Typology analysis of cattle farms in Northeast Algeria: Potential for sustainable development

Abstract

CONTEXTCurrently, local cattle breeds are facing numerous challenges, and their disappearance could have social, economic, and environmental consequences. OBJECTIVEThis study was conducted in the northeast of Algeria to understand the characteristics, constraints of production systems and examine the specific strategies implemented in farms to ensure their viability. METHODA total of 175 smallholder farmers who practice Algerian local cattle breeding were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Typology construction was carried out through factor analysis of mixed data, followed by sequential agglomerative hierarchical and K-means clustering, to define distinct farmer types with common characteristics. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONResults highlight three farm types. The first group, representing 54.9% (96/175Farms) of the farms studied, is characterized by low-resource breeders who raise small herds of local breeds in association with small ruminants. Type 2 (25.7%) (45/175) consists of crossbred, diversified, supported breeding with better technical performance. The intensification strategies adopted by breeders of this type have relegated local cattle to the background. The third type (19.4%) (34/175) includes cattle pastoral farms, with the predominance of the local cattle breed characterized by limited productivity. SIGNIFICANCEThis study highlights farm diversity, the necessity of government support, and specific policies to ensure the sustainability of local cattle breeding, with particular emphasis on pastoral breeding, which has the largest number of local cattle breeds.