Farm Typology Research Articles

Characterization and Typology of Backyard Small Pig Farms in Jipijapa, Ecuador.

Simple SummaryThe Jipijapa region in the south of Manabí Province has the maximum contribution to the pig market in Ecuador. In this region, backyard pig production is important for the economy of the small family units. The main objective of this paper was to characterize the traditional systems of Jipijapa’s small-scale pig producers and determine the farm categories according to the current characteristics of those systems for the implementation of the aid policy in the country. The study identified differences between the seven communities studied for social, productive, and local resource variables. Five types of farms were identified by multifactorial and hierarchic cluster analyses. The aspects that most contributed to the differences between those types of farms were the location, the age, the agricultural activities, the participation of women as owners of farms, the use of indigenous resources in construction, the genetics of the animals, and the food sources used. We determined that the rearing of pigs by small pig farmers of the Jipijapa region is, fundamentally, a social activity and is linked to the crops of each area.To characterize the traditional systems of small pig producers in Jipijapa (Manabí, Ecuador) and to classify farms into representative categories, we interviewed fifty-five farmers from seven communities considering four dimensions: social, organizational, production methods, and local food resources. Multiple correspondence analyses and hierarchical clusters were carried out using the Ward method. The analysis differentiated communities based on social, productive, and local resource variables, showing three factors that accounted for 85.3% of the total variance: the socioeconomic dimension, related to the welfare of families, explained 34.4% of the variation, the care provided to animals explained 30.9%, and the management practices for the supply of food explained 20%. We identified five clusters that shared common characteristics: Group 1 included farmers from Albajacal, wage workers, and Creole pig breeders, Group 2 included farmers raising pigs under lockdown conditions, Group 3 typified traditional farms from the La Cuesta community, Group 4 included landowners, and Group 5 included professionalized farmers in Colón Alfaro. We also studied the supplied alternative food formulations made up of crop surpluses. The role of small pig farmers is a social activity linked to the location, the crops of each area, and the specific practices for the care of animals.

Identifying Potential for Decision Support Tools through Farm Systems Typology Analysis Coupled with Participatory Research: A Case for Smallholder Farmers in Myanmar

Decision Support Tools (DSTs) in agriculture have been widely developed but have not been well accepted by smallholder farmers. One reason for the limited use is that the tools do not account for the complexity of heterogeneous smallholder farming systems. Identifying farm typologies has facilitated technology transfer to target groups of farmers. Accounting for heterogeneity in farm systems can help in designing and deploying DSTs to address farmer needs. Typology analysis was applied to a 600-household survey dataset to identify different farm system types. Qualitative participatory research was used to assess the potential deployment of DSTs for fertilizer management. Six types of farm systems were identified with distinct characteristics in the study area of central Myanmar. Participatory research through focus group discussions with 34 participants from the six different farm types validated the farm typologies and found that farmers from one type considered that DSTs could be useful in gaining more information and knowledge. An important finding was that DSTs providing prescriptive advice were inconsistent with what many farmers want. Farmers indicated that discussion groups are a preferred learning-based approach rather than a prescriptive tool. Farmers preferred video clips and infographics integrated into existing familiar digital platforms. This study identifies heterogeneity within a large farm sample and develops a deeper understanding of fertilizer decisions as well as knowledge and intentions related to the use of DSTs or apps via follow-up focus group discussions. Incorporating a participatory research framework with typology identification can have a beneficial role in direct interactions with smallholders that may increase their acceptability of DSTs. This study has generated valuable information about farmer types and serves as a starting point for developing a framework for discussion support systems that may better relate to the needs of farmers.

Marginal Abatement Cost Curves for Latin American dairy production: A Costa Rica case study

This study utilises data collected from Costa Rican dairy farmers to conduct a cradle to farm gate Life Cycle Assessment and the first Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) for dairy production in Latin America. Ninety dairy farms across five farm typologies were assessed, reflecting Costa Rica's diverse agroclimatic zones and varying degrees of dairy/beef specialisation. The efficacy and cost-effectiveness of specific mitigation measures depend on farm typology, but several promising technologies are identified that increase efficiency whilst substantially reducing emissions across most farms – in particular, measures that improve animal health and increase pasture quality. Pasture measures are synergistic with silvopastoral practises and are highly effective at emission mitigation, although relatively expensive. The replacement of lower quality by-product feeds with high quality concentrate feed is a cost-effective mitigation measure at farm level, but emission reductions could be negated by indirect land use change outside the scope of the MACC analyses. Achieving carbon neutrality at farm level is not likely to be possible for most farms, with the exception of extensive farm typologies. Not all measures are suitable in every context, and additional policy support will be needed to offset financial and technical challenges related to adoption. Results of this first tropical dairy MACC study are constrained by lack of high-resolution data, but they highlight the need for farm-typology-specific mitigation recommendations. Overall, there is a high potential for pasture improvement and silvopastoral measures to mitigate the globally significant contribution of Latin American livestock production to climate change.

Overinvestment in selected Central and Eastern European countries: Production and economic effects.

Farms need to invest in order to earn incomes and maintain their competitive edge. However, the scale and extent of investments must be aligned with resources of other productive inputs, primarily including land, because otherwise there is risk of overinvestment. Since 2004, Central and Eastern European countries have been provided with access to investment support programs; these are non-repayable aid funds which can potentially lead to overinvestment issues. Therefore, this paper attempts to answer the question on the scale of overinvestment in the countries covered. This is all the more important since that problem has rarely been addressed in economic and agricultural research. The study presented in this paper is unique in that the research tasks are based on unpublished Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) microdata for 5839 selected Central and Eastern European farms provided by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). Based on variables relating to the amount of productive inputs and production volumes, the authors developed their own typology of farms which includes the following categories: optimum investment levels (the growth rate of labor productivity is greater than growth in the assets-to-land ratio); relative overinvestment (while labor productivity grows, it does so at a slower rate than the assets-to-land ratio); absolute overinvestment (labor productivity declines while the assets-to-land ratio grows); underinvestment (decline in both labor productivity and the assets-to-land ratio). The authors demonstrated that members of the ‘absolute overinvestment’ group made flagrant mistakes in investment planning and implementation, whereas members of the ‘relative overinvestment’ group did record an improvement in labor productivity which ultimately can be considered a positive outcome. Underinvested farms were a very small minority in each country. In addition to filling a gap in the methodology for determining agricultural overinvestment, this paper also indicates the scale of that issue in Central and Eastern European countries. This study may be of importance both to farms (as guidelines for investment planning) and to agricultural policymakers who develop investment support programs.

A farming system typology for the adoption of new technology in Bangladesh

AbstractOver the last three decades, few studies have been conducted to tackle the complexity and heterogeneity of Bangladesh farming systems. We address these research gaps with a new survey. Accordingly, a survey was conducted in North‐Western Bangladesh to understand how socio‐economic traits influence technology adoption and to identify and characterize key farm types. The survey was based on farm household characteristics, farm structure, farming practices and livestock as well as the economic performance of the farm. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used to establish the different farm typologies, and the data set based on 27 variables was carefully analysed. The findings confirmed that the key variables that significantly affect the adoption of new agricultural technologies relate to age, farming experience, level of education of the household head, income, access to markets, land ownership, the proportion of hired labour, savings, food self‐sufficiency and income from off‐farm activities. Four main farm types were identified in the study area based on resource endowment and livelihood orientation. These are (1) well‐resourced farmers entirely dependent on agriculture and less reliant on off‐farm activities; (2) moderately resourced households, which are headed by an older male with greater farming experience and which are engaged in both on‐farm and off‐farm activities; (3) resource‐constrained households with cattle as the main livestock and with income generated by the sale of livestock products; and (4) severely resource‐constrained households which are headed by young farmers/men and where income is generated by off‐farm activities. These four farm categories represent the heterogeneity of farms in North‐West Bangladesh, and it is hoped that the development of this farm household typology will help particularly the extension service, to set up appropriate extension advice that will benefit the farming community.

Conventionalised vs. agroecological practices on organic vegetable farms: Investigating the influence of farm structure in a bifurcation perspective

CONTEXTAccording to the bifurcation hypothesis, a gap may be growing between “agroecological” organic farms, which rely mostly on ecosystem services, and “conventionalised” ones, which rely more on external inputs, related to contrasting evolutions in farm structure (e.g. size, specialisation) and supply chains. OBJECTIVEThe objectives of this study were to 1) analyse the diversity of organic vegetable farming systems in France, 2) investigate the extent to which bifurcation can be observed among organic vegetable farms in France and 3) investigate the extent to which structural factors that can reflect bifurcation (e.g. profiles of “new organic farmers”, marketing channels, farm size) are related to conventionalised or agroecological OF. METHODSWe developed a farm typology based on Factor Analysis of Mixed Data (FAMD) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) using information obtained from an online survey with 165 complete answers. We used composite indexes that aggregated primary indicators to compare the biotechnical and socio-economic dimensions of farms among clusters. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSThe diversity that exists in organic vegetable farms, with large differences among farm clusters, can be interpreted as a snapshot sign of bifurcation, which is a temporal process, and support hypotheses that relate farming structure to farming practices in this perspective. Our study suggests that 1) the dichotomy that contrasts “agroecological” to “conventionalised” organic farms should be considered as a conceptual perspective with two poles and a gradient of farms between them; 2) farms that were created as organic tended to be more agroecological than farms that were converted from conventional farming; 3) new entrants to organic farming had the best agroecological performances; 4) the best agroecological performances were associated with short supply chains, although good agroecological performances did occur with some long supply chains; and 5) the smallest farms were more likely to implement agroecological practices, but farm size did not have the same influence on all agroecological practices. SIGNIFICANCEThese findings confirm the influence of structural factors that reflect bifurcation of the degree of conventionalisation or agroecology of organic vegetable farming. For a given set of structural factors (i.e. farmer profile, farm size and supply chain), however, agroecological performances varied greatly. This suggests levels of freedom to develop more agroecological organic practices for a given farm size or supply chain that should be further investigated.

Farmers’ profiles and behaviours toward desalinated seawater for irrigation: Insights from South-east Spain

In South-east Spain the implementation of desalinated seawater for irrigation was planned as an alternative water supply for farmers. However, most high-volume desalination plants are underused as farmers’ current demands are lower than was previously expected. In order to develop programmes promoting an effective behavioural shift of farmers toward desalinated water, it is necessary to first explore their preferences and attitudes. This paper shows the results of a survey examining the attitudes and behaviour of farmers toward the use of desalinated seawater for irrigation in the South-east of Spain. The results show the existence of different farmer typologies regarding desalinated seawater use, as well as their preferences and attitudes. The main finding of this study has been to identify further factors, besides price, that condition the acceptance of the use of desalinated seawater. Finally, a series of measures are proposed to encourage the use of desalinated seawater for irrigation based on the identified profiles. The insights gained from this study could be useful for other regions where the construction of desalination plants has been planned as a measure to increase the availability of irrigation water.

Farmer typology and implications for policy design – An unsupervised machine learning approach

Within the European Union, there is currently a vivid debate about the European Green Deal with its Farm to Fork Strategy and the related future design of the Common Agricultural Policy post 2020. This paper contributes to this debate by providing a clustering of German farmers analysing objective data (N = 812) using Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) as a crucial pre-requisite for an effective design and communication of future agricultural policies. Accordingly, German farmers can be clustered into three different groups. The conventional growers are the oldest group of farmers, showing the highest land growth rate, and are characterized by a focus on traditional and politically subsidised activities. The versatile youngsters are rather young in age and the majority of them have completed some form of higher education. Their business profile is diverse. The third group of family-based farmers has the highest shares of family support within their farming business and consists mostly of dairy farmers. Policy and communication design needs to consider all these different profiles. Especially new and innovative programs could be developed and tested together with the versatile youngsters. Furthermore, aspects ensuring an effective and economically rewarding production of agricultural goods should be taken into account to offer a perspective for the conventional growers and for food security. Moreover, the family-based farmers constitute a promising target group for rural development programs.

Effects of farm type on food production, landscape openness, grassland biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions in mixed agricultural-forestry regions

ContextThe global demand for food is expected to continue increasing for decades, which may drive both agricultural expansion and intensification. The associated environmental impacts are potentially considerable but will depend on how the agricultural sector develops. Currently, there are contrasting regional developments in agriculture; expansion and/or intensification in some regions and abandonment in others, as well as changes in the type of farming. However, the environmental consequences of changes in farm type are not well understood. ObjectiveWe have evaluated the impacts of farm type on food production and three key environmental variables—landscape openness, grassland biodiversity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—in three marginal agricultural regions in Sweden. MethodsWe do this by first dividing the population of farms in each region into types, based on their land-use and livestock holdings using an innovative clustering method. Thereafter we analysed changes in production activities for farm types over time and evaluated the environmental and food-production impacts, where landscape openness is quantified using a novel indicator. Results and conclusionOur results show that there is not one single farm type that would simultaneously maximize food production, grassland biodiversity, and landscape openness, whilst minimizing GHG emissions. However, there exists considerable potential to manage the trade-offs between food production and these environmental variables. For example, by reducing land use for dairying and instead increasing both cropping for food production and extensive livestock grazing to maintain landscape openness and biodiversity-rich semi-natural pastures, it would keep food production at similar levels. SignificanceOur farm typology allows us to assess the multifunctionality of farming, by relating contrasting production activities to multiple ecosystem services, grassland biodiversity and GHG emissions for informing policy towards more sustainable agriculture. We have demonstrated this with examples under Swedish conditions, but it should to a large extent also be applicable for other countries.

Typology of Management of Transhumant Sheep and Goat Farms in Greece: Proposals for the System Continuity

Transhumant farming system is one of the earliest agricultural activities in Greece having an important role in the conservation of biodiversity, the preservation of rural tradition and cohesion of the rural population. The objective of this study was to construct a transhumant farm typology that could be used as a tool by the decision makers or farmers to improve the management of the farms. The required information was obtained from totally 551 Greek transhumant producers. A Principal Component Analysis gave five components related to the production cost of the farms, the intensity of management, the evolution of the extensive character of the system, the type of herds and the future of the system. Using multivariate techniques, a farm typology was established with four categories. The three categories, were characterized by lower production cost and intensification rate while preserved generally a more extensive character. Among them the first group defined as “evolution of the farming system” bred mainly sheep and producers were significantly more adaptive to some kind of innovations, the second group was constituted mainly by large goat herds while the third one by small sheep herds’. The fourth group, defined as the “intensive one” meaning high production cost, intensification rate and working hours per female as well as limitation of time spent grazing. Besides the definition of the character of the transhumance nowadays the results interestingly, highlighted the future of transhumant farms that tends to be doubtful for a number of farmers originated mainly by the last group.

Quantifying contaminant losses to water from pastoral landuses in New Zealand II. The effects of some farm mitigation actions over the past two decades

ABSTRACT In New Zealand the primary sector together with central and local government agencies have been promoting measures to mitigate the adverse effect of farming practices on water quality over the last few decades. We assessed the effectiveness of some key measures such as stock exclusion, riparian protection, and nutrient and effluent management on reducing losses of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sediment to water. Our aim was to determine how much progress has been made in decreasing contaminant discharges between 1995 and 2015 and to determine what the loads would have been if no mitigation had occurred. To do this we estimated losses from 37 dairy and non-dairy/sheep/beef farm typologies that captured the main attributes of production and contaminant loss pathways, nationally. We also accounted for the rate of uptake of measures. Our findings indicated that while the implementation of these measures has helped to reduce P losses (an estimated 20%–25% reduction) to water, they have not been sufficient to off-set estimated increases in N losses (25%) due to expansion of dairy land over the same period. National sediment load is estimated to have decreased (29%) because of afforestation and other soil conservation works.

Dimensions of social and political capital in interventions to improve household well-being: Implications for coffee-growing areas in southern Colombia.

This paper studies the influence of community capitals on well-being through a Community Capital Index (CCI) within coffee-growing families in southern Colombia. Our results show different farm typologies, with different levels of capital endowment translated into well-being that, in our case, were represented in the CCI. Specifically, social and political capitals positively affect coffee-growing families’ decisions in terms of life strategies. The results of this study increase our understanding of welfare enhancement and its relationship with capital endowment according to the type of coffee producer, having implications for the planning of more effective programs towards the improvement of quality of life.

Resource, Collaborator, or Individual Cow? Applying Q Methodology to Investigate Austrian Farmers' Viewpoints on Motivational Aspects of Improving Animal Welfare.

One keystone to successful welfare improvement endeavors is a respected cooperation between farmer and advisor (e.g., veterinarian), which requires a thorough understanding of what motivates farmer behavior. In this respect, Q methodology offers a promising approach in investigating individual motivational patterns and to discriminate between and describe typologies of farmers. In our study we explored, based on a sample of 34 Austrian dairy farmers, how 39 potentially motivating statements regarding the improvement of dairy cow health and welfare were assessed. We were able to identify and describe four different viewpoints, explaining 47% of total study variance. All four viewpoints have in common that pride in a healthy herd is motivating to work toward improved animal health and welfare to a certain extent, but meeting legal requirements is rather not. Viewpoint 1 acknowledges welfare for economic performance, ease of work and short working hours but does not make allowance for outside interference. Participants loading on Viewpoint 2 also show a focus on economic aspects but, keep close track of the animal welfare debate recognizing its potential to improve the public image of dairy farming. Even though they cautiously criticize an exploitative application of dairy farming, they do not want to be understood as role models. With regards to animal welfare, farmers sharing Viewpoint 3 perceive themselves as superior to and show little reluctance of comparison with mainstream farming. For them, the animal as sentient being itself owns some intrinsic value and it is necessary to strike a balance between economic and other, ethical considerations. Viewpoint 4 perceives cows as equal collaborators who deserve to be treated with respect and appreciation and is willing to accept certain economic losses in order to maintain high standards regarding animal health and welfare. Using Q methodology, we have been able to draw high resolution images of different farmer typologies, enabling advisors to tailor intervention strategies specifically addressing leverage points with a high chance of farmer compliance.

The social and economic diversity of the coffee-banana farming system and technology uptake in Central Uganda

Food systems of the future that will guarantee food and nutrition security of millions of poor farming households will have to be both economically and socially diverse. Diversity of farming systems acts as a catalyst for innovation, commercialisation as well as technology adoption. This study sought to find farm typologies and explore the social, enterprise and economic diversity of the various farm types based on a promoted Growing Bananas with Trees and Livestock (GBTL) technology system that was implemented by National Agricultural Research Organisation and Bioversity International in three districts of Central Uganda, Kiboga, Nakaseke and Ssembabule. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA), typologies were created in which two distinct clusters of farming households were revealed. Further analysis of the clusters through Food Consumption Scores, food classes, and other descriptive statistics indicated that the two clusters were socially and economically diverse. Findings indicated that Cluster 1 is made up of smaller farms with high crop diversity. Families in Cluster 1 sell more of their produce and subsequently have lower food security compared to the land-abundant, off-farm earning and more food secure Cluster 2. We failed to reject the hypothesis that socially and economically diverse farmers adopt technologies more given that the level of GBTL adoption was about 25% and about 70% for Banana + Goats within both clusters.

Sustainability analysis of integrated farms in coastal India

Integrated farming systems (IFS) have emerged as an effective means to achieve long-term sustainability in smallholder agriculture, particularly in developing countries. IFS can enhance farm sustainability in stressed ecosystems, and their sustainability must be studied to achieve the long-term sustainability of coastal agroecosystems. The study's objective was to assess the sustainability of representative IFS of coastal West Bengal, India, examine the relative performance of social, economic, and ecological dimensions of farm sustainability, find key sustainability indicators, and identify the factors of IFS's sustainability. Another objective of the study was to suggest an indicative farm typology that encompasses a variety of alternative paths to farm viability. Using a composite indicator based on a synthesized indicator framework for small-scale farms, we assessed the sustainability of 140 IFS in coastal West Bengal, India. Farmers on the highly sustainable farms effectively collected and utilized sweet water, produced on-farm biomass, and used sustainable farming practices. These practices, along with the remittances provided by migrant family members, improved agricultural productivity, profitability, and living conditions of farm families. Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis identified that farm size, soil fertility, and non-farm income shaped the sustainability of the IFS. However, the pathways to sustainability were differed depending on the farm types. The study also identified the farms that overcame the trade-off among social, economic, and ecological sustainability dimensions. Future research may explore how these farms may be used to achieve ‘strong’ agricultural sustainability in the coastal agroecosystems.

Typology and sustainability assessment of rabbit farms in the urban and peri-urban areas of Southern Benin (West Africa)

<p>Analysis of production systems allows scientists to identify their weaknesses, particularly concerning production practices which require improvements at economic, social, and environmental levels. The present study aimed to characterise rabbit farms in the urban and peri-urban areas of South Benin and assess their sustainability using the DIAMOND method, a multicriteria sustainability assessment tool. Ninety-eight farmers were surveyed and individually interviewed. Categorical principal component and twostep cluster analyses were performed on information collected for a typology of farms. Sustainability scores were generated using the scoring scale of the DIAMOND tool. Five types of rabbit farms were identified as follows: modern extensive polyculture, traditional extensive monoculture, modern extensive monoculture, semi-intensive polyculture, and traditional extensive polyculture. Overall, all the rabbit farms had good scores for the economic sustainability pillar but were socially limited. They were all similar in their economic and environmental performances. In particular, semi-intensive farms were the most socially sustainable, whereas traditional farms (either in polyculture or monoculture) showed the lowest social performances. Furthermore, there were significant differences between farms for criteria relating to consumers’ demands and resource use. Semi-intensive farms responded best to consumers’ demands, whereas the traditional polyculture farm type was the most resource use efficient. Overall, in the urban and peri-urban areas of South Benin, the most sustainable rabbit farms were semi-intensive. Irrespective of farm type, positive coefficients of correlations were recorded among the three pillars of sustainability, being significant between the social and economic pillars on one hand, and between the social and environmental pillars on the other hand. These results suggest that efforts to improve farm social performance would also positively affect their economic and environmental performances and improve overall farm sustainability.</p>

Market access and resource endowment define the soil fertility status of smallholder farming systems of South‐Kivu, DR Congo

AbstractThis study verified the inter‐related effect of ‘market distance’, defined as walking time, ‘farm typology’, defined as resource endowment, and ‘site’, defined as geographic location with contrasting agro‐ecologies, as well as farmers’ indigenous knowledge on soil fertility variability in smallholder farming systems in two distinct regions (Bushumba, Mushinga) of South‐Kivu, DR Congo. A total of 384 soil samples were selected from representative farmers’ fields and analysed for soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC) content and quality, as well as nutrient contents, using midDRIFTS (mid‐infrared diffuse reflectance Fourier transform spectroscopy) and wet chemistry analyses. MidDRIFTS was also used to calculate SOC stability indexes as SOC quality proxies. ‘Market distance’ and ‘farm typology’ were key determinants of soil fertility variability, both with contrasting trends in Bushumba and Mushinga. Decreasing soil fertility with increasing market distance was noted across all farm typologies. ‘Farm typology’ was related to exchangeable calcium and magnesium, while ‘site’ resulted in a difference of plant available phosphorus. SOC quality indexes were related to ‘site’, interacting with ‘market distance’. A ‘market distance’ effect became obvious in the medium wealthy and poor farms of Mushinga, where a lower SOC quality in remote fields plots was noted with increasing market distance. In agreement with farmers’ indigenous knowledge, soil fertility levels were higher in deep than shallow soils, which were reflected in higher nutrient stocks in deep soils receiving organic amendments. Our results inferred that soil fertility variability across smallholder farms must consider various inter‐related determinants as basis for site‐specific fertility management interventions.

Climate change and maize production in the Vaal catchment of South Africa: assessment of farmers’ awareness, perceptions and adaptation strategies

In recent years, maize production in South Africa has faced challenges related to climate change which have prompted farmers to adapt their production activities. We assessed factors informing the adaptive decision-making of maize farmers in the Vaal catchment by examining linkages between farmers’ experiences, their perceptions of climate change and the adaptation strategies they use. Data were collected through semi-structured household-level interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Catchment climate data were also collected to determine key 30 yr trends (1989-2018) and the farmers’ level of awareness about these trends. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Mann-Kendall (MK) test, Sen’s slope test, climate anomalies and multinomial logit modelling. Results suggest that maize farmers in the catchment are aware of climate change (95%), with many of them referring to it as ‘a shift in climate’. This perceived ‘shift’ is supported by meteorological data, as the MK test confirmed a decreasing inter-annual precipitation trend (-0.149) and a decreasing trend at the onset of the maize planting season (-0.167), with temperature showing an increasing trend (0.470). These trends have inspired the adoption of a range of timing-related responses and other farming and off-farm adaptations. Modelling results revealed farmer perception, farmer typology and the nature of maize production (rainfed) as some of the variables with a deciding influence on the nature of the adaptation employed. The study confirms the importance of understanding intersections between qualitative and quantitative variables in triggering adaptive responses. Current strategies need to be expanded and supplemented to improve resilience and prevent maladaptation.

Intestinal Strongyle Genera in Different Typology of Donkey Farms in Tuscany, Central Italy

Intestinal strongyles are common helminths of donkeys, in which they may be responsible for disease and poor performance. This study aimed to identify intestinal strongyle genera in 55 naturally infected donkeys from three different farm typologies in Tuscany, central Italy, using morphological and metrical analysis of third stage larvae (L3) obtained from faecal cultures. Larvae were identified using two previous reported morphological identification keys. Moreover, eggs per gram (EPG) data were also evaluated to assess differences, if any, according to the farm typology, sex, and age of the examined donkeys. The results showed that small strongyles were prevalent in all donkey farms. In all examined farms, most (92–100%) of L3 were identified as cyathostomin species of the genera Cylicocyclus spp. and Cylicostephanus spp. Large strongyles of the genera Strongylus spp. and Triodontophorus spp., were identified at low percentage (8%), only in the single organic farm included in the study. A high agreement was observed between the two different morphometric keys used. No significant differences were found for EPG according to farm typology, and sex and age from the examined donkeys. This is the first report about genera identification of intestinal strongyles infecting donkeys in Tuscany, Italy.

Developing farmer typologies to inform conservation outreach in agricultural landscapes

Understanding factors that motivate conservation behavior among farmers is crucial to addressing societal, soil, water, and wildlife conservation goals. Farmers employ soil conservation practices to maintain agricultural productivity while minimizing impacts to water and wildlife in the long-term. The majority of conservation programs are voluntary in nature and some farmers are more willing and/or able to implement conservation practices than others. To inform the development of more effective conservation outreach and incentive programs, we created a farmer typology using data from three waves (2015, 2016, 2018) of a longitudinal survey of 358 farmers from Iowa, a highly productive agricultural state in the U.S. Midwest. Using multivariate analysis (Principal Component Analysis, and Cluster Analysis), we employed 26 summated scale variables measuring largely unobservable and latent constructs related to conservation, including awareness, attitudes, beliefs, and perceived motivations and barriers to practice adoption. Through this analysis, we identified four types of farmers-Conservationist, Deliberative, Productivist, and Traditionalist—based on the salient characteristics of each group. “Conservationist” farmers scored highest on measures of stewardship motivations and identity. “Deliberative” farmers appeared to be favorably disposed toward conservation, but also seem to consider agronomic and economic impediments more than other groups. “Productivist” farmers had the highest scores on profit motivation and emphasis on input use. “Traditionalist” farmers reported being heavily influenced by family members and scored highest on social and regulatory influence on conservation motivations. Detailed understanding of between-groups differences on key conservation-related factors can contribute to developing targeted messages for specific subgroups of a given population, potentially resulting in higher adoption of voluntary conservation programs in Iowa and beyond.