Agroecology increasingly gains importance in the discussion about sustainable food systems. To facilitate the transition from conventional farming to agroecological farming, adequate methods and concepts to measure and assess impact and productivity of agroecological farming systems (AFSs) are needed, which consider their multifunctionality and other specific characteristics, here called agroecological sustainability assessment frameworks and tools (ASAFTs). In the past years, many agricultural sustainability assessment tools and frameworks were developed but their suitability and applicability to AFSs was not investigated. To close this knowledge gap, we aimed at identifying, reviewing, and discussing published ASAFTs in the context of international cooperation, providing an overview of the current challenges, needs, and requirements in assessing AFSs at the farm level with the means of indicators. Desktop and scientific database research was conducted to identify and discuss published indicator-based ASAFTs at the farm level. The analysis was based on the following four framework elements that the authors considered to be essential for ASAFTs: (1) the adaptability to local conditions all over the world, (2) the involvement of farmers in the development process, (3) the consideration of the multiple functions of an agroecosystem in the definition and measurement of its productivity, and (4) the accounting for interactions between multiple agroecosystem functions and their measurement. Only a few analyzed assessment frameworks at least partly consider these essential elements and were designed specifically for AFSs. However, our study also showed that these frameworks were (1) restricted in their geographical application scope, (2) quite heterogeneous and barely comparable, and (3) based on productivity indicators that do not fully capture the multiple functions of AFSs. Therefore, we identified the need for the development of appropriate agroecological productivity indicators and common standard or reference frameworks for assessing AFSs, which will be crucial for upscaling agroecology.

中文翻译：

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国际合作背景下基于指标的农业生态评估框架的主要挑战和主要特征

生态农业在关于可持续粮食系统的讨论中越来越重要。为了促进从传统农业向生态农业的转变，需要适当的方法和概念来衡量和评估生态农业系统 (AFS) 的影响和生产力，并考虑其多功能性和其他特定特征，这里称为农业生态可持续性评估框架和工具（ ASAFT）。在过去几年中，开发了许多农业可持续性评估工具和框架，但没有研究它们对 AFS 的适用性和适用性。为了缩小这一知识差距，我们旨在在国际合作的背景下识别、审查和讨论已发布的 ASAFT，概述当前的挑战、需求、和要求在农场层面用指标方法评估 AFS。进行了桌面和科学数据库研究，以确定和讨论已发布的基于指标的农场级 ASAFT。该分析基于作者认为对 ASAFT 至关重要的以下四个框架要素：(1) 对世界各地当地条件的适应性，(2) 农民在开发过程中的参与，(3) 考虑农业生态系统在其生产力的定义和衡量方面的多种功能，以及 (4) 对多种农业生态系统功能及其衡量之间相互作用的解释。只有少数经过分析的评估框架至少部分考虑了这些基本要素，并且是专门为 AFS 设计的。然而，我们的研究还表明，这些框架（1）在其地理应用范围上受到限制，（2）非常异构且几乎没有可比性，以及（3）基于未完全捕捉 AFS 多种功能的生产力指标。因此，我们确定需要制定适当的农业生态生产力指标和评估 AFS 的通用标准或参考框架，这对于提升农业生态学至关重要。