Silvopastoral systems in the Upper Atlantic Forest of Argentina: what type of farms adopt them and how?

Abstract

Despite silvopastoral systems’ environmental and production benefits, their adoption in forest ecosystems has been moderated. Identifying a silvopastoral farm typology combining farm size and management practices can help explore the constraints to their adoption and guide technical support initiatives. We investigated farms adopting silvopastoral systems in the Upper Atlantic Forest of Argentina and whether their management practices are related to the farms structural characteristics. We analysed 60 surveys that covered 3428 ha under silvopastoral management. First, we group the farms according to size and land use using the factor analysis mixed data and group with hierarchical clustering. Second, we performed two correspondence analyses with variables related to management practices in the silvopastoral area to explore the relationship between the practice management adopted and the cluster farm. Our results summarised the variability of farms and management practices in three groups: Specialist silvopastoral farms, Agricultural farms with silvopastoral management and forest plantation, and Livestock farms with silvopastoral management sectors. Specialist silvopastoral farms adopted most of the technical recommendations for this land use. Despite this work contributions, some information gaps still need to be addressed to have an integrated vision of how silvopastoral systems in the Upper Atlantic Forest of Argentina can be adopted in an extended manner.