ASSESSING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF FARMING ON ARABLE LAND AND ITS USE IN THE EDUCATION

The paper presents the importance and possibilities for assessing the sustainability of farming on arable land. The methodology SAGROS was developed at the Mendel University in Brno to provide tool for these assessments in the Czech conditions. It covers environmental as well as economic and social dimension of sustainability using set of 21 main and 32 partial indicators. Final result is presented by overview of normalised values in radial graph to make identification of week points of farm management easier. This method was used to assess particular agricultural enterprise in the period 2009-2011. The results have shown satisfactory performance in 18 of 21 main indicators. Week points were recognized in economic and social area. Indicators farm income, gross margin and salaries, value of which was below desired threshold, define areas to be improved. Because it is necessary to establish awareness of sustainable use of arable land in practice, the above mentioned methodology is being introduced into the teaching of students in agricultural branches, as future professionals in agriculture.