Multi-Criteria Decision Making: an Appropriate Support Tool for Choosing a Farm Business Alternative on Organic Farms Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology

Decision making process in agriculture is fundamentally concerned with achieving integrated, productive and sustainable use of financial, biological and social capital at different levels. As our understanding and knowledge of the environmental and production resource base has improved, the need for integrated approaches to management has been more widely appreciated. The intensification of agricultural production and more recent emphasis on holistic agriculture management has meant that new skills, methods and tools are needed to consider new information and apply new ways of thinking. As a consequence, decision making in agriculture, especially in organic agriculture, has become more complex and applicable. This paper presents the application of two multi-criteria decision methodologies for organic farms: methodology DEXi and Analytical Hierarchical Process-AHP (Expert Choice 2000TM). The basic elements of both methodologies are presented. In the last part the best project alternative was selected and differences between DEXi and AHP decision models are presented and discussed.