Farm Typology and Land Suitability in Terceira Island (Azores: Portugal)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to categorize farm types and relate them with the land suitability classes suggested for Terceira Island (Azores: Portugal). The study included a set of 64 indicators for 1,366 farms contained in the databases that comprise the Integrated Administration and Control System for direct support schemes under the Common Agricultural Policy. Using principal component analysis and cluster analysis, a farm typology system was built up based on eight principal components that characterized 81.4% of the total variance between farms. As a result, the farm sample was divided into seven different categories: dairy farms (50%), meat production farms (23%), non-specialized animal farms (9%), arable crop farms (2%), wine-growing farms (5%), fruit and vegetable growing farms (8%) and banana farms (3%). The mapping drawn from the categories of farms was crossed with thirteen land suitability class combinations for five alternative land uses. We confirmed that the distribution of different farm types changes according to the land suitability proposed for each zone.