Agricultural sustainability – the human dimension

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Vogel, Fred

Affiliations: World Bank, 1818 H Street, Washington, D.C. 20437, USA. Tel.: +1 202 473 3808; Fax: +1 202 522 3645; E-mail: fvogel@worldbank.org

Abstract: Sustainability as it applies to agriculture has traditionally been evaluated by measuring production output and capabilities. Concerns about agriculture's affect on the environment broadened the scope of sustainability measurements. More recent efforts have attempted to link agricultural sustainability to economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity. This paper examines one human dimension of agriculture which is the labour force and shows that most conventional measurements are inadequate because little is known about the characteristics of hired farm worker households, especially their income. Furthermore, the measurements also fail to link the production aspects of agriculture to the household supplying the labour. A first effort to obtain this linkage via a census of agriculture integrated with a sample survey is described.

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-2003-20101

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 1-8, 2003