Bajo Andarax” District (Spain)
2. Materials and Methods
Two municipalities were considered in our study, namely, Gádor and Santa Fe de Mondújar. The selection of these municipalities was based on three criteria. First, these municipalities account for more than 85% of the production of citrus in the Bajo Andarax district and are therefore highly representative of the citrus sector in this area. Second, both territories are neighboring municipalities, thus guaranteeing similar agronomic and geoclimatic conditions (Table 1). Finally, SAT Cítricos del Andarax accounts for 66.78% of the employment provided by private companies in these municipalities [19], which, in turn, provides ideal conditions for the study of the impact of the farmers’ association on the economic and social sustainability of the territory.
Table 1.Agronomic and geoclimatic frame conditions of the study.
Municipality Altitude (m)
Surface (km2)
Annual
Rainfall (mm) Climate Main Crops
Watering Regime
Gádor 166 87.7 249 Continental
Mediterranean Orange Flood Irrigation Santa Fe de
Mondújar 217 34.9 271
2.1. Economic Sustainabilty
The analyzed data comprised 44 plantations producing the two main varieties of orange in the area (navelina and castellana) under both conventional and organic cultivation systems (Table 2). Due to the difficulties of carrying out an entirely random sampling of the farms, a stratified sampling that guarantees the validity of the sample [20] was performed according to the number of surveyed plots in the region and their typology.
Table 2.Sample distribution according to type of crops and variety.
Crop Type Orange
Variety
Sampled Surface (ha)
Number of Sampled Farms
Organic farming Navelina 6.7 13
Castellana 9.7 14
Conventional farming
Navelina 2.2 4
Castellana 6.4 13
Total 25 44
The sample consisted of 44 plots which make up 25 of the 1080 orange crop hectares in the district and featured no newly-built farms, as the aim of the study is to analyze the changes triggered by the restructuring of the sector from the old plantations to organic farming. The sample was initially expected to cover 50 hectares, but only 25 of these were found to include adequate cost management mechanisms.
Nonetheless the 44 plots surveyed represent a valid sample of the number of the surveyed plots, with a 12.09% margin of error and a 95% level of confidence. All of the farms under consideration had grown conventional orange crops for at least 10 years prior to the start of the study.
Both conventional and organic farms in this sample use conventional flood irrigation and have an average area of under one hectare. The predominant planting pattern is 6 m× 4 m between trees for the navelina variety and 6 m× 6 m for the castellana variety. All plantations combine “white” varieties of castellana oranges, which are intended for the processing industry, and navelina oranges for the fresh market.
The economic sustainability of the cropping systems has been assessed by means of appropriate indices, as previously employed in the literature [3,16,17]. Table 3 summarizes the indicators of economic sustainability employed in the study.
Table 3.Economic sustainability indicators employed in the study.
Indicator Measure Source
Net Present Value
Profitability of the investment Testa et al. [3]
Sgroi et al. [16]
Sgroi et al. [17]
Internal Rate of Return Discounted Cost-Benefit Rate
Discounted Pay-Back Time Return period of an investment
An economic analysis was performed in order to determine the Net Present Value (NPV), the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), the Discounted Cost-Benefit Rate (DCBR), and the Discounted Pay-Back Time (DPBT), in accordance with the methodology proposed by Sgroi et al. [16].
The Net Present Value (NPV) was calculated by the difference between the discounted gross income values generated during the investment life of the project or investment and the corresponding fixed costs [21] by means of the following formula:
NPV=
∑
nI=0GI(1i−+rFC)ii (1)whereGIrepresents the gross income,FCare the fixed costs,ncorresponds to the lifetime of the investment, and iandrare the year under consideration and the discount rate, respectively. In this formula,GIis calculated as the difference between gross production value and variable costs. In our study, the lifetime of the investment was 25 years and the discount rate is set to 5%, considering market conditions. By employing this criterion, an investment is deemed convenient if the NPV is positive;
in the case of two alternative investment projects, the one providing the highest NPV is to be chosen [16,22].
The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is the discount rate at which NPV equals zero, i.e., the discount rate at which the discounted benefits are equal to the discounted costs [16]. By using this criterion, an investment is deemed convenient if its IRR exceeds the chosen alternative discount rate [23].
In addition, the Discounted Cost-Benefit Rate (DCBR) was calculated to assess the economic sustainability of the cropping systems. The DCBR is defined as the ratio between the discounted gross income values generated during the investment life and the corresponding fixed costs. The following formula is employed to calculate the DCBR:
DCBR=
∑
nI=0(1+r)GIi i∑
nI=0(1+r)FCi i(2)
According to this economic indicator, a ratio greater than 1 reveals a financially convenient investment [24] since the sum of the gross revenue provided by the investment exceeds the sum of the fixed costs.
Finally, the economic indicator DPBT has been employed in the study. DPBT corresponds to the number of years for which the sum of the discounted gross income equals the sum of the fixed costs [25].
In order to determine these indicators, an analysis of the information from the representative sample of plots in the study was performed by identifying the structure of costs and revenues of each farm. To this end, the structure and quantification of costs, income, and timeframe based on the methodology proposed by Juliá and Server [26] was employed.
Income was defined as the average settlement price of conventional and organically farmed navelina and castellana varieties over the last two years, for which internal price data of SAT Cítricos del Andarax was used.
The timeframe to analyze the profitability of both organic and conventional farms was set at 25 years. All farms were farmed by using conventional farming methods for the first 11 years (years 1 to 11). Then, a two-year period was established for the conversion from conventional to organic farming (years 12 and 13); during this period, the farms were adapted to meet the administrative requirements for the certification of organic production, which was then obtained at the end of year 13.
Finally, the farms were completely managed with organic production methods during the last 12 years of the study (years 14 to 25).
2.2. Social Sustainability
A substantial body of research has been developed in the last years with regard to the environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability. However, less attention has been paid in the literature to the social dimension of sustainability [2].
In addition, literature devoted to social sustainability is highly focused on specific research contexts, thus hindering the attainment of an integrative, all-encompassing framework of social sustainability [27].
Social sustainability was assessed in our study by selecting a number of indicators proposed in the literature for which relevant quantitative data was available. Table 4 summarizes the indicators of social sustainability employed in the study. The differentiation between internal (i.e., at organization level) and external (i.e., at the territory level) social sustainability dimensions proposed by Van Calker et al. [28] was employed as a first classification criterion. Farm-level data was collected and analyzed to evaluate those indicators related to internal social sustainability, whereas municipality-level data was employed for the assessment of external social sustainability.
The study of the impact of the restructuring of the sector led by SAT Cítricos del Andarax on the social sustainability of the municipalities was possible due to the very high degree of interdependence between the farmers’ association and the socioeconomic conditions of the territory since the association accounts for 66.78% of the employment of private companies in these municipalities [19].
In order to determine the impact of the restructuring of the sector on social sustainability, the evolution of these indicators was assessed during a 10-year period between 2001, the last year in which conventional farming was practiced, and 2011, a representative year of full organic production for which statistical data was available.
This methodology allowed a direct comparison between the indicators of social sustainability in the period of conventional production and those obtained during organic-only production.
Table 4.Social sustainability indicators employed in the study.
Scope Indicator Source Measure
Internal social sustainability
Educational
attainment Dillon et al. [29] Increase of the percentage of qualified personnel in the association Employment creation Manara and Zabaniotou [30] Increase of the number of workers in
the association In-house training Amaral and La Rovere [31]
Veldhuizen et al. [32]
Increase of the number of on-the-job training hours per worker and year Workforce gender
balance Mani et al. [2] Increase of the percentage of female personnel in the association
External social sustainability
Employment Amaral and La Rovere [31] Increase of unemployment rate
Education level Weingaertner and Moberg [27]
Amaral and La Rovere [31]
Increase of the proportion of population with secondary or tertiary education
Data for the assessment of the internal social sustainability was obtained from the historical record of SAT Cítricos del Andarax. In addition, the evolution of the social sustainability indicators of the farmers’ association during the period of study was compared to the evolution of the same indicators in the two immediate geographic aggregation levels, i.e., the province of Almería and the region of Andalusia. This provided a valuable comparison with the reference territories and allowed the drawing of meaningful conclusions with regard to the evolution of the social sustainability indicators in other reference territories in which the farmers’
association had no influence.
Statistical datasets for these territories were obtained from the Multi-territory Information System of Andalusia (Sistema de Información Multiterritorial de Andalucía, SIMA, by its acronym in Spanish) published by the Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography of the Regional Government of Andalusia [33]. Unemployment rates at the regional and provincial levels were obtained from the historical series of the National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE, by its acronym in Spanish) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [34].
Among the internal social sustainability indicators, education attainment was assessed as the increase during the period of study of the percentage of qualified personnel, defined as the proportion of personnel with secondary or tertiary education in the association. This result was then compared to the same measure in the province of Almería and in the region of Andalusia. As a further indicator of internal social sustainability, employment creation was determined as the increase of the number of workers in the organization over the period of study. This, in turn, was compared to the same measure in the two immediate geographic aggregation levels, i.e., at the provincial and regional level. In addition, in-house training was evaluated as the increase of the number of on-the-job training hours per worker and year in the association, for which the most recent data until 2015 could be used. No statistical
data was available for this indicator at the provincial and regional level. Finally, workforce gender balance was calculated as the percentage of female personnel in the association, which was then compared to the same measure at the two immediate geographic levels.
External social sustainability was assessed by evaluating the evolution of the employment and the education level between 2001, the last year of conventional production, and 2011, a representative year of full organic production. In order to evaluate the evolution of the employment in the municipalities under consideration, statistical datasets of the evolution of the unemployment rate during the period of study were processed and compared to the evolution of the unemployment rate at both the provincial and regional level. Finally, the education level was evaluated by determining the increase of the proportion of the population with secondary or tertiary education in the study area during the period from 2001 to 2011 and comparing it with the evolution of the same measure at the provincial and regional levels.