Family Farms Sustainability in Rural Semi-arid Areas: Case of Bargou-Siliana in Tunisia

Agriculture faces many social, economic, and environmental challenges. They are manifested by the degradation of natural resources, the clearing of rangelands, and the increase of poverty. In fact, climate change is projected to increase temperatures and extreme weather events and reduce precipitation and weather predictability. While there will be variations based on local specificity, this will result in a general reduction of both crops and livestock production and productivity throughout the farming systems, particularly in Tunisia's and and semi-arid regions. These systems are vulnerable, and their sustainability is threatened. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze farming systems' performance and sustainability. This paper aims to assess farming systems sustainability in the region of Siliana-Tunisia. The IDEA method (Indicators of Agricultural Sustainability) combined with field investigations allowed to assess 60 farming systems' sustainability levels. Results showed that the economic scale recorded the best performances. However, the agroecological and socio-territorial scales are the weak points.