Agropastoral livelihood system typology for coping with socio-ecological diversity: A demonstrative case in Karauzyak, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan

Abstract

Smallholder farms’ populations are characterized by their heterogeneity giving the diversity of farms’ livelihood settings. Integrated farming system modelling therefore requires a preliminary clear identification of the farm types in a location and for a given population. The main objective of the present study was to formulate empirical agricultural livelihood typology in the Karauzyak district of Uzbekistan for the purpose of integrated farming livelihood modelling. We used a multivariate analysis combining PCA to K-CA, and expert knowledge to identify agricultural livelihood types in Pontieba. Based on the Sustainable Livelihood Framework, a multidimensional dataset of 100 households was collected through face-to-face interviews. The results showed that the main variables discriminating agricultural livelihoods in Karauzyak district were human (labor, labor age, education and dependency), natural (land holdings and livestock), financial (annual gross income, and non-fam income) assets, and production orientation (cotton and marketable food crops production). Three agricultural livelihood types were identified: (1) Educated, land-poor, livestock- and poultry-rich, off-farm-income-oriented farms (type I), (2) Farm-income-dependent, less educated, land-poor, poultry-turned farms (type II), and (3) Land-rich, poultry-turned, off-farm-income-dependent farms (type III). The study recommends the use of this typology for policy intervention and further systems analysis and modelling in the Karauzyak district of Uzbekistan.