Each system of production is associated with a body of knowledge, science and technology that sustains and promotes it. Together these bodies of knowledge comprise the system of agricultural knowledge, science and technology. However, while this store of knowledge belongs to very different institutional and social systems, they are—or will have to be—permeable and must interact with each other, and it makes no sense therefore to establish vertical limits between them.

     Chapter 4 identifies the principal options for making AKST work more effectively to achieve the goals of reducing hunger and poverty, improving rural living systems, improving nutrition and human health; and promoting equitable and sustainable environmental, economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

     In terms of structure, the chapter has been divided into two main sections:
1. Options for enhancing the impact of AKST systems.
2. Options for strengthening the capacities of the System to generate, socialize, access and adopt AKST.
The system of knowledge and the institutions and organizations concernid with its generation and socialization are very separate and in most cases do not interact with each other. None of the systems of production, in their current state, whether conventional, traditional or agroecological, contributes at the same time to meeting the requirements of environmental sustainability and social and economic development. Thus, for example, it is evident that the conventional system has negative impacts on the environment, that the traditional system is failing to bring populations out of poverty and that agroecological systems still have not acquired the technological maturity that would make them acceptable and applicable under any conditions. However, Badgley and colleagues (2007) found, in a quantitative meta-analysis, that organic agriculture could today succeed in feeding the human population of the world (Badgley et al. 2007).

     The different social groups in Latin America and the Caribbean exhibit a sometimos marked separation between land-use methods and the AKST storehouses on which they rely. The knowledge is generated and acquired in five main types of institutions that are generally separate and which can be completely unaware of the knowledge possessed by other types. This is the case in the institutions identified in the diagram in Figure 4-1 in which local knowledge (disseminated locally within the family and social groups) has very few or no links at all to the conventional/agroindustry model (see Chapter 1) taught in universities and centers of advanced learning.

     The future development of agriculture in Latin America will depend on improvements in each one of the three bodies of knowledge mentioned above and, more than anything else, on the incorporation into each one of them of the elements needed to mitigate the negative effects of each one: the negative environmental impacts of some, and the low productivity or incapacity of others to reduce poverty and inequality. The relations expressed in the triangle in Figure 4-2 are explained by the following examples:

Example 1. Pole 1 represents a system of traditional agriculture in tropical forests of Latin America and the Caribbean

(clear, slash and burn), where traditional local AKST is used. The introduction of the practice of leaving land fallow and improved with the planting of vegetables shifts this category towards number 1; a situation in which the availability of good quality forage reduces the pressure on pastureland and therefore allows degraded areas to recover and/or the need to transform more forest into pastureland. The use of improved varieties and the inoculation of beneficial organisms (e.g., Rhizobium or Bacillus thurigiensis) would move them towards pole 3.

Example 2: pole 2 is an agroforestry system based on an agroeological AKST, using greenery of multi-use leguminous plants and annual crops of maize. The addition of chemical fertilizers (e.g., P, K) to organic fertilizers in order to improve the balance between the supply of available nutrients and the needs of plants, use of better selected plants and crops that trap certain pests (e.g., rows of okras between maize) would take it towards pole number 2.

Example 3: lastly, pole 3 is a soy monoculture based on a conventional AKST with annual plowing, fertilizing and pest control with chemical products. The abandonment of arable land and the movement towards a system of reduced plowing and the application of organic fertilizers and plant cover move it towards pole number 2.

The methodology used to identify options for improving the impact of the system of scientific and technological knowledge in agriculture was based on a double entry matrix
in which each option proposed was analyzed in the context of the sub-regions and the goals of IAASTD. The options for the future were analyzed schematically based on the three extreme systems of agricultural production (and the bodies of knowledge that sustain them) (See Figure 4-1) 
     This chapter seeks to identify the principal options for making AKST work more effectively to achieve the goals of sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is therefore necessary to seek options for: (1) improving the impact of the AKST. This section contains four parts: diversity of AKST in Latin America and the Caribbean; sustainable environmental and socioeconomic development; climate change and bioenergy; and biodiversity. (2) Strengthen capacities to generate, socialize, access and adopt AKST. The options in each one of these two parts are presented below.

4.2 Options for Strengthening the Impact of
AKST Systems

4.2.1 Diversity of AKST bodies in Latin America and
the Caribbean
AKST systems must interact more and differently. This goal could be achieved by exchanging experiences and comparing the different types of know-how and skills in order to address weaknesses and share strengths. The great diversity of AKST systems in Latin America and the Caribbean is its main strength. One type of knowledge does not exclude the other.

4.2.1.1 Integration of AKST systems
The management options being pursued in Latin America and the Caribbean combine in different proportions the