Capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies: An innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development
Creating typologies is a way to summarize the large heterogeneity of smallholder farming systems into a few farm types. Various methods exist, commonly using statistical analysis, to create these typologies. We demonstrate that the methodological decisions on data collection, variable selection, dat...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Plos ONE
2020
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/7321 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194757 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194757 |
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| author | Alvarez, Stephanie Timler, Carl J. Michalscheck, Mirja Paas, Wim Descheemaeker, Katrien Tittonell, Pablo Adrian Andersson, Jens A. Groot, Jeroen C.J. |
| author_browse | Alvarez, Stephanie Andersson, Jens A. Descheemaeker, Katrien Groot, Jeroen C.J. Michalscheck, Mirja Paas, Wim Timler, Carl J. Tittonell, Pablo Adrian |
| author_facet | Alvarez, Stephanie Timler, Carl J. Michalscheck, Mirja Paas, Wim Descheemaeker, Katrien Tittonell, Pablo Adrian Andersson, Jens A. Groot, Jeroen C.J. |
| author_sort | Alvarez, Stephanie |
| collection | INTA Digital |
| description | Creating typologies is a way to summarize the large heterogeneity of smallholder farming systems into a few farm types. Various methods exist, commonly using statistical analysis, to create these typologies. We demonstrate that the methodological decisions on data collection, variable selection, data-reduction and clustering techniques can bear a large impact on the typology results. We illustrate the effects of analysing the diversity from different angles, using different typology objectives and different hypotheses, on typology creation by using an example from Zambia's Eastern Province. Five separate typologies were created with principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), based on three different expert-informed hypotheses. The greatest overlap between typologies was observed for the larger, wealthier farm types but for the remainder of the farms there
were no clear overlaps between typologies. Based on these results, we argue that the typology development should be guided by a hypothesis on the local agriculture features and the drivers and mechanisms of differentiation among farming systems, such as biophysical and socio-economic conditions. That hypothesis is based both on the typology objective and on prior expert knowledge and theories of the farm diversity in the study area. We present a methodological framework that aims to integrate participatory and statistical methods for hypothesis-based typology construction. This is an iterative process whereby the results of the statistical analysis are compared with the reality of the target population as hypothesized by the local experts. Using a well-defined hypothesis and the presented methodological framework, which consolidates the hypothesis through local expert knowledge for the creation
of typologies, warrants development of less subjective and more contextualized quantitative farm typologies. |
| format | info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo |
| id | INTA7321 |
| institution | Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA -Argentina) |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Plos ONE |
| publisherStr | Plos ONE |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | INTA73212024-02-29T11:58:27Z Capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies: An innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development Alvarez, Stephanie Timler, Carl J. Michalscheck, Mirja Paas, Wim Descheemaeker, Katrien Tittonell, Pablo Adrian Andersson, Jens A. Groot, Jeroen C.J. Agricultura Familiar Explotaciones Agrarias Estructura Agraria Tipología Family Farming Farms Agrarian Structure Typology Sistemas Agrícolas Creating typologies is a way to summarize the large heterogeneity of smallholder farming systems into a few farm types. Various methods exist, commonly using statistical analysis, to create these typologies. We demonstrate that the methodological decisions on data collection, variable selection, data-reduction and clustering techniques can bear a large impact on the typology results. We illustrate the effects of analysing the diversity from different angles, using different typology objectives and different hypotheses, on typology creation by using an example from Zambia's Eastern Province. Five separate typologies were created with principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), based on three different expert-informed hypotheses. The greatest overlap between typologies was observed for the larger, wealthier farm types but for the remainder of the farms there were no clear overlaps between typologies. Based on these results, we argue that the typology development should be guided by a hypothesis on the local agriculture features and the drivers and mechanisms of differentiation among farming systems, such as biophysical and socio-economic conditions. That hypothesis is based both on the typology objective and on prior expert knowledge and theories of the farm diversity in the study area. We present a methodological framework that aims to integrate participatory and statistical methods for hypothesis-based typology construction. This is an iterative process whereby the results of the statistical analysis are compared with the reality of the target population as hypothesized by the local experts. Using a well-defined hypothesis and the presented methodological framework, which consolidates the hypothesis through local expert knowledge for the creation of typologies, warrants development of less subjective and more contextualized quantitative farm typologies. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche Fil: Alvarez, Stephanie. Wageningen University & Research. Farming Systems Ecology; Holanda Fil: Timler, Carl J. Wageningen University & Research. Farming Systems Ecology; Holanda Fil: Michalscheck, Mirja. Wageningen University & Research. Farming Systems Ecology; Holanda Fil: Paas, Wim. Wageningen University & Research. Farming Systems Ecology; Holanda Fil: Descheemaeker, Katrien. Wageningen University & Research. Plant Production Systems; Holanda Fil: Tittonell, Pablo Adrian. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Área de Recursos Naturales; Argentina Fil: Andersson, Jens A. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT); Zimbawe Fil: Groot, Jeroen C. J. Wageningen University & Research. Farming Systems Ecology Group, Plant Sciences; Holanda 2020-05-28T13:54:21Z 2020-05-28T13:54:21Z 2018-05-15 info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/7321 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194757 0748-7711 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194757 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) application/pdf Plos ONE Plos One 13 (5) : sp. (Mayo 2018) |
| spellingShingle | Agricultura Familiar Explotaciones Agrarias Estructura Agraria Tipología Family Farming Farms Agrarian Structure Typology Sistemas Agrícolas Alvarez, Stephanie Timler, Carl J. Michalscheck, Mirja Paas, Wim Descheemaeker, Katrien Tittonell, Pablo Adrian Andersson, Jens A. Groot, Jeroen C.J. Capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies: An innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development |
| title | Capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies: An innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development |
| title_full | Capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies: An innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development |
| title_fullStr | Capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies: An innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development |
| title_full_unstemmed | Capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies: An innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development |
| title_short | Capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies: An innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development |
| title_sort | capturing farm diversity with hypothesisbased typologies an innovative methodological framework for farming system typology development |
| topic | Agricultura Familiar Explotaciones Agrarias Estructura Agraria Tipología Family Farming Farms Agrarian Structure Typology Sistemas Agrícolas |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/7321 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194757 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194757 |
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