Participatory tuning agricultural sustainability assessment tools to Flemish farmer and sector needs

Abstract Many tools to analyse and support sustainable development exist, but their use in the agricultural sector remains obstructed by the sector's complexity and diversity. The objective of this research was to analyse, with a participatory action-research approach, various aspects of the design and use of sustainability assessment tools. The research originated from a Flemish farmers' union request to develop a sector-specific sustainability assessment tool (SAT). This request allowed action research by combining: (i) stakeholder involvement to clarify needs regarding sustainability assessment; (ii) the link between SAT and strategic decision-making and (iii) a supra-farm coordination or governance. The research, applied to four Flemish agricultural sub-sectors resulted in a context-specific SAT for each sector. They differed in complexity; procedural differences are described for two sub-sectors, in particular the links of SATs with strategic decision-making and the importance of supra-farm governance. We concluded with key attention points for future SAT development: (i) tuning sustainability assessment to stakeholders' needs, in particular with respect to strategic decision-making, (ii) the development context of a SAT, in particular with respect to governance and continuity in the envisioning process.