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Abstract
Objective of this paper is to compare
different measurement concepts for sustainability at
farm level in Germany: a) Sustainable Value
Approach (SV), b) Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)
and c) indicator approaches close to KUL (Criteria
for an Ecologically Compatible Land Management).
The mathematical programming model FARMIS is
extended wrt the underlying subject and applied for
quantitative analysis. Indicators based on physical
inputs are calculated based on monetary data of
national FADN data. The methods are applied to a
sample of about 4000 representative dairy farms.
Results of SV are given in both absolute values and
return-to-cost ratios which take farm size into
account. Considering relationships between methods
we found out that correlation between DEA and SV
results are higher than 0.75. The indicator methods
show correlations with the other approaches of more
than 0.5 for economic indicators but a rather low
correlation for ecological indicators. Further we
identified characteristics of farms with high
efficiency and sustainable performance. In order to
show differences of used methods results are given by
regions, size classes and orientation of production.
Results indicate that bigger farms generate higher
Sustainable Value. Farms in less favourable areas
show a lower performance with regard to Sustainable
Value and efficiency than farms located in other
areas.