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Olive oil is one of the main agricultural products of the countries that make up the Mediterranean basin. The low profitability of this sector of activity and the growing challenges of an increasingly turbulent market force the sector to search for more efficient organization. The aim of this paper is to determine the organisational and technological factors associated with the most economically efficient Tunisian olive-growing organisations. To this end, firstly the Data Envelopment Analysis method has been used to establish a hierarchy of the most efficient organizations. Secondly, the Qualitative Comparative Analysis method has been used, which allows us to establish the relationships of variables that explain the highest levels of economic efficiency. The results obtained show that the academic training of the top manager, training in information technology, the age of the organisation and the existence of plans and budget items for the adoption of information and communication technologies are variables that explain this greater efficiency.

Olive cultivation for oil production in Tunisia covers from traditional to innovate cropping systems. The aim of the study was to assess the environmental footprint of the most representative olive growing systems of the actual production of olive fruit in Tunisia, from the planting phase to the full production phase, during a reference period of the life cycle of the olive growth of 50 years. Six traditional systems, two intensive systems and one super-intensive system were compared and the differences of type of production (conventional or organic), irrigation management and fertilization management were selected. The impacts associated to olive production were calculated and evaluated by the Life Cycle Assessment methodology and the results of this study were referred to two functional units: 1 ton of olives and 1 ha of cultivated olive growing area. Field agricultural practices of olive systems were soil management, fertilizers, pesticides, pruning and harvesting. The impact categories selected for the environmental analysis were climate change, acidification, freshwater eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity. The most innovative olive production systems (intensive and super-intensive) resulted in less environmental impacts for all categories with respect to the rest of systems from the productive perspective but produced higher impacts per hectare of cultivated area. Fertilizers and soil management were the field agricultural practices that presented the highest contributions in most of the categories evaluated. The implementation of an integrated crop management, as well as good practice guides and training programs for farmers, should be considered a priority.

This work aims to assess, in a comparative way, the sustainability of organic and conventional olive growing systems in the Sfax region (Tunisia). This assessment will be undertaken based on I) a multidimensional perspective considering the three classical dimensions of sustainability – environmental, economic and socio-territorial – and II) on an experts’ knowledge approach selecting the adequate criteria of sustainability to compare both systems. The Analytic Hierarchy Process methodology (AHP) was applied as the adequate framework to fulfil the study objectives based on a survey directed with a panel of 20 Experts. Results suggest the need to reinforce the economic performance of organic olive growing production system through political strategies focusing on I) the improvement of the productivity by the implementation of good practices II) the increase of the demand of organic products in the local market, essentially by the improvement of the consumer’s purchase capacity and III) the adoption of a strategic plan to explore new markets.

Sustainability and multifunctionality of agriculture have become widely shared goals for both scientific community and decision makers. Nowadays, it is important to assess not only the economic sustainability of farms, but also their environmental and socio-territorial sustainability. Numerous sustainability measurement tools have been developed by researchers and some institutions to assess these three dimensions. With the purpose to improve farms’ sustainability, this paper aims providing oriented strategies to go toward more conscientious farmers’ practices in the Tunisian organic olive sector. To reach this goal, two methodological steps were followed: (i) a sustainability measurement process to quantify farms’ sustainability by a methodological adaptation of the IDEA approach; (ii) on the basis of the obtained scores of the three sustainability scales, farms’ segmentation was carried out by the use of cluster analysis. In that sense, a questionnaire directed to a sample of organic olive growing farmers was carried out in the regions of Sfax and Mahdia, Tunisia. Results show a variability of sustainability levels within and between groups of farms. Cluster analysis results confirmed the existence of two main farms’ groups. The first group is more agro-environmentally and socio-territorially sustainable than the second one. Weaknesses in the sustainability performances have been identified and improvement strategies have been formulated and oriented to each group. Results also indicate that in some cases there is no antagonism between environmental, socio-territorial and economic sustainability, so it is possible to improve simultaneously the three dimensions of sustainability. Hoy en día es importante evaluar no solamente la sostenibilidad económica de las explotaciones agrarias, sino también la ambiental y socio-territorial. Con el propósito de mejorar la sostenibilidad de las explotaciones agrarias, este estudio tiene como principal objetivo proporcionar estrategias orientadas a impulsar el uso de prácticas más concienciadas por parte de los agricultores del sector del olivar ecológico de Túnez. Para alcanzar este objetivo, se han desarrollado dos etapas metodológicas: (1) implementando un proceso de medición cuyo objetivo es cuantificar la sostenibilidad de las explotaciones, mediante una adaptación metodológica del enfoque IDEA; (2) sobre la base de la puntuación obtenida de las tres escalas de sostenibilidad, y mediante el uso de un análisis de conglomerados, se ha llevado a cabo una segmentación de las explotaciones. Se elaboró un cuestionario dirigido a una muestra de agricultores del olivar ecológico en las regiones de Sfax y Mahdia (Túnez). Los resultados muestran una gran variabilidad de los niveles de sostenibilidad dentro y entre grupos de explotaciones. Los resultados del análisis de conglomerados confirmó la existencia de dos principales grupos de explotaciones. El primer grupo es agro-ecológica y socio-territorialmente más sostenible que el segundo grupo. Se han detectado debilidades en los indicadores de sostenibilidad y diseñado estrategias orientadas hacia cada uno de los dos grupos. Los resultados indican también que en algunos casos no hay antagonismo entre la sostenibilidad ambiental, socio-territorial y económica y por lo tanto es posible mejorar simultáneamente las tres dimensiones de sostenibilidad.