Agrosystems Tornquist, Argentina. 2. Characterization by cluster analysis

Abstract

The objective of this study was the characterization of the agricultural systems employing Cluster Analysis and the comparison with the results obtained in other work in which the Index Method was applied in the same universe of farms. Four variables were created (winter crops, summer crops, beef cattle and sheep) which were evaluated in the 97 farms previously surveyed. Afterwards, groups of farms were formed in each homogeneous área of the east and west sectors. General results were in accordance with those previously found because they showed the predominance of livestock production in the whole región and that agriculture in the east was greater than in the west. However, the groups formed by both methods were different because of intrinsic characteristics of each one. Cluster Analysis allows to obtain more information about the systems and this would take relevance in modeling. From the analytic point of view the characterization by the Index Method is very simple and is can be done with manual calculators, while Cluster Analysis needs a computer program.