Indicators addressing agroecology in grassland-based farming systems. A review

Agroecology is increasingly proposed in literature as a possible solution to mitigate the impact of anthropic agricultural activity on the environment, even though in Europe its potential is still not entirely clear. Many principles of agroecology have been put forward to bridge the gap between theory and real farming practices; however, its practical applicability remains complex. To quantify the potential of agroecology, it is necessary to find effective indicators, especially when assessing the management of grassland-based farming systems. Here, we reviewed the literature to take stock of the indicators used to characterize agroecology in grassland-based farming systems and at farm level, with the aim to evaluate how the different agroecological principles are addressed and to define multidisciplinary indicators to implement in real farming conditions. The two sets of principles used were addressed through a varying number of indicators, ranging from 7 to 33 and 7 to 58 indicators, respectively. The major findings of this review were the following: (i) principles of agroecology are useful to drive an assessment, particularly addressing different levels of analysis and sustainability dimensions; (ii) a single indicator can cover multiple principles and one principle can span multiple dimensions; (iii) economy and biodiversity categories are addressed through a limited number of indicators, while farming practices (including pasture management) and input categories offer multiple possibilities and lack consensus on the indicators used; (iv) animal health and socio-economic aspects are well targeted but underapplied in Europe. In order to assess the level of agroecology of a given grassland-based farming system, we propose indicators to be tested on-farm in order to understand their effectiveness and possible synergies at system level in real farming conditions.