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ISSN:2325-6192 (print)
ISSN:2325-6206 (online)
Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management
António Mendes Lopes (editor), Jiazhong Zhang(editor)
António Mendes Lopes (editor)

University of Porto, Portugal

Email: aml@fe.up.pt

Jiazhong Zhang (editor)

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province 710049, China

Fax: +86 29 82668723 Email: jzzhang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

Sustainable Milk Production: Application of the Hierarchical Analytical Process Towards a Regional Strategic Planning

Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management 4(4) (2016) 385--398 | DOI:10.5890/JEAM.2016.12.003

Max W. Olveira$^{1}$; Feni Agostinho$^{2}$; Cecília M.V.B. Almeida$^{2}$; Biagio F. Giannetti$^{2}$

$^{1}$ Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Sul de Minas Gerais, Praça Tiradentes 416, CEP 37576-000, Centro, Inconfidentes, Minas Gerais, Brasil

$^{2}$ Universidade Paulista, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Laboratório de Produção e Meio Ambiente, Rua Dr. Bacelar, 1212, CEP 04026-002, São Paulo, Brasil

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Abstract

Milk corresponds to 20% of the Brazilian agribusiness GDP and its production is concentrated at Minas Gerais State. Different milk production systems co-exist in this region, which results in different sustainability performance and call for a multi-criteria analysis to subsidize decisions towards a regional milk production planning. This work uses the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) to hierarchize milk production systems as for their sustainability. A cluster analysis considering 92 milk producers identified five distinct production systems: G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5. Social, economic, and environmental indices are calculated and used in the AHP to prioritize sustainability according to the decision-maker’s egalitarian, or hierarchical, or individualist profiles. Results indicate that system G1 features higher priority degree (higher sustainability) for all three profiles compared to other systems assessed, reaching 27% for the egalitarian, 31% for the hierarchical, and 31% for the individualist profiles. The worst performances were fared by system G4 in the egalitarian (12%), and hierarchical (13%), and by system G3 in the individualist profile (10%). Numbers could be considered by decision makers in order to subsidize a strategic planning towards a sustainable regional milk production, whereby a given system could be politically, technologically, and economically prioritized in detriment of another. Notwithstanding, the objective approach discussed in defining criteria and their weights could be useful in future studies related to a hierarchization of sustainability of any production system in different regions.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Vice-Reitoria de Pós-graduação da Universidade Paulista (UNIP), the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of South of Minas Gerais (IFSULDEMINAS), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES; PROSUP PhD scholarship granted to the first author), and to CNPq Brazil (proc. no. 307422/2015-1) for the fellowship provided to second author. Thanks, also, to the cattle breeders who provided the authors with information and data that were essential to the development of this work, the Technical Assistance and Rural Outreach Corporation (EMATER) and the Minas Gerais State Institute of Agriculture (IMA) technicians for recommendations on which properties to be visited and assessed, and for validating the obtained results.

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