Assessing the sustainability of field crop farms in the European Union through a multidimensional approach based on composite indicators

IntroductionThe study was conducted to respond to the growing need for standardized and comparable tools for assessing the sustainability of farms in the European Union, given that the green transition, the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda require the simultaneous measurement of economic, social, environmental, and institutional performance. The main research question was whether the theoretical structure of sustainability based on four pillars is empirically supported and whether these pillars can be integrated into a robust synthetic index. The hypothesis tested assumed the existence of distinct latent dimensions for each pillar and persistent territorial disparities within the EU.MethodsThe analysis used the FADN/FSDN database for the period 2010–2023, including farms specializing in field crops from all European Union Member States. Economic, social, environmental, and institutional indicators aligned with international reference frameworks were selected, and the values were standardized using z-scores. A Farm Sustainable Development Index (FSDI) was constructed for each pillar, and their integration generated the Farm Sustainability Index (FSI). Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s α coefficient, and structural validity was assessed using PCA analyses applied both individually to the pillars and globally, with factor extraction and varimax rotation.ResultsThe results support the unidimensionality hypothesis for the economic, environmental, and CAP pillars, which show high levels of internal consistency, while the social pillar shows moderate but acceptable consistency. The overall PCA validates the theoretical four-pillar structure, showing clear factor groupings. The FSI index highlights a persistent polarization between high-performing Nordic and Western European countries, an intermediate group with moderate sustainability, and a cluster of Southern and Eastern countries with negative values. Temporally, the results indicate stagnation between 2010 and 2016, followed by an improvement after 2020, associated with CAP reforms and the green transition.DiscussionsThe results suggest that agricultural sustainability in the European Union is structured on a stable territorial model, which has important implications for public policy design, CAP fund allocation, and the implementation of green transition strategies. The limited convergence among Member States highlights the need for differentiated interventions tailored to regional contexts. The findings are consistent with recent literature on economic and ecological polarization in agriculture, and the proposed FSI index can be used as a robust tool for monitoring performance and evaluating the effects of future policies. Further research should extend the methodology to the regional level (NUTS 2) and integrate additional indicators on climate resilience and farm digitalization.