Key Messages
1. Latin American agriculture is characterized by its heterogeneity and diversity of cultures and actors. Its heterogeneity is expressed by reference to agroecological conditions, resource endowment and means of production and access to information and other services. The diversity of cultures and actors implies differences in the systems for producing, generating and using knowledge, resource management and stewardship, worldviews, survival strategies and forms of social organization.

2. For purposes of this evaluation, three agricultural systems are considered: the traditional-indigenous system, the conventional system and the agroecological system. The traditional/indigenous system is based on local/ancestral knowledge and is very much tied to the territory and includes peasant systems. The conventional system has a market-based approach, is focused on intensive production practices and tends towards monoculture and the use of external inputs. The agroecological/organic system is based on the combination of agroecology and traditional knowledge and favors the use of organic inputs and the integration of natural processes.

3. The environmental and social vulnerability of Latin American agriculture is one of the results of implementing the development models prevalent in the last 50 years. The development models of the last 50 years have accorded priority to capital- and technology-intensive production systems that consume large quantities of fuels from non-renewable sources, are oriented to the external market, with limited social benefits. In the traditional/indigenous production systems the effects of those models are expressed mainly in their displacement towards the agricultural frontier causing deforestation, erosion of resources and loss of biodiversity. The agroecological/organic systems, in the context of the predominant models, are geared to market segments with high purchasing power, which excludes large social sectors from their benefits.

4. Agricultural productivity has increased in the last 50 years; nonetheless, this has not resulted in a reduction of poverty or hunger. There are 54 million people suffering malnutrition in the region, while the amount of food produced is three times the amount consumed. Although agricultural knowledge, science and technology (AKST) systems have been aimed at the goal of increasing agricultural production, factors such as the lack of access to and distribution of foods and the low purchasing power of a large sector of the population have stood in the way of this translating into less hunger. Hunger and malnutrition in LAC are not the result of the inability to produce enough food; therefore, increasing production will not solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the region. To the contrary, one of the main problems in the rural sector has been food importation from other countries where production is subsidized. This supply of food products drives down the price of local products and has a direct negative impact on the standard of living and the ability to make a living of the rural population.

5. LAC has abundant natural resources but they are not used efficiently and are highly degraded. Latin America and the Caribbean represent the most extensive reserve of arable land in proportion to the population. The
region has 576 million ha, which is equivalent to 30% of the world’s arable land and 28.5% of the region’s land. In addition, the region contains five of the 10 richest countries in terms of biodiversity, with 40% of the world’s genetic reserves (plant and animal). Nonetheless, natural resource use and management has been characterized by the underutilization of the arable lands, with a high proportion of latifundia with absentee owners, resulting in the use of only 25% of available lands. Moreover, there is a steady loss of soil and diversity due to problems of erosion, urbanization, pollution and expansion of agriculture.

6. Most of the region’s rural population has lost or experienced a diminution of their access to and control over the use and conservation of the natural resources (land, water, genetic resources) in the last 50 years. This situation is an effect of the implementation of the agricultural policies of exploitation, privatization and patenting of natural resources stemming from the use of the neoliberal agroexport model that has been adopted by most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. There has been a great concentration of wealth, natural resources and entrepreneurial resources, among others, with growing marginalization, exclusion, poverty and migration from rural to urban areas and to other countries. Special mention should be made of the mounting conflicts in the region brought about by the concentration of land tenure and the loss of the right to land of thousands of peasant and indigenous families.

7. While the policies favoring the opening up of trade have created market opportunities for the countries of the region, they have increased the vulnerability of small- and medium-scale producers in the region, benefiting almost exclusively the large-scale producers. The free trade agreements and structural adjustment programs fostered by the international financial institutions and adopted by the national governments have created an unlevel playing field in which local producers have to compete with imported products subsidized in their countries of origin. This has resulted in the displacement of many smallscale producers, creating a rural exodus in many countries. In some cases, the producers have reacted by forming cooperatives and developing alternative markets, in particular the fair trade market and the market for organic produce. Many large producers have successfully inserted themselves in the international market.

8. In LAC, approximately 25% of the inhabitants live on less than US$2 a day. These levels of poverty have persisted despite economic growth in the region. Per capita GDP in Latin America and the Caribbean declined 0.7% in
the 1980s and increased 1.5% in the 1990s, without poverty levels changing significantly.

9. Malnutrition and hunger have a detrimental impact on the potential for development of the countries of the region and increase susceptibility to disease. In