Typologies for farming systems
analysis in Africa RISING
Jeroen Groot
(Wageningen University)
with IITA, ICRISAT, MSU, CIMMYT
Africa RISING Monitoring and Evaluation Meeting
Arusha, Tanzania, 13-14 November 2014

Use of typologies
Targeting
Suitable interventions
Scaling out
Adoption, dissemination
Selection
Farms to work with
Scaling up
Impact assessment

Functional typology
Different approaches
• Ghana: statistical, expert-based, community-based
• Mali: existing typology (Gatien Falconnier)
• Malawi and Tanzania: statistical
• Zambia: repeated statistical, using SIMLEZA baseline
Can be linked back to the structural IFPRI types

Typology methods
Diverse farming systems
Data collection
Selection of key variables
Grouping techniques
Farm types
Experts
Community
Alvaréz et al. (2014) Typology Guideline for Humidtropics

Typology II Zambia

Typology III Zambia
Lundazi Chipata

Typology III Zambia – Lundazi

Typology III Zambia – Lundazi

Comparison of districts

Ghana: expert based classification
Wealth
indicators
Arable land
Livestock
HH size
Assets
Type 1
Resource
endowment
Production
orientation
Source of
income
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Type 5
LRE
MRE
HRE
Subsistence
Consumption
> market
Consumption
= market
Consumption
< market
On-farm only
On-farm
> off-farm
On-farm
= off-farm
On-farm
< off-farm

Ghana: community-based

Conclusions
• Different approaches due to contrasts in development
stage of projects, and in availability of data and typologies
• Comparison of approaches and classifications can help
validation and provides insights in different perceptions of
farms and their opportunities and constraints
• Good basis for further evaluation of the entry points,
exploration of tradeoffs, to inform decisions on
improvements in farm performance

Thank You
Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net
The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.