Methodological approach for farm typology construction in terms of soil health – the EU case

Abstract

Soil health is a significant problem in agriculture which demands a tailor-made approach. The study aims to develop a methodological approach for farm typology construction in terms of soil health. TUdi project, under which was made this study, aims to transform unsustainable management of soils in key cropping systems in Europe and China, developing an integrated platform of alternatives to reverse soil degradation. Thus, the focus is on small, medium, and large EU farms, which produce in the three key cropping systems - grassland, cereal-based rotation, and tree crops. It was applied principal component analysis based on which it was constructed four factors, related to soil health. The results from this analysis was used to feed up the cluster analysis together with other significant variables. The developed farm typology consists of four farm types. From practical point of view was introduced a methodology which allow to determine the type of each farm according the TUdi typology.