Quantitative farming system typologies for targeted agricultural development: A review

The land holding size of marginal farmer in India had decreased from 0.40 ha in 1970-71 to 0.38 ha in 2010-11 and is expected to reduce further to 0.32 ha within this decade. By virtue of increased number of operational holdings, mainly due to fragmentation, land holding size is small. Agriculture in marginal farm holdings can be made profitable through integrated farming system which requires monetary and technical interventions. Characterization of farming systems is of utmost importance for identifying groups of farm holdings with fairly similar farming systems in a highly diverse and complex agro-ecological environment. Quantitative farming system typologies, based on multivariate analyses, allow identification of significant differences among farm holding types and use them as the basis for targeting agricultural interventions as well as design alternative farming systems for different types of farms. Farm Typology is a methodology for grouping farm households taking into account the agricultural heterogeneity within a region. Farm Typology can provide the basis for targeting appropriate agricultural technologies in farming system, ensuring their usefulness and adoption, thus contributing to success of agricultural projects.