Determination of typologies of sheep production systems in Ciego de Ávila province

Abstract

In order to determine the typologies of sheep production systems in Ciego de Ávila province, the statistical model of impact measuring (SMIM) was applied, which combines the main components analysis with the hierarchical cluster method. An information matrix of 296 sheep farmers was used to define groups of farms. The main component analysis explained 71.83 % of the variability. In component 1, variables related to herd movement were identified and component 2 was associated with land tenure. Component 3 had to do with training and management, and component 4 with the age and farmers experience. Component 5 included the number of workers and technological aspects, and component 6 was related to the presence of trees. Five groups of sheep farmers were obtained: I) medium farmers with land from the private sector, II) small farmers without tendency of lands from the private sector, III) small farmers with land from both sectors, with a predominance of the private, IV) large farmers with land from both sectors and V) small farmers with land from both sectors with predominance of the state. The measured indicators explained the higher variability of sheep breeding in the province, in each region, and at the municipal level, Chambas, for the northern region, Ciego de Ávila, for the central region, and Venezuela for the southern region, were the municipalities with superior social, productive, technological and environmental indicators.
Key words: characterization, sheep, classification and multivariate analysis.