Agricultural livelihood systems typology for coping with diversity in smallholder farming system research: A demonstrative case in South-western Burkina Faso

Smallholder farms’ populations are characterized by their heterogeneity giving the diversity of livelihood settings. Integrated farming system modelling therefore requires a preliminary clear identification farm types in location and for given population. This study aims to formulate empirically agricultural (ALS) typology purpose integrated modeling smallholder systems West African drylands, taking Pontieba village South-western Burkina Faso as demonstration case. We used multivariate analysis combining PCA K-CA, expert knowledge identify Pontieba. Based on Sustainable Livelihood Framework, cross-sectional dataset 108 households was collected through household interviews. The results revealed main variables discriminating livelihoods Pontieba, which includes human asset (labour, labour age, education dependency), natural (land holdings livestock), financial (annual gross income, non-farm income) assets, production orientation (cotton marketable food crops production). Three were identified: (i) Poor-income, landless subsistence-based farms; (ii) Medium-income, high-dependency, cotton-and livestock-oriented farms, (iii) better-off land-and labour-rich, farms. recommends use this policy intervention further modelling. Key words: Agricultural typology, sustainable livelihoods, semi-arid areas, modelling, Faso.