An Overview of Total Factor Productivity Approaches for Sustainable Smallholders in Agri-Food Supply Chains

Abstract

Sustainable agri-food supply chains playa vital role in securing global food supplies, protecting ecosystems, and supporting equitable economic growth. As environmental, social, and economic pressures intensify, smallholders, who are key actors within agri-food supply chains, urgently need reliable tool to assess sustainability in their agricultural operations. Traditional productivity indicators are mostly deficient in terms of presenting a fairly complex balance between the three dimensions of sustainability, hence the critical need for decision-making frameworks. The challenge is taken care of in this paper through a discussion on how methodologies of Total Factor Productivity could appropriately be modified to put sustainable dimensions into small-scale agriculture. An overview was conducted through following PRISMA guidelines tracing this approach's evolution from traditional growth accounting into contemporary models that articulate environmental externalities. The division's analysis essentially proceeds ahead by identifying all the relevant key performance indicators for smallholders and shows how they relate productivity to ecological management. Then, various approaches of total factor productivity are evaluated, revealing their strengths and limitations in interpreting the impacts on sustainability. This study identifies some significant gaps on the ground of sustainable assessment and offers recommendations on how these attempts will support smallholers.