Application of the AHP/ANP to identify the most sustainable direction of crop production in Poland

The present study aims at determining the most sustainable plant production in Poland, by obtaining priorities for selected alternatives of food crops in Poland (“conventional”, “organic” and “transgenic”) using the AHP/ANP technique as the multicriteria decision making aid. The study addresses three aspects of sustainability: food health quality, environment and socio-economic issues. The research consisted of three stages: first, review of the existing literature to produce a set of criteria/subcriteria pertinent to sustainable agricultural plant production; second, deriving priorities for the criteria/subcriteria using the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), and third, determining and rank priorities for conventional vs. organic vs. transgenic farming in Poland using the Analytic Network Process (ANP). The ANP were based on four separate models (subnets): Benefits (B), Costs (C), Opportunities (O) and Risks (R). The criteria and subcriteria under these subnets were in line with the main and specific objectives of the AHP model, and followed the same main goal: “Sustainable agricultural development in Poland”. The results indicated that “organic crops” are the most preferred option of the Polish agriculture, while “transgenic” and “conventional” agricultural systems are less preferred, but at virtually the same level. The overall preference towards organic farming owes mainly to the high weights assigned for the objectives commonly associated with organic production, such as i.e. “reduced exposure to pesticide residues in food” and “protection of pollinators”.