Figure 1: Some indicators of used to assess the different dimensions of sustainability
tion agriculture such as minimum
tillage, crop rotation, water use and
maintaining soil cover year round. In
horticulture subsector as in viticulture, trends towards sustainability
are driven by the phytosanitary and
other sustainability standards set in
response to specific requirements of
the export market. High cost of inputs has also driven precision agriculture in fruit and wine farms and
improved efficiency of resource use
and product quality. Over 70% of
South African commercial beef is
produced in feedlots with high car-
bon and water footprints while,
communal livestock production has
very little economic contribution at
household as well as national level.
Appropriate sustainability assessments need to be conducted to ascertain the status of all the agricultural subsectors in South Africa. Specific indicators need to be formulated for different subsectors to allow
comparisons across agro-ecological
regions of the country. A pioneering
study in this area was recently completed by th e agricultural sustainability research group at Stellenbosch
University. The study looked at the
sustainability of a livestock farming
systems in the Eastern Cape Province
using a set of economic, environmental and social indicators. Results
of the study revealed that this specific production system was socially
and environmentally partly or conditionally sustainable but not economically sustainable.
Tawanda Marandure is a researcher and Kennedy Dzama is a
professor in the SU Sustainable agriculture group.