The agriculture sustainability assessment is a difficult issue for the coexistence of conflicting objectives and the multidimensionality of the performances. The environmental, economic and social pillars need to be simultaneously considered in an assessment to evaluate potential synergies and trade-offs of the agricultural processes within and among the attributes of the dimensions in both implemented systems (ex-post analysis) and potential options (ex-ante analysis). Among several sustainability assessment methods, tools based on multi-criteria analysis (MCA) are increasingly adopted in evaluating sustainability in agriculture. The aim of this work was to present the MCA tool developed in the framework of the BioDurum project for the sustainability assessment of organic farms located in southern Italy and characterised by durum wheat-based crop rotations. The tool was entirely designed through a participatory process and it was realised using the open-source DEXi software that have demonstrated to be particularly suitable for creating qualitative multi-criterial hierarchic models with the engage of stakeholders. The hierarchic structure of BioDurum_MCA tool was resulted composed by 64 indicators and 45 aggregated attributes articulated in three branches representing the agro-environment, economic, and social sustainability pillars. The articulated structure of the tool reflected the complexity and the sustainability issues and priorities expressed by the involved stakeholders. The tool was tested in four Italian organic farms presenting different agro-environmental and socio-economic patterns for their ex-post evaluations and in three different ex-ante production systems identified in compliance with the Italian regulation concerning the requirements of the rotations to be implemented in organic farming. The results highlighted the well discriminatory power of the tool. The best overall sustainability scores were reached in both ex-post and ex-ante analysis by the well diversified cereal farming systems with processed products sold through short supply chain mechanisms. BioDurum_MCA has proved to be a feasible tool to identify strengths and weaknesses of organic durum wheat-based production systems. Its adoption can support the definition of specific interventions for the sector in the Italian Strategic National Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy. Further improvements in the threshold classes of some indicators by using the tool in a wider number of Italian durum wheat based organic farms will increase model sensitivity and reliability of the results.

Highlights
- BioDurum_MCA is an effective tool for sustainability assessment of durum wheat organic Italian production systems.
- Hierarchic structure of the tool reflects the sustainability issues and priorities expressed by involved stakeholders.
- MCA tools can support a holistic evaluation of farm sustainability performances in the frame of post-2020 CAP.

农业可持续性评估是一个相互矛盾的目标并存和绩效的多维性，是一个棘手的问题。在评估中需要同时考虑环境，经济和社会支柱，以评估已实施系统（事后分析）和潜在选择方案（例如，事后分析）中各维度属性之间以及之中的农业过程的潜在协同效应和权衡取舍-ante分析）。在几种可持续性评估方法中，越来越多地采用基于多标准分析（MCA）的工具来评估农业的可持续性。这项工作的目的是介绍在BioDurum项目框架中开发的MCA工具，用于对意大利南部有机农场的可持续性进行评估，其特征是硬粒小麦作物轮作。该工具完全是通过参与性过程设计的，并已使用开源DEXi软件实现，该软件已证明特别适合在利益相关者的参与下创建定性的多准则层次模型。BioDurum_MCA工具的层次结构由64个指标和45个聚合属性组成，这些属性在代表农业环境，经济和社会可持续性支柱的三个分支中明确表达。该工具的明确结构反映了所涉利益攸关方表达的复杂性，可持续性问题和优先事项。该工具已在四个意大利有机农场进行了测试，这些农场呈现出不同的农业环境和社会经济模式进行事后评估，并在三个不同的事前生产系统中进行了生产，这些生产系统符合关于轮换要求的意大利法规在有机农业中。结果突出表明该工具具有很好的区分能力。多样化的谷物种植系统通过加工后的产品通过短供应链机制出售，在事后和事前分析中均获得了最佳的总体可持续性评分。实践证明，BioDurum_MCA是识别有机硬质小麦生产系统优势和劣势的可行工具。它的采用可以支持在《共同农业政策意大利战略国家计划》中对该部门的具体干预措施的定义。通过在更广泛的意大利硬粒小麦有机农场中使用该工具，进一步改善某些指标的阈值类别将提高模型的敏感性和结果的可靠性。

亮点
-BioDurum_MCA是一种有效的工具，可用于评估硬粒小麦意大利有机生产系统的可持续性。
-该工具的层次结构反映了相关利益攸关方表达的可持续性问题和优先事项。
-MCA工具可以在2020年后CAP的框架中支持对农场可持续发展绩效的整体评估。