DUAL PURPOSE FARMS TYPIFICATION IN THE PROVINCE OF CHIRIQUI, PANAMA.

Abstract

The present work had the purpose of typify and charaterize the dual purpose system in Chiriqui (Panama) through multivariate techniques, considering the existence and management of the resources, zootechnique indexes and social economic aspects. Data set came from 66 farms through a static diagnostic. Data were analyzed by Principal Components Analysis (CP), Cluster Analysis (AC) and Discriminant Analysis (AD). First, 34 variables related with the farm technological level were a priori selected and after a descriptive analysis 24 variables were selected based on variation coefficient >30%. Through CP, variables were classified into 10 principal components which represents 73.5% of the total variation. Sixty farms were grouped into four groups with the AC and the AD allowed probabilistically the final grouping. The four farm groups were different from each other in access to other source of income, use and fertilization of improved pastures, breed heard composition and use of mineral, energy and protein supplements. Small farms (35.4 ha, group IV) had higher milk production per hectare (1076.8 lt/ha), higher natality (52.4%), but high calf mortality (12.3%). It was concluded that multivariate techniques allow to understand better the dual purpose farm complexity and diversity when were grouped into homogeneous units.