Technical Series Number 27, March 2000
The census and classification of sugar cane producers linked to eleven sugar mills affiliated with Asocaña, located in the Cauca River valley (Colombia), as of December 31, 1998, are presented. The results are part of CENICAÑA's New Technology Customer Study project. Based on them, a regional sugar sample will be defined to characterize the patterns of behavior in the adoption and use of technologies, identify the communication conditions for the transfer of technology, carry out various synthesis studies and carry out the dynamic monitoring of technical change.
Census information was collected from primary sources through formal surveys applied in productive units with direct management of the sugar mills and in units with management of sugarcane suppliers in the plantation. The descriptive analysis includes information on the producers: age, experience in sugarcane, education, use of sources and means of technical information; and the productive units: size, ownership and tenure of land and crops, diffusion of technologies, sources and uses of capital, sources of water, labor used, access to technical assistance services and production of sugarcane and sugar.
To classify the producers, a multivariate statistical analysis was carried out (factorial, principal components, clusters and discriminant) using the level of technology diffusion as a classification criterion.
