pacities are weak in the face of innovations and market requirements, it is important to involve the local authorities in capacity building and technical assistance, as the only way to ensure co-responsibility, to strengthen their role, and to promote sustainability of the program.

5.3.3.2 Local capacity building
This picture of incipient representation and participation calls for parallel processes to develop capacities at all levels of society, with particular emphasis on rural dwellers who, sooner or later, will be making use of the AKST results developed in research centers, universities and elsewhere, and can then become active receivers, adapters or improvers of knowledge, science, technology and innovation in agriculture.

An important issue to address through a new form of government management is the effort to recognize and capitalize on local knowledge and know-how, which highlights the urgent need for intercultural education approaches, working through agents external to the communities as well as with the indigenous and peasant communities themselves. The protection of creativity rights and copyright through the intellectual property system hardly exists: in fact, this is not an appropriate mechanism for protecting the traditional knowledge of aboriginal communities and peoples because of the community nature of that knowledge.

5.4 Policies for the Sustainable Management of Production Systems

5.4.1 Sustainable management of production systems
The concept of sustainability is useful for integral rural development, because it treats agriculture as an economic, social and ecological system, the management of which is based on diversifying production over space and time. This approach must embrace all components of the land so as to improve its biological efficiency, maintain its productive capacity, conserve biodiversity, and generate conditions for the system to be self-regulating (Altieri, 1996).

Moreover, in cases of market-induced specialization, such systems must be managed with respect for agroecological principles if they are to be sustainable, whatever the size of the farm and the type of output. This agroecological approach should be a goal not only for small farmers and subsistence agriculture but for all production systems, even commercial ones, that are trying to move to sustainability and competitiveness.

5.4.1.1 The stages of transition
We start from the definition of the three types of agriculture given in Chapter 1 (conventional, traditional/indigenous, agroecological), characterizing the degree of sustainability of each type: the conventional system is dependent on the intensive use of industrial inputs; the traditional or present system makes little or no use of external (indigenous/ forest) inputs; while the agroecological system uses resources generated within the system, with perhaps some alternative inputs. All these systems are in constant flux, depending on their components, functions and management. These different production systems contribute in dif

different degrees to conservation of agrobiodiversity and of biodiversity in general, and they also contribute in different degrees to the internal food market and to the export market. Industrial, commercial agriculture systems, which are closely geared to the market, are more homogeneous but they are the ones that contribute least to maintaining biodiversity. By contrast, small peasant agriculture, despite its great limitations in farm size, has made the greatest contribution over time to the conservation, use and exploitation of biodiversity (Tapia, 1999; Caporal y Costabeber, 2004).

A number of conditions must be met if production systems are to move towards sustainable management:

• Diversified, multi-crop production, crop rotation, or a combination of systems (agro-sylvo-pastoral) managed over space and time.
• Meeting with the family’s food needs and supplying the domestic market.
• Use of agroecological practices for efficient exploitation of natural resources available on the land.
• Reduced energy consumption in running the system (avoiding excessive mechanization and transportation distances, optimizing photosynthesis, etc.).
• Making proper use of the biomass byproducts of farming:
  stubble for cattle, ground cover, green manure, composting.
• Development of capacities based on local knowledge and proven technological innovations (see Chapter 4).

These conditions for transition must not affect levels of productivity and competitiveness of the different production systems. This situation implies a gradual conversion that will allow the restoration of soil fertility and functional biodiversity in agroecosystems. There may be a noticeable decline in yields while the ecological balances of the production system are being restored. During this time incentives may be needed for some producers until their systems recover their productivity.

If production systems are to shift towards ecological or organic farming, farmers will also need to receive a price for their output consistent with its quality, and this may be higher than the international market price. These products are now sold to a limited group of consumers, mainly abroad, with the capacity to pay a premium for them. Yet a number of studies show that this organic market can be expanded, and that it is possible to produce sufficient food without using chemicals to meet the nutritional needs of the world population. Ecological or organic farming is also becoming an important source of rural employment, and is thus contributing significantly to improving living standards. Figure 5-2 shows the three stages of transition, according to the state in which each production system finds itself initially.

1. Conventional systems
Conventional production systems, with their high use of chemical inputs, can move toward stage 1, “reduced use of chemical inputs”, through greater efficiency in managing the system. Indeed, there are already various options that are being successfully applied such as sustainable lowfromCK