Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind Developing risk indicator system of non-compliance for organic crop farms based on China organic regulations Huayang Zhen a , Yuhui Qiao a, ⁎ , Fanqiao Meng a , Huafen Li a , Yuexian Liu b , Yan Jia c , Raffaele Zanoli d , Danilo Gambelli d , Francesco Solfanelli d a Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, College of Resources and Environmental Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China b College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China c Beijing Ecocert Certification Center CO., LTD., Beijing 100193, China d Università Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali-D3A, Via Brecce Bianche, Ancona 60131, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Organic products Certification Risk Assessment ABSTRACT Farming management and certification are essential for organic agriculture development to make sure that farming practices are compliant with organic regulations. To improve the efficiency of organic certification and farm management, a risk-based indicator system of organic crop production was established according to lit- erature review and Chinese organic regulations. Three dimensions, 11 themes, and 25 indicators were selected and the weights of which were determined through Analytic Hierarchy Process. The highest weight was assigned to the production dimension (0.59), followed by management (0.24) and environment (0.17). The three highest risk themes in the sequence were plant protection, detection and soil fertility management with a weight of 0.17, 0.15 and 0.12, respectively. At the indicator level, pesticide detection rate, nutrient satisfaction rate, the pro- portion of non-chemical treatment, the severity of crop diseases, pests and weeds, and the quality of soil en- vironment ranked top five according to the weight of their risk. Chemicals application including pesticides and fertilizers was the main concern in organic production and certification. The results will provide producers, inspectors, and certifiers useful references to reduce the risk of non-compliance, and increase the integrity and credibility during organic production and certification. 1. Introduction About 69.8 million hectares of land were certified organically in 2017 in countries around the world, among which China ranked third with 3.02 million hectares (Willer and Lernoud, 2019). A total of 18,675 organic certificates have been issued in China in 2017(CNCA and CAU, 2018). The domestic market of certified and labeled organic products has grown significantly since 2005 when Chinese organic regulations were issued and implemented, particularly in first-tier cities (Yin et al., 2010; Xie et al., 2015). China is now the fourth largest or- ganic market in the world in terms of sales (Willer and Lernoud, 2018). Despite its strong growth, the organic sector in China is still in its “early infancy” with less than 2% organic share of China’s arable area and only 0.29–0.44% share of total food consumption (Dendler and Dewick, 2016). During its growth and development, the organic agriculture/food industry also faces some significant challenges such as the trust of consumers, the credibility and integrity of organic standards and certification, etc. Consumer surveys in Europe found that food scandals happened in the supply chain result in consumers’ distrust of the or- ganic certification, which further leads to doubts about the value of organic food and impedes the consumption and development of organic products (Cai, 2013). Similar results were also found in Thailand and Australia (Lea and Worsley, 2005; Roitner-Schobesberger et al., 2008). Certification as a third-party verification is an important govern- ance tool to ensure and transfer trust from producers to consumers. Organic certification is an important procedure for ensuring the quality and compliance of organic products. However, a criticism heard fre- quently in China also in other countries is that certification bodies are in fierce competition with each other and thus interpret the organic standards with different degrees of stringency. Such prominent proce- dural criticism has had serious negative impacts not only on consumers’ confidence but also on corporate legitimacy judgments (Scott et al., 2014; Xie et al., 2015; Dendler and Dewick, 2016). It is time to explore new potential management techniques involved in the certification procedure. FAO (2008) highlighted how food https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106317 Received 22 July 2019; Received in revised form 22 December 2019; Accepted 13 March 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: qiaoyh@cau.edu.cn (Y. Qiao). Ecological Indicators 114 (2020) 106317 1470-160X/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T