<p>In Tunisia the main objective of sustainable agriculture is to improve agricultural systems by creating more wealth and meeting the needs of the population without compromising those of future generations. It turned out that confusion and lack of clarity of ownership status of agricultural land would lead to instability in agricultural sustainability by having a negative impact on social and economic prosperity and environment preservation. Within this environmental concern, the current research constitutes an assessment of the level of sustainability of different farms in Tunisia where problems of land ownership still exist. The current research is based on the Farm Sustainability Indicators method (standing for: <em>‘Indicateurs de durabilité des exploitations agricoles </em>or IDEA). This case study employed IDEA method which provides operational content to compare the sustainability concept at the farm level, based on the factor of ‘land tenure status’. In Tunisia, the lack of clear land ownership affects the output of agriculture that is why it is valuable to assess the impact of land properties status on farms’ agricultural sustainability. Hence, we distinguished two groups of farms: Private Farms (PF) (inherited from father to son) and Farming Enhancement Corporation (FEC) (state’s lands leased by farmers for many years). The results showed that land tenure has impact on farms sustainability. PF are more sustainable on both agro-ecological scale (49.2) and socio-territorial scale (48); compared to FEC (agro-ecological: 44.5 and socio-territorial: 46). PF favor integrated systems and the production of field crops and fodder crops and they attach greater importance to their employees’ training.</p>

Sustainable agriculture is an application of the concept of sustainable development to the agricultural sector and more specifically at the farm level. It takes into account the three dimensions-economic, social and environmental-in a global framework. It is in this context that this study aims to assess the effect of the integration of livestock into the production system on the sustainability of farms in the Mornag region, located in the northeast of Tunisia. Two groups of farms were derived: with livestock and without livestock. The Farm Sustainability Indicators (IDEA) method was used to meet this research objective. From the analyses of the previous results and the comparisons between the means of the indicators of each component according to the mode of production, we were able to deduce that this factor considerably influences agricultural sustainability on both agro-ecological and socio-territorial scales. Indeed, the group of farms that include livestock have better averages in most indicators. These results could be explained by the fact that the association of crops with livestock within a production unit is considered an asset in the sustainability of an operation since it allows positive interactions and synergies between the different elements of the system. Indeed, in the mixed crop-livestock system, the diversification of production, crop rotation and the use of animal manures contribute to improving soil fertility. In addition, animal husbandry makes it possible to diversify income and distributes it over time and, therefore, ensures a certain stability in the economy. Some farmers even have a daily income from animal products such as eggs and chickens; others take advantage of some products for family consumption.

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