Traditional Maize Cultivation Suitability Zoning for Colombian Municipalities

Zonificación de aptitud para el cultivo de maíz tradicional (Zea mays L.) en Colombia maps areas suitable for traditional maize production across Colombia. The dataset categorizes land into high, medium, low, and non-suitable zones based on physical, socio-ecosystem, and socio-economic criteria. It was last updated on 2026-05-18 and is hosted by the Colombian open data portal www.datos.gov.co.

Use Cases

• Classifying land Aptitud (suitability) for maize using physical and socio-economic factors implied by the zoning methodology.
• Aggregating total suitable Área (ha) by Departamento or Municipio for regional agricultural planning.
• Joining municipal-level data using Código municipio or Código departamento with other Colombian administrative datasets.
• Visualizing the spatial distribution of suitability categories using the_geom geometry column on a map.

Strengths

• Dataset provides a detailed categorical Aptitud classification (Alta, Media, Baja, No apta, Exclusión legal).
• Includes administrative identifiers (Código municipio, Código departamento) and names for geographic joins.
• Contains a geospatial geometry column (the_geom) for mapping and spatial analysis.
• Available in multiple machine-readable formats including CSV, JSON, XML, and RDF.

Limitations

• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale processing.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality and the specific zoning model parameters require manual inspection after download.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update timestamp is in the future (2026-05-18).

Provenance

Source

www.datos.gov.co (Colombian open data portal).

Collection Method

Result of applying a commercial crop zoning methodology, likely involving spatial analysis of physical, socio-ecosystem, and socio-economic factors.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-18 18:28:07

Geography

Colombia, at the municipal (Municipio) and departmental (Departamento) level.