Evaluating economic resilience for sustainable agri‐food systems: The case of Mexico

• Author: Martin Hingley,Maurizio Canavari,Eliseo Vilalta‐Perdomo,Rosario Michel‐Villarreal
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• Date: 01 July 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2270

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Evaluating economic resilience for sustainable agri-food

systems: The case of Mexico

Rosario Michel-Villarreal

1

| Eliseo Vilalta-Perdomo

1

| Martin Hingley

1

|

Maurizio Canavari

2

1

Lincoln International Business School,

University of Lincoln, United Kingdom

2

Department of Agricultural and Food

Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di

Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Correspondence

Maurizio Canavari, Viale Giuseppe Fanin,

50, 40127 Bologna (BO), Italy.

Email: maurizio.canavari@unibo.it

Abstract

Evaluating economic resilience from public data may inform agricultural policy-makers

on rural enterprises' resilience, but such data need to consider profitability, stability of

market, safety nets, and product quality and information.

1|INTRODUCTION

In agri-food systems, it has been recognized that globalization has

increased vulnerability in the livelihoods of poor producers and farm

workers, and has had effects on the move toward sustainability

(Vorley, 2002). Beyond the expected changes that globalization has

brought, for example, more choice, competition, and mobility, numer-

ous challenging developments, such as climate change, soil degrada-

tion, and political and economic crises, are increasing the vulnerability

of global food systems (Tendall et al., 2015). As a response, countries

participating in the definition of the United Nations sustainable devel-

opment goals (SDGs) havemade these challenges explicit, by recogniz-

ing that achievingfood security and increasing agricultural productivity

(SDG-2) will require the development of sustainable food production

systems and resilient agricultural practices (United Nations, 2017a,

2017b).

“Sustainability”has been definedas the ability to meet the needs of

the present without compromising the ability of future generations to

meet their own needs (WorldCommission on Environment and Devel-

opment, 1987), while “resilience”can be understood as the capacity to

continue to meetpresent needs during times of disturbanceor vulnera-

bility (Tendallet al., 2015). Therefore, there has been a suggested com-

plementarity between both concepts, where resilience is perceived as

an enabler or a key to sustainability (Ates & Bititci, 2011; Darnhofer,

Fairweather, & Moller, 2010). Seekell et al. (2017) further emphasize

that determining the drivers or factors that contribute to resilience of

food systems is critical for the understanding of the long-term sustain-

ability of humanpopulations.

In the agri-food systems context, understanding and measuring

sustainability and resilience seems particularly relevant as countries

appear to struggle with implementing the full range of official SDG

indicators (Sachs, Schmidt-Traub, Kroll, Durand-Delacre, & Teksoz,

2017) in preparation toward the fulfillment of the Agenda 2030 for

Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015). Regarding resilience

of food systems, SDG-2 proposes target 2.4. The aim of this target is

to ensure, by 2030, sustainable food production systems and imple-

mentation of resilient agricultural practices that “increase productivity

and production, that help maintain ecosystems that strengthen capac-

ity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought,

flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and

soil quality”(United Nations, 2017b). Thus, measuring the progress

toward target 2.4 will require the assessment of productivity and sus-

tainability of food systems, but also the understanding and assess-

ment of resilient practices of rural enterprises.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United

Nations (FAO, 2013), to be economically resilient, a rural enterprise

shall generate a positive cash flow that pays its debts, and compen-

sates for any negative externality it creates, without negatively affect-

ing workers' income or shareholders' benefits. Furthermore, a resilient

enterprise shall maintain effective buffer mechanisms, such as savings

and assets, to cope with the dynamic complexity associated with glob-

alization, for instance, the effects resulting from natural and human-

made disasters. Economic resilience is one of the four sustainability

dimensions evaluated through the Sustainability Assessment of Food

and Agriculture System (SAFA) framework proposed by FAO (2013).

For the assessment of economic resilience, SAFA considers four main

themes: investment, vulnerability, product quality and information,

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2270

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