Farm Typology Research Articles

Characteristics and economic viability of milk production in the smallholder farming systems in The Gambia

Domestic milk production has been for a long time hindered by many factors including lack of interest from decision makers, distorted economic policy and biotechnical constraints. For the last 20 years, many developing countries have been attempting to develop the domestic milk production sector. However, research on the basic realities and the viability status of enterprises within this sector remain largely unproved in many developing countries. This study focuses on the characteristic of smallholder milk producers in The Gambia. Data were collected from 90 smallholder farm households to characterise milk producers and evaluate the profitability and viability status of this activity. Based on current typology of farms and gross margin analyses at farm level, the study identified two resource-based types of smallholder farms. The current milk production system is surely viable. Constraints to increased productivity include lack of improved technology at farm level and weak institutional support. Despite the low viability status, it is shown that milk production generates reliable incomes, which could be a departure for most farmers to intensify farming systems, particularly in areas where no loan schemes exist for purchasing agricultural inputs.

Farm Typology and Sustainable Agriculture: Does Size Matter?

ABSTRACT The 2001 Agricultural, Food and Public Policy Preference Survey consists of a typology of farms and issues relating to sustainable agriculture. The typology provides an opportunity to investigate the often anecdotally alluded to relationship between farm size, particularly small farms, and sustainable agriculture. This paper utilizes the typology to examine seven classes of farm size and finds a positive and statistically significant relationship between small farms and sustainable agriculture. The interaction term of farm size and tenure suggests that nonagricultural incentives may be adversely impacting the sustainable agriculture decisions of farmers.

Estimating the spatial and temporal distribution of sowing dates for regional water management

Accurate prediction of water demand by agriculture is a key point of water management. Current procedures of water management often use simple models and parameterisation to predict demand, that may fail in particular climatic situations. In a particular area of south-western France, it is suspected that such failure was due to poor estimation of sowing dates. To solve this problem, a model was developed to estimate the spatial and temporal distribution of summer crop sowing dates. This paper presents the development and the test of the model. The model (SIMSEM) is based on a farm typology, a soil water balance model and supplemental expert knowledge. Although many inaccuracies remain, the distributions predicted compared fairly well to observed distributions obtained from a field survey. The model improved estimated sowing dates compared to the method currently used in water management calculations. The use of SIMSEM to provide information about sowing dates seems helpful for better predicting water demand, as shown by tests performed for the critical 1998 year where the current procedure failed.

Utilising a farm typology to identify potential adopters of alternative farming activities in Greek agriculture

Farm household survival strategies are acknowledged to determine the adoption of alternative farm enterprises as part of the farm household's production and reproduction pattern and are, thus, used to identify the potential adopters of such enterprises. The present work utilises an ideal typology of Greek farms in order to identify different types of farms as regards their mode of survival. Each survival strategy is linked to different motives for and constraints against the adoption of alternative farm enterprises. Results show that three types of farm households may be identified, namely subsistence, survivalist and productivist farm households. The potential adopters of alternative farm enterprises may be traced among farm households that pursue a survivalist mode of production. It is argued that the diversity of farm structures observed within this type of farm households cannot be regarded as the decisive factor as far as their mode of survival is concerned. Rather, it is considered to form a context of different motivations for and constraints against the adoption of alternative farming activities.

Soil Management and the Farm Typology: Do Small Family Farms Manage Soil and Nutrient Resources Differently than Large Family Farms?

There is increasing recognition that farmers face constraints on their farming decisions depending on the their resources, stage in life, and lifestyle choices. These factors are captured in a new farm typology developed by the Economic Research Service. The farm typology's definition of small and large farms is used to test the commonly stated hypothesis that small farmers practice better land husbandry than do large farmers. The adoption of eleven different soil and nutrient management practices used by U.S. corn producers is analyzed with a bivariate logit model for each practice. The farm typology is found to be significantly associated with two of the practices—rotation with legumes and conservation tillage.

Identifying social, economic and technical determinants of silvopastoral practices in temperate uplands: results of a survey in the Massif Central region of France

Silvopastoral farming practices as an answer to land and forest abandonment in disadvantaged areas have been suggested by forestry and agricultural development and research bodies in France, but such practices only occur on a limited area at present. To assess the feasibility of such silvopastoral techniques in a family farm context, a survey was conducted on silvopastoral systems in spontaneous Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris) woods in the Lozère Departement in France. A sampling procedure and questionnaire was designed to characterise determinants of silvopastoral practices. In all 150 farms were visited. A typology of silvopastoral plot management was extracted from the survey. Inputs and outputs were characterised. Typologies of farms and households were also developed, characterised by land, labour, livestock, consumption and inheritance patterns. The management of woodland plots was similar across farms, but their importance to the whole family farm system differed. Woodlands were considered as a reserve of land, forage or liquidity for the long term, but their uses were limited by livestock farmers' short-term technical and economic constraints. To induce development of silvicultural practices, both their short- and long-term effects must be carefully considered in relation to farmers' differing objectives.

Farm sustainability evaluation: methodology and practice

For a very long time, agricultural policy has been interested only in productive or economic aspects. Nevertheless, interventions aiming to support farmers’ income or to promote agricultural modernisation have resulted in several ‘negative’ side-effects, such as increasing pollution, landscape depletion and deepening of regional disparities. Consequently, a need has emerged for confronting problems with a more comprehensive approach, taking into account the whole range of impacts caused by agriculture. The European Concerted Action on ‘Landscape and Nature Production Capacity of Sustainable/Organic Farms’ has proposed a checklist of criteria for sustainable landscape management. This article discusses procedures for summarising the above-mentioned criteria in an ‘overall judgement’. The aim is to provide a tool capable to assess farm performance taking into account all the relevant impacts of farm activities. Firstly, the paper discusses issues related to information quality, focussing on the differences in procedures for processing quantitative and qualitative data. Secondly, the article analyses methods suitable for reaching an overall judgement based on several criteria. Thereafter, it discusses their application to a set of case study farms or to farm typologies, which can be obtained by processing data from statistics or ad hoc surveys. Advantages and drawbacks of the use of case studies and farm typologies are given while their integrated use is recommended. Two types of methodologies are presented. The first methodology, to be preferred if time, information or financial resources are not lacking, transforms initial information into Utility values and processes the latter by using more sophisticated techniques, such as multiple criteria analysis. The second uses a simplified approach, transforming initial data on the base of quartiles and then summing them up without any weighting. The advantages of this method are an easy implementation and a methodology that can be understood by decision-makers and administrators, who do not have a background in statistics. Conclusions stress the importance of a more comprehensive approach in setting agricultural policies, since farming activity influences landscape and environment quality besides other important features. From this viewpoint, decision-makers have to be able to foresee the whole range of effects induced from policy, to avoid ‘unexpected side-effects’. Regarding Landscape Management, interventions aiming to promote the introduction or reintroduction of single landscape elements can give different results from those that were expected. Consequently, subsidising farm typologies or styles of farming that have been proved to have a positive effect on landscape could be a more reliable approach. Farm typologies or styles of farming to be promoted could be selected on the base of their ‘social’ performance, assessed according to a multi-dimensional approach as the one presented in this article.

Modelling farm diversity: new approaches to typology building in France

Based on an analysis of the changing social demands regarding tools to back agricultural development (advisory support to farmers and decision aids for public authorities), the author describes and compares two new methods for building farm typologies. Although designed to meet the requirements of the new agricultural context, these methods relate to a 25 year-old tradition of French typological work grounded in a systems approach of farm functioning.

Familjebrukets sociologi. Porträtt av den svenske bonden före EU-inträdet

The sociology of family farming: Portrait of the Swedish farmer before the EU entryWith the starting point in an ideal-typical definition of the notional family farm, and building on survey data from three parts of Sweden, in this article a portrait of the Swedish farmer is drawn. Family farming is central, both as a goal for European agricultural policy and as a motivating force for the life and work of the farmers. The author argues that family farming should be the focal point also for the sociology of agriculture. The article builds upon a typology of farms developed in earlier works. It is used to analyse the life and work situation of Swedish farmer households before the entry into EU which is analysed in view of the contingent autonomy taken as characteristic of family farming. The analysis demonstrates the price which Swedish farming households are forced to pay for what they tend to call their ”freedom”. Swedish farmers, especially the men, have uniquely high levels of political mobilisation, and they are also much engaged in their own co-operative organisations. Finally, the author shows how farmers’ images of the future reflect the basic predicament of family farming, i.e. on the one hand its contingent autonomy and on the other its importance as a motivating force. A scenario developed on the basis of farmers” future planning shows, on the one hand a likely high ”mortality” for all types of farms; on the other hand, it also signals the reproduction of a differentiated agrarian structure, with the notional family farms as a shrinking minority.

Landscape and Agricultural Patterns in Rural Areas: a Case Study in the Brionne Basin, Normandy, France

Landscape changes over a period of 25 years were assessed for a catchment basin in Normandy, France. Landscape attributes, i.e. land use, land cover and natural habitat, were obtained from aerial photographs (1964, 1989) and soil maps, to define a landscape typology. Data were aggregated on a 500 m×500 m grid system and treated by multivariate analysis. Results of these analysis show that this rural landscape has undergone changes in landcover (mainly grassland receding to crop) as well as changes in spatial structure (mainly increase of plot size and uniformisation). These changes were related to a typology of farms (realised by multivariate analysis of a field survey on the 38 registered farms of the site). Results suggest that (i) farms with a narrow range of production, i.e. specialised farms, are located on a narrow range of environmental conditions and are associated with stable landscapes, while (ii) farms with a broader range of production (i.e. polyculture) are distributed more widely throughout the landscape, and are mostly associated with the landscape changes.

Towards a Theoretically Grounded Typology of Farms: a Swedish Case

A survey of farms and farm households in three different areas of Sweden makes it possible to study the position of family farms, as compared to other farm types. Based on patterns of labour use and sources of income, a theoretically grounded farm typology is suggested. Such a typology is offered as an alternative to arbitrary criteria in terms of acreage, turnover or total labour, which can never be generalized, nor used in longitudinal or comparative studies. The sample illustrates the striking similarities in social set-up between the intensive agriculture in the plains of southern Sweden and that in the northern parts of the country. The role of family and non-family labour, as well as the role of non-farm work and sources of income in the three study areas are analysed.

L'analyse des trajectoires des exploitations agricoles. Une méthode pour actualiser les modèles typologiques et étudier l'évolution de l'agriculture locale

To be useful for extension services (farmers advising and agricultural policies orientation), farm typology must be updated regularly. Nevertheless, typology updating can't be reduced to build ex nihilo a new typology. First, the previous typology provides essential references to analyse farm trajectories and to caracterize local agricultural changes. Then, the elaboration of the new typology is mainly based on the results of this first analysis.

Methodology for Woodfuel Development Planning in the Kenyan Highlands

The Kenya Woodfuel Development Programme (KWDP) has developed a three-tier approach to the study of rural woodfuel energy supplies. The methodology has evolved in the course of studying three districts (Kakamega, Kisii and Murang'a) in the densely-populated high- lands of Kenya between 1983 and 1986. The approach hinges on three elements: (1) district sub-regionalization based on low-level colour air- photography; (2) household questionnaire surveys based on a nested sample derived from the sub-regionalization; (3) a cultural survey through which prevailing attitudes to on-farm agroforestry and woodfuel issues are revealed. Additional aspects of the programme include a district-wide on-farm woody biomass survey based on the results of the air-photo survey and field work, and a farm typology which is being developed on the basis of all three surveys. Some of the more important conclusions which have emerged from this work include the following: (a) The integration of tree production into general farming activities is complex and deeply-rooted. Local farmers have an intimate knowledge of the benefits and weaknesses of the different trees growing in different situations on the farms. These are manifest in different ways among the sub-regions of the districts. (b) As a proportion of the total on-farm woody biomass, deliberately managed and planted woody biomass increases with increasing population density. (c) Contrary to expectations, as population density increases and farm size diminishes, the amount of land devoted to woody biomass production increases. In the southern third of Kakamega District, with rural population densities exceeding 700 per sq. km, more than 20% of the land is devoted to woody biomass. (d) Assuming an annual requirement of 1 m3 of wood per person, it is estimated that 31% of the district's farms experience a shortage of greater than 50% of needs. Only 21% have a surplus. Despite such a high proportion of land devoted to trees, the population densities are so high that these areas experience the greatest deficits.

Research on a typology of traditional farming in Burundi

This paper attempts to demonstrate the persistence of a relatively important heterogeneity in traditional farming whenever the typology solely reflects geographical criteria. Within the discriminant analysis approach, a stepwise method is paving the way for selecting variables responsible for this heterogeneity. Finally, the outcome of the research leads to the necessity of defining new criteria for the demarcation of more homogeneous development areas.

A farm bookkeeping survey as part of official agricultural statistics: The case of Sweden

Economists have since long ago been studying the economic situation of farms on the basis of bookkeeping data. In Sweden, such studies have gradually developed from a research project, which was initiated earlier in this century, into official agricultural statistics based on current survey methodology. The related survey administration was transferred to Statistics Sweden some ten years ago. The current situation can be analyzed from the points of view of (a) farm bookkeeping as a statistical measurement method; (b) the integration of the bookkeeping survey into official agricultural statistics through the use of e.g. the farm register and the new farm typology; and (c) the various kinds of statistical results showing nominal and real returns.

Indigenous research and on-farm trials

Two studies exploiting indigenous research found that farmers adapted a dryland rice variety to flooded lowland conditions and that farmers evaluated sweet potato varieties to give new breeding objectives. UPL-Ri5 can be grown in flooded conditions under lowland husbandry practices with comparable performance to IR36 or IR42. Farmers prefer vigorous vining, extended underground storage, and extended sequential harvesting in their sweet potato crop. When farmers do the research; researchers' activities change considerably. Here, considerable time was spent on informal interactions with farmers in their homes and fields through which research topics were elicited. Locating participants and distributing materials followed. Finally, and most time-consuming, came the many farm visits to gather information about farmer typology, nature of problems or purpose, description of practices, and farmer assessment. The findings support arguments that indigenous research is a viable resource for developing on-farm experimental methods that permit and promote farmer participation particularly in roles of adapting technologies to specific farming conditions and providing feedback on basic research needs.

Une typologie des exploitations agricoles du RICA suivant la structure de leur bilan

When we question ourselves about the behaviour of the farms in the matter of investment and financing, the analysis of balance sheets is precious because in a way they provide a « summary » of the past behaviour of the farms. But this analysis is done only according to the type of farming, the size classes of holding or, more rarely, the localization. So, it has been seemed interesting to build a typology of professional farms based on the homogeneity of their balance sheet structure, using, with the sample 1 of the FADN 1981 , a methodology already used for industrial firms. The results seem to be conclusive and they were enriched by structural data and analysis of the sources and dispositions of funds, for every class so definite, always for the only year 1981. So it has been possible to built an outline describing the behaviour of farm classes in the matter of investment and financing and suggesting an overall forecast about these farms ; however this outline must be considered as a sketch intended to guide future works and not as the outcome of a research.

Adoption of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries: A Survey

This paper reviews various studies which have provided a description and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector. The survey points out that the tendency of many studies to consider innovation adoption in dichotomous terms (adoption/nonadoption) may not be appropriate in many cases where the actual decisions are defined over a more continuous range. More attention needs to be given to the socio-cultural and institutional environment in area studies so that their interrelation with economic factors affecting adoption can be inferred. The presence of several interrelated innovations is another aspect that needs to be considered more carefully in future research, since a number of simultaneous decisions may be involved. Furthermore, the possibility of regular sequential patterns in adopting components of a new technological package should be specifically addressed in future studies. Finally, the impact of differential adoption rates on land holding distribution merits attention in future research.

Is there an alternative to the european farm typology?

The 1978 European Community Typology for Agricultural Holdings is described in this paper and contrasted with a data based, polythetic-multivariate classification based on cluster analysis. The requirement to reduce the size of the variable set employed in an optimisation-partition method of clustering suggested the value of principal components and factor analysis for the identification of major ‘source’ dimensions against which to measure farm differences and similarities. The Euclidean cluster analysis incorporating the reduced dimensions quickly converged to a stable solution and was little influenced by the initial number or nature of ‘seeding’ partitions of the data. The assignment of non-sampled observations from the population to cluster classes was completed using classification functions. The final scheme, based on a sample of over 2,000 observations, was found to be both capable of interpretation and meaningful in terms of agricultural structure and practice and much superior in its explanatory...

Problèmes d'analyse de la production céréalière en Algérie

Summary : Cereal production constraints of the private sector in Algeria are analysed by means of agronomic trials and an economic survey. The trials, conducted in farmer's fields, under their own conditions, show that it is easy to increase the yield by better land preparation and especially by appropriate fertilization. Semi formal interviews have enabled us to establish a farmer's typology based on cultural practices and to show important problems as equipment shortage.