Analysis of the Concentration and Specialization of the Sugarcane Production (Saccharum officinarum L.) in Colombian Municipalities between 2007 and 2021

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is a traditional tropical crop that in 2021 represented 58.4% of agricultural production in the Colombia, reaching 42.7 million tons of which 86.2% came from 6 departments. Given that 625 municipalities of a total of 1,121 reported sugarcane production, the objective of this article is to analyze the concentration and specialization of sugarcane production in Colombian municipalities between 2007–2021. The methodology analyzes three statistical databases applying Gini coefficient, Location Coefficient (LQ), Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and Moran index, to identify the Agricultural Clusters (CA) in the Colombian sugarcane sector, that are complemented with bivariate thematic cartography. Additionally, sugarcane production, LQ and HHI are correlated with Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for 2018.The results reveal that in 2021, the regional Gini was 0.846, and the municipal Gini was 0.932; there were 215 municipalities identified with LQ greater than 1.0, 163 of which were among the 20% of the highest values. Likewise, there were 255 municipalities where sugarcane represented more than 50% of total agricultural production. Additionally, in 2018, MPI showed higher levels in rural areas of the sugarcane municipalities (average 26.3%, maximum 98.9%, minimum 0.0%); there was only inverse correlation with LQ and HHI in municipalities white sugarcane production for sugar, yet in panela and honey the correlation is low and not statistically significant. In conclusion, a significant regional and municipal concentrations of sugarcane production are observed in Valle del Cauca, Cauca, Santander, Cundinamarca, Boyacá y Antioquia (86.2% of total production). These results should be of interest to regional and municipal governments, guilds institutions, and public policy makers in agriculture and rural development, especially, on issues related to climate change, production costs, associative programs and promotion of the agroindustry.