Socio-productive characteristics of municipalities in Paraná state specialized in commercial swine production

Abstract

The expansion of demand for pork, both in domestic and international markets, has boosted pork production in Brazil and the state of Paraná in recent years, making this activity important for the development of several regions. In this context, the aim of this article is to identify the socioeconomic and productive characteristics of municipalities specialized in commercial pig farming in Paraná. To this end, 30 variables collected by the 2017 Agricultural Census were extracted, covering all 399 municipalities in the state. The data were analyzed using the Location Quotient (LQ), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Cluster Analysis. The analysis identified 57 municipalities specialized in commercial pig production, located in eight mesoregions of the state. The Principal Component Analysis allowed the reduction of variables into two components, which together explained 66.45% of the total variance. Four productive clusters were identified; clusters 1 and 3 share the common characteristic of grouping municipalities where producers have high access to financing and are mostly members of cooperatives. However, the two groups differ regarding the importance of family farming in the activity.

Keywords: family farming; productive clusters; agricultural census ; locational quotient ; swine production.