ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
This article is part of the Research TopicBuilding Resilience Through Sustainability: Innovative Strategies In Agricultural SystemsView all 35 articles
Estimating agricultural sustainability: A multidimensional approach to a farm-level assessment tool
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Széchenyi István University Albert Kázmér Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary
- 2Department of Corporate Leadership and Marketing, Széchenyi István University Kautz Gyula Faculty of Economics, Győr, Hungary
- 3Department of Department of Statistics, Finance and Controlling, Széchenyi István University Kautz Gyula Faculty of Economics, Győr, Hungary
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In response to the growing demand for practical and robust sustainability assessment tools, this study introduces a new method for evaluating agricultural sustainability at the farm level. The tool relies on indicators covering environmental, economic, and mixed dimensions of sustainability. The mixed dimension integrates environmental, economic, and social indicators. Indicators were selected based on the literature and empirical data from Hungarian farms. From 61 initial indicators, three groups were formed through factor analysis and clustering. The analysis revealed that environmental and economic factors contribute almost equally to sustainability scores, whereas the mixed dimension has a comparatively smaller impact. This suggests that immediate sustainability improvements might need to prioritize environmental and economic factors. The assessment tool allows the calculation of a complex agricultural sustainability index, which has been validated through case studies on Hungarian farms. This study is presented as a methodological pilot project to develop and test a farm-level sustainability assessment tool for agricultural enterprises. The results highlight the practical applicability of the tool for farmers and policymakers, as it offers a transparent, easy-to-use method for identifying sustainability strengths and weaknesses at the enterprise level. Limitations include a small, region-specific sample, which may restrict broader applicability. Additionally, there are challenges in integrating multidimensional indicators. Future research should focus on expanding the dataset, refining indicator weighting, and testing the tool's applicability in a broader agricultural context. This enhances the robustness and guides stakeholders in sustainable agricultural development.
Keywords: agricultural sustainability1, farm-level evaluation3, indicator-based assessment2, multidimensional analysis5, sustainability index4
Received: 12 Sep 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gombkötő, Vinkóczi and Koltai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nóra Gombkötő
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