Agricultural modernization and sustainability trade-offs in Mapuche smallholder farming systems of Southern Chile

Agricultural modernization is widely promoted as a pathway to increase productivity, improve rural livelihoods, and enhance the sustainability of food production systems. However, its environmental and economic outcomes may vary substantially across farming contexts, particularly in smallholder and Indigenous systems. This study evaluated sustainability trade-offs associated with agricultural modernization in 88 Indigenous Mapuche smallholder farms in southern Chile. A Modernization Index (MI) was developed to represent different levels of technological intensification. Environmental performance was assessed through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in 40 farms with complete inventory data, while productive and economic performance was evaluated using wheat productivity, profit, and benefit-cost ratio indicators. Higher MI values were consistently associated with greater environmental impacts in all evaluated categories except land competition. Climate-change impacts ranged from 60 to 871 kg CO2-eq t−1 of wheat and cumulative energy demand from 693 to 8,421 MJ t−1. Wheat productivity showed a statistically significant but weak positive association with MI (adjusted R2 = 0.05, p = 0.02), whereas profit showed no significant relationship with modernization. The benefit-cost ratio showed a weak negative association with MI (adjusted R2 = 0.03, p = 0.05). These findings indicate that the modest productivity gains observed along the modernization gradient were accompanied by higher environmental burdens and did not translate into improved economic performance. The results highlight the importance of evaluating agricultural development pathways through integrated environmental and economic indicators and within the specific socioecological conditions in which technological change occurs.