A Method to Assess Agroecosystem Resilience to Climate Variability

Alejandro Cleves, Eva Youkhana and Javier Toro
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Alejandro Cleves: Facultad Seccional Duitama, Escuela de Administración de Empresas Agropecuarias, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (U.P.T.C.), Duitama 150468, Colombia
Eva Youkhana: Center for Development Research (ZEF) ZEF A, Department of Political and Cultural Change, University of Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Javier Toro: Instituto de Estudios Ambientales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá 111321, Colombia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-26

Abstract: Agroecosystems are influenced by climate variability, which puts their productivity at risk. However, they tend to maintain a functional state through their resilience. The literature presents several methods for assessing general resilience, but for specific resilience to climate variability, there are very few methods. An index is proposed that assesses the resilience of agroecosystems to climate variability, based on approaches and indicators that consider the interrelationships of agricultural systems with the environment. The index is made up of a set of multidimensional indicators, which give weight to the role that these play in the resilience of an agroecosystem. As a result, decision-making is assisted in the attempt to adapt or modify components of a farm, technology, and the culture of farmers. This index conceptually introduces structural and linkage indicators that assess ecological connections within farms and between farms and their environment. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, an application was implemented to evaluate the resilience to climate variability of fifty-one farms, located in Colombia, dedicated to citrus production, and it was verified that the most resilient farms were those that have the best qualified indicators, as well as being the ones with the highest level of production and profitability.

Keywords: index; resilience indicators; climatic variability; agroecosystems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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