Efforts to develop production systems for specialized and differentiated products are stepped up to meet the demand for high quality products. There is a sharp increase in organic production systems, stimulated by implementation of a certification structure. Product differentiation begins to produce results based on the growth of an R&D structure with the capacity to develop technologies for processing agriculture products.

3.4.3.2.4 Results of interaction among the systems
Despite the fact that the consolidation of commodity production for external and internal markets exacerbates income inequality, by hampering the participation of smallscale producers in the most dynamic sector of agribusiness, social inclusion programs and research on family agriculture and agrarian reform lead to an increase in the income of many segments of peasant farmers. In addition, an expanding group of producers forms partnerships with companies inserted in productive chains or produces differentiated products with a high value added for market niches, and so it manages to improve its income profile.
     During this period, there is a considerable improvement in access by the people to health, employment, education, and food security in most of the countries. However, social exclusion and lack of access to basic services are still prevalent in many countries.
     When problems of food security do occur in the region, they are caused by pests, diseases, epidemics, and climate and environmental disasters. However, the region generally, and especially commodity-exporting countries like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, have the capacity to produce for both their national markets and to generate exportable surpluses. All of the countries still experience urban food security problems because of a lack of access to the food market. For countries with a low per capita income that still rely on food imports, the prices of these imports increase, causing food security problems.
     Organized social groups continue to exert strong pressure for measures to protect the environment, and they receive international funds to implement effective measures to this end.
     Private enterprises, and mainly export commodity producers, partially incorporate environmental conservation costs in their production cost, because they share this environmental cost with the national government.
     In the poorer countries of the region, and in peasant production, an improvement in economic efficiency, outside resources, and technical and management assistance include environmental sustainability as an objective of production systems. As a result, deforestation diminishes, the use of fertilizers and pesticides improves, and use of arable land for
large-scale production of biofuels stabilizes.

3.4.4 Adapting mosaic

3.4.4.1 2007-2015

3.4.4.1.1 Context of AKST systems and agricultural
production
The concern over climate change and environmental sustainability is reflected in changes in various policies and regulations in some LAC countries in the early part of the

second decade of the millennium, and in countries with better
governance capacity.
     Initially, changes in regulations affect trade among countries, including LAC, through a curious combination of barriers: on the one hand, nontariff barriers hinder agricultural imports of doubtful environmental and social sustainability; and, on the other, subsidies are granted for agricultural products with environmentally friendly characteristics.
     Barriers hamper trade among countries. Moreover, as regards external markets, the LAC countries see their competitiveness in agribusiness weaken on some markets, and especially the European ones, that require guarantees on the environmental sustainability of the production process. New and differentiated products are not demanded by the “new consumers.”
     Agricultural production declines in many countries, due to climate effects. Social movements in LAC in favor of greater environmental sustainability also favor consideration of ecosystems and strict development rules in each country. All of these factors further reduce the productive capacity of agriculture, and leads it to focus more on the domestic market, and especially local markets. Thus, external markets are no longer the target of agricultural products for many countries.
     Climate change contributes to the sharp rise in epidemics and the emergence of new pests, leading to considerable losses of human and animal lives and a substantial decline in crops. These losses are scattered unevenly across LAC, and also affect countries that contribute only slightly (in terms of CO2 emissions, for instance) to global warming and the severity of extreme events.
     This scenario begins to take shape following major temperature increases in various regions of the world, and extreme weather events of an unprecedented intensity are observed by the end of 2010. Countries prove incapable of dealing with the crises triggered by these changes.      Governance ranges from mediocre to acceptable in the countries of the region. The profound institutional innovation required takes place under the pressure of strong mobilization of different social groups, which force governments to share all of their decisions and action with these groups.
     Following the global trend, some LAC countries begin to modify their policies to create more sustainable systems, based on lessons learned from the relationship between socioeconomic and environmental systems. Some of the larger countries of the region, such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina,
Peru, and Colombia, are very much affected, however, since some of their ecosystems and people have been subjected to extreme conditions for a long time, a situation aggravated by climate change. For the first three countries, it is difficult to make the transition to a new paradigm, since they have commodity export-oriented economies and agriculture. For poorer or smaller countries, where agriculture already concentrates on products for local markets or niches, such as Costa Rica for ornamentals, and Bolivia for quinoa, this transition is easier.
     Agricultural development policies are designed to facilitate a change in the productive paradigm through specific R&D activities and the transfer and dissemination of the necessary traditional and conventional know-how and technologies.