Evaluation of sustainability in strawberry crops production under greenhouse and open-field systems in the Andes

ABSTRACT

The use of natural resources for food production and the identification of viable solutions to problems related to agricultural sustainability are topics of current debate. Our proposed objectives were to: i) determine the agronomic characteristics of strawberry crops in open-field and aeroponic greenhouse production systems, ii) assess the sustainability of production systems concerning social, environmental, economic, and governance dimensions, and iii) identify the variability of sustainability scores between production systems. Surveys were conducted on small Mestizo strawberry producers with open-field production systems and aeroponic production researchers in the Ecuadorian Andes. The SAFA-FAO methodology was applied, considering 111 indicators, 56 subtopics, and 20 topics, distributed among the four dimensions. A principal component analysis was performed using the Infostat programme. The sustainability score (0–5) of the aeroponic system was 1.09 times higher than that of the traditional system. The dimensions of economic resilience (2.23) and good governance (2.29) obtained low scores in the open-field system, and in the aeroponic production system the dimensions with high scores were environmental integrity (4.05) and social welfare (4.46). The identified sustainability dynamics contribute to a better multidimensional understanding for decision-makers and are a contribution toward meeting the goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable development
• Respectful food production
• Sustainable production

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the strawberry producers who collaborated in this investigation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceptualization, methodology and software, J.C. and M.H-R.; formal analysis, M.H-R. and L,P; investigation, J.C., B.V.H and E.T; resources, J.C.; data curation, E.T., M.H-R., A.V-L; writing—original draft preparation, J.C., M.H-R., L.P; writing—review and editing, M.H-R., B.T., C.G.DA.; supervision, B.T. and C.G.DA; project administration, J.C.; funding acquisition, J.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been financed by the project ‘Alternative and sustainable measures against climate change for the production of strawberry crops using the aeroponic system’ carried out at the Research Center of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador Ibarra headquarters.