocropping systems performed better in terms of labor minimization, but not economically. Results also showed that crop choice within the cropping system had a greater influence on sustainability than fertilization type for a given crop. The study revealed key constraints associated with current practices, and which indicators should be used at farm and territory scale to assess ex ante the agroecological practices scaling out potential.