Approach to the Diversity of Dairy Farm Systems in Reunion

Abstract

The impacts of economical, institutional and technical changes on farming systems’ organization and performance differ between systems depending on initial endowments, projects, organization types and productive-system management, investment opportunities, etc. As it is difficult to apprehend exhaustively individual diversity, farm modeling through typology appears as the only way to approach farming systems’ diversity in order to assess change differentiated effects and to ensure that research and development will reflect local needs and diversity. The typology, which characterizes the diversity of dairy farm systems in Reunion, results from an iterative and progressive process that combines principles from the typology à dire d’expert (i.e. based on an expert representation of the diversity) and multivariate methods. The typology was developed from surveys and interviews of farmers, and the various actors of the dairy sector: cooperatives, development agencies, local administrators, management centers, etc.