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Agricultural Knowledge and Technology in Latin America and the Caribbean: Plausible Scenarios for Sustainable Development | 131

Table 3-3. continued.

Variable

Current situation

Source

Food sustainability
(continued)

In the last 100 years three quarters of agricultural crops’ diversity has been lost;
this represents a serious threat to both agriculture and food production.
Forest cover (1990-2000). Increased: Uruguay and Cuba; invariable: the Dominican
Republic and Chile; decreased: (in decreasing order) Guyana, Bolivia, Colombia,
Peru, Brazil, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Paraguay, Costa Rica,
Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, Mexico, Ecuador (reduction less than
10%), Jamaica, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua (reduction between 10% and
30%), El Salvador and Haití (reduction between 30% and 50%).

CEPAL, 2005b

Population and poverty

In LAC there are 432.8 million people, of which 24.2% is rural population. There
were 170.7 million employed people in 2005. Most of the urban employed (93.9%)
perform non-agricultural activities, and about three-fifths (58.8%) of the rural
employed are engaged in agricultural activities.

CEPAL, 2005a
  The rural population has in general relatively decreased (as a fraction of total
population) in most of the LAC countries along the decade 1990-2001, except in
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and
Peru. During 1994-2000, urban poverty has decreased in most of the countries,
except in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. In this
same period, rural poverty decreased or remained stable, except in Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay; in Peru rural poverty increased.
de Ferranti et al.,
2005
  Advances in poverty reduction in LAC (1998-2005). Large (10%-20%): Ecuador,
Mexico and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; intermediate (5%-10%):
Colombia and Honduras; small (1%-4.9%): %): Brazil, El Salvador and Chile;
Increase in poverty: Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and the
Dominican Republic. Paraguay did not change its poverty level.
CEPAL, 2005a

See also competitivity indicators in the same tab.
Source: Authors’ elaboration.

3.4.1.1.2 AKST systems
At the start of this period, the public research and development organizations define as priority technologies ones that permit: (1) an increase in agricultural productivity; (2) a reduction in production costs; (3) an improvement in the quality of agricultural products; (4) an increase in food security; (5) an improvement in the quality of processes in production chains; (6) an improvement in the income of agricultural producers; (7) an increase in competitiveness of production chains; (8) generation of exportable surpluses; (9) an improvement in the nutritional profile of the urban and rural populations; (10) environmental sustainability of agricultural systems; (11) development of mechanisms and conditions for the preferential production of farm goods and services with a high value added; and (12) an expansion of the portfolio of basic agricultural products, including nonfood products. This last priority makes it possible to create an important autonomy of nonrenewable energy sources by developing biofuels, such as ethanol, biodiesel, biogas, and the like, particularly in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

In terms of the social groups to which R&D is oriented, they include first and foremost conventional large and medium-sized producers, and extend to end consumers, agroindustry, and policymakers, and, finally, in last place, traders and merchants. Indigenous communities and subsistence farmers are not very relevant for R&D organizations.

  

The capacity to incorporate advances in formal knowledge into the creation of new technology varies in LAC. In most of the countries, there is a small capacity to generate such technology, and so efforts focus on the adaptation or import of technology, when possible. Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have large investments in biotechnology which, together with equally large investments in nanotechnology, allow them to achieve some progress in applying these sciences to agriculture. Traditional knowledge is taken into account only in isolated initiatives.

Some LAC countries make an effort to set aside resources for public agricultural R&D. There are also resources available from many international sources linked to countries, communities of countries, and international institutions.

The private system is the largest investor in research for economically profitable production, and endeavors to expand its portfolio of products. In a few instances this effort is shared with the public sector.

In LAC countries with more institutionalized public R&D structures, work objectives are differentiated between the public and private sectors. This differentiation is driven by the economic profit of the investment of private companies in AKST, which is promoted by knowledge protection laws.

Most R&D systems work with the following agricultural products on a priority basis: grains, vegetables and spices, tropical fruits, and beef and fish products. Other
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