Exploring Synergies Among Agricultural Sustainability Dimensions: An Empirical Study on Farming System in Almería (Southeast Spain)

•Sustainability agriculture assessment considering interrelationships among dimensions•Microeconomic study at farm level and influences of features of the agrifood system•Evaluation is carried out by using a multivariate analysis of synthetic indexes.•Increases in the economic and social indicators can reduce the environmental pressure.•Social and environmental improvements reveal positive effects on economic dimension.

Measuring sustainability is a multi-attribute issue consisting of numerous variables that tend to be interrelated. The holistic perspective and the determination of said relationships, synergies and/or trade-offs, are aspects that have been receiving close attention in the literature on the subject. This paper aims to develop an analysis that considers these topics regarding the farming system in Almería, utilizing primary data obtained from surveys of a sampling of farmers and secondary data from the sector. A series of ecological, social and economic indicators are determined, following the framework of the Sustainability Assessment of Farming and the Environment (SAFE), and its subsequent aggregation using synthetic indexes. The estimation of interrelationships is carried out by means of a multivariate analysis, considering the endogeneity between the sustainability dimensions and the influence of several features of the agrifood system. The results reveal that the increase in the economic and social indicators reduces environmental pressures on the use of resources; in parallel, it can also be observed how social and environmental improvements reveal positive effects on the economic dimension of the farmers. Overall, this study presents an analytical study that combines indicators at farm level and the effects related to the productive activities surrounding agriculture.