Abstract Sustainable management of natural resources under economic, environmental and social perspective, needs to consider a fair balance between its uses and availability. Sustainable agriculture goal is to establish innovative and new farm tools and service capacities that help the intensive farm sector to optimize input management (energy, nutrients and water) and productivity. The main objective of this paper was to investigate, in a durum wheat production system in central Italy under Mediterranean conditions, the following aspects: (i) environmental sustainability of fertilization treatments through the energy inputs/outputs analysis and reduction of Nitrate (N-NO3) in water cycle; (ii) agricultural system agronomic and economic performance and (iii) to identify regulatory and economic instruments actually in place to promote sustainable fertilization. To describe and address the sustainability assessment of durum wheat production system we adopt the “Water Energy Food nexus” (WEF) as conceptual framework. The findings of this research showed that there is a great difference between the marketable yields obtained with mineral fertilization strategies and those by organic fertilizer, while considering the environmental sustainability, our results provide evidences of the significance of the reduction of energy use and the high value of renewable energies and the decreasing of non-renewable one. At the same time the reduced impact of groundwater quality due to the organic fertilizer seems to be an interesting result to be analyzed in the long-term perspective. The contraposition between economy and environment is one of the main challenges to be solved through adequate policy instruments.

中文翻译：

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农场层面可持续性评估的水能食物关系方法：来自意大利中部集约化农业区的经验

摘要 从经济、环境和社会角度对自然资源进行可持续管理，需要考虑其使用和可用性之间的公平平衡。可持续农业的目标是建立创新的新农具和服务能力，帮助集约化农业部门优化投入管理（能源、养分和水）和生产力。本文的主要目的是在地中海条件下意大利中部的硬粒小麦生产系统中研究以下方面：（i）通过能量输入/输出分析和硝酸盐（N-NO3 ) 在水循环中；(ii) 农业系统的农艺和经济绩效，以及 (iii) 确定实际实施的监管和经济手段，以促进可持续施肥。为了描述和解决硬粒小麦生产系统的可持续性评估，我们采用“水能食物关系”（WEF）作为概念框架。本研究的结果表明，矿物施肥策略与有机肥获得的可销售产量存在很大差异，同时考虑到环境可持续性，我们的研究结果提供了减少能源使用的意义和高价值的证据。可再生能源的减少和不可再生能源的减少。同时，有机肥对地下水质量的影响减少似乎是一个值得长期分析的有趣结果。经济与环境的对立是通过适当的政策工具解决的主要挑战之一。