ArticleTo identify production systems that could increase local milk production in a
sustainable manner, a study was conducted on 135 dairy farms in the three main plains of the
Chelif Valley, Algeria. These have been evaluated for environmental, social and econo
mic
sustainability based on the IDEA (Farm Sustainability Indicators) method.
The Principal Component Analysis identified 4 different types dairy production systems, namely
Type
1: Medium
-
size dairy farms with cereal crop production;
Type
2: Small
-
size dai
ry farms;
Type
3: Medium
-
size dairy farms diversified crop production, and
Type
4: Large
-
size dairy farms
with diversified crop production.
Comparative analysis of ecological sustainability showed better results for medium
-
size dairy
farms with cereal crop
production (52.3
±
10.17
/
100 points) and for large
-
size dairy farms with
diversified crop production (51.6
±
10.38
/
100 points), while the economic sustainability was
better for medium
-
size dairy farms with diversified crop production (51.6
±
19.20
/
1
00 points).
On the other hand, social security was the weak point for all farm types.
On the regional level, it appeared that agri
-
environmental scores were better in Middle and Low
Chelif valley while the best economic performances were recorded in High C
helif valley. On the
regional level, it appears that the scores of agri
-
environmental scales are better in the middle and
low Chelif while the economic performances are comparable between the three localities
