Indicators | Description | Rating criteria |
---|---|---|
Natural capital | Access to land, security of tenure, and access to water [37] | Farmers have sufficient land and feel secure, access to water using it 0 = inexistent, 1 = low, 2 = significant, 3 = high, 4 = desirable/ideal |
Human capital | Years of experience, percentage of employment from the local community (helping build skills), education and experience, skilled permanent employees [42] | Average rating from: experience in the cropping system activity; education and skills 0 = inexistent, 1 = low, 2 = significant, 3 = high, 4 = desirable/ideal |
Financial capital | Cropping system activities provide livable incomes; situation of access to credit, savings, debts, and shareholding [29] | Average rating from: the existence of on-farm and off-farm sources of income, levels of wages/incomes; food expenditures; Other expenditures; savings; debts; loans; state support; other support 0 = inexistent, 1 = low, 2 = significant, 3 = high, 4 = desirable/ideal |
Social capital | Membership or participation in social networks [42] | 0 = inexistent, 1 = low level of participation in networks and decision-making 2 = significant, 3 = high, 4 = desirable/ideal, production system actors feature similar bargaining power |
Physical capital | Presence and capacity of bulk storage facilities; access to machinery and tools necessary for the system to function; access to transport [43] | Average rating from: the existence of housing and other installations; sanitary services; other services (water, electricity, gas, waste management; access to inputs, machinery and tools; access to transport) 0 = inexistent, 1 = low, 2 = significant, 3 = high, 4 = desirable/ideal |
Diversity of Crops and breeds | The diversity of crops and breeds on farms, and/or in markets, and/or consumed related to the respective food system as a proxy for the Diversity of system components [41] Diversity of system components including seeds creates redundancy and Response diversity [34] | Average crop and breed species richness as a percentage of the maximum in the sample, transferred to a five-point Likert scale 0 = monocrop/ 4 = highest diversity found in the sample |
Number of crops rotated with main crop | Extent of crop rotation, referring to the number of crops rotated with the main crop [44] | 0 = non-existent 1 = Single crop 2 = Two crops 3 = three crops 4 = Multiple crops |
Landscape heterogeneity | We use land cover classes in the cropping system to measure heterogeneity of the landscape. Land cover classes have been used to measure capacity of agroecosystem to provide ecosystem services [39, 45, 46] | 0 = non existent 1 = 0–33% of the maximum number found 2 = 33–66% of the maximum 3 =  > 66% of the maximum 4 = Maximum of land cover classes found in the sample |
Percentage of arable land under vegetation | Here we look specifically on natural and planted vegetation in the cropped area. Natural vegetation has been found to be important in buffering the agroecosystem [34] | 0 = 0% 1 =  < 33% 2 = 33–66% 3 =  > 66% 4 = 100% |