Application of Multiple Unsupervised Models to Validate Clusters Robustness in Characterizing Smallholder Dairy Farmers

Table 1

Features used in cluster analysis.

S/No	Feature Name	Type	Range
1	Exclusive grazing in dry season	Boolean	0(no) or 1(yes)
2	Exclusive grazing in rainy season	Boolean	0(no) or 1(yes)
3	Mainly grazing in dry season	Boolean	0(no) or 1(yes)
4	Mainly grazing in rainy season	Boolean	0(no) or 1(yes)
5	Mainly stall feed in dry season	Boolean	0(no) or 1(yes)
6	Mainly stall feed in rainy season	Boolean	0(no) or 1(yes)
7	Use of concentrates	Discrete	1 – 12 (months)
8	Watering frequency	Discrete	0 – 4
9	Distance to water source	Continuous	0 – 15
10	Total land holding	Continuous	0 – 100
11	Area under cash cropping	Continuous	0 – 10
12	Area under food cropping	Continuous	0 – 83.25
13	Area under fodder production	Continuous	0 - 80
14	Area under grazing	Continuous	0 - 13
15	Number of employees	Discrete	1 - 10
16	Number of casual labors	Discrete	1 – 10
17	Vaccination frequency	Discrete	0 – 6
18	Deworming frequency	Discrete	0 – 5
19	Self-deworming service	Boolean	0(no) or 1(yes)
20	Membership in farmer groups	Discrete	0 – 5
21	Experience in dairy farming	Discrete	1 - 50
22	Years of schooling	Discrete	0 – 21
23	Preferred breeding method	Boolean	0 (bull) or 1(artificial insemination)
24	Distance to breeding service provider	Continuous	0 - 100
25	Frequency of visit by extension officer	Discrete	1 – 54
26	Herd size	Discrete	1 – 50
27	Number of milking cows	Discrete	1 – 20
28	Number of exotic cattle	Discrete	1 - 48
29	Number of sheep	Discrete	1 - 80
30	Peak milk production for the best cow	Continuous	1 – 40
31	Amount of milk sold in bulk	Continuous	1 – 100
32	Liters of milk sold	Continuous	1 – 100
33	Distance to milk buyers	Continuous	1 – 37
34	Total crop sale	Continuous	0 – 21000 (Birr), 0 – 950000 (Tsh)
35	Distance to market	Continuous	1 – 8