A Stock and Flow Based Framework for Indicator Identification for Evaluation of Crop Production System

Crop production and crop yield has been the sole focus of most of the existing agricultural policies and interventions, which has resulted in several undesirable outcomes over a long term. To evaluate any production system holistically, it is necessary to identify a set of indicators accounting for economic, social and environmental dimensions. While the existing indicator selection frameworks help in identification of indicators, they lack a logically structured and transparent process. In this work, we develop a stock and flow based framework for a systematic selection of indicators for evaluating crop production systems. Stock and flow diagrams are used for conceptualization of the system and are sorted with respect to material, energy, and financial flows associated with the system. Various causal flows and their linkages are traced for each of the input-output component, and one representative indicator is selected for each causal flow. The indicators associated with desirable outcomes are taken in terms of input-output efficiency while undesirable outcomes are considered in terms of their absolute values. Using this process, a set of thirteen indicators have been identified for assessing the viability of agricultural practices with respect to socioeconomic and ecological sustainability