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With their numerous products and uses, multifunctional crops offer an attractive means for improving smallholder farmer livelihoods. This study applies a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) to Moringa oleifera (moringa), a multifunctional crop with diverse applications in nutrition, cosmetics, and water treatment. The LCSA includes an Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), and Life Cycle Costing (LCC). Surveys were conducted with 58 smallholder farmers and five moringa processors in Ghana. The ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint method was used for the ELCA. The 10-year Net Present Value (NPV) and Payback Period (PBP) were calculated for farmers and processors in the LCC. The SLCA focused on the Worker stakeholder category, particularly smallholder farmer impacts, including indicators for Next Generation Farming, Inclusiveness, Access to Services, Food Security, and Livelihood. A composite sustainability score was calculated from the ELCA, SLCA, and LCC results using the Characteristic Objects Method (COMET), a multi-criteria decision analysis method resistant to rank-reversal. The study compared five supply chains: leaf-only, leaf-and-seed, leaf-and-seed with seedcake reuse, seed-only, and seed-only with seedcake reuse. Environmental hotspots were identified in leaf and seed collection. Economically, leaf-only cultivation provided the highest 10-year NPV for farmers, while seed-only with seedcake reuse yielded the highest NPV for processors. The leaf-only supply chain had the best PBP for both farmers and processors. Socially, leaf-only cultivators outperformed reference points across all indicators, making it the most socially sustainable supply chain. Our findings highlight that improving market access, organizing seed cultivators into farmer-based groups, and optimizing farm gate product collection can enhance the sustainability of moringa supply chains, offering a model for other multifunctional crops in rural development. This study is the first to integrate LCSA with COMET, a promising approach that could be adopted in other sustainability assessment case studies. 

Multifunctional crops can simultaneously contribute to multiple societal objectives. As a result, they represent an attractive means for improving rural livelihoods. Moringa oleifera is an example of a multifunctional crop that produces nutritious leaves with uses as food, fodder, and a biostimulant to enhance crop growth. It yields seeds containing a water purifying coagulant and oil with cosmetic uses and possible biofuel feedstock. Despite Moringa oleifera's (and other multifunctional crops') various Food-Energy-Water uses, optimizing the benefits of its multiple uses and livelihood improvements remains challenging. There is a need for holistic approaches capable of assessing the multifunctionality of agriculture and livelihood impacts. Therefore, this paper critically evaluates Moringa oleifera's Food-Energy-Water-Livelihood nexus applications to gain insight into the tradeoffs and synergies among its various applications using a systems thinking approach. A systems approach is proposed as a holistic thinking framework that can help navigate the complexity of a crop's multifunctionality. The “Success to the Successful” systems archetype was adopted to capture the competition between the need for leaf yields and seed yields. In areas where there is energy and water insecurity, Moringa oleifera seed production is recommended for its potential to coproduce oil, the water purifying coagulant, and a residue that can be applied as a fertilizer. In areas where food insecurity is an issue, focusing on leaf production would be beneficial due to its significance in augmenting food for human consumption, animal feed, and its use as a biostimulant to increase crop yields. A causal loop diagram was found to effectively map the interconnections among the various uses of Moringa oleifera and associated livelihood improvements. This framework provides stakeholders with a conceptual decision-making tool that can help maximize positive livelihood outcomes. This approach can also be applied for improved management of other multifunctional crops.