18. Policies for alternative energy supply based on renewable resources motivated by the worldwide energy crisis present opportunities and threats to the agricultural sector, thus their externalities should be carefully analyzed. Agricultural production for use in alternatives to fossil fuels has increased quickly in recent years in LAC, benefiting some economic sectors and providing alternative markets to the agroindustrial sector. Although the development of these crops offers an opportunity for rural revitalization, there are risks of negative environmental and social impacts. The expansion of crops for biofuels, such as sugar cane, oil palm, soybean and timber, is diminishing food production with a negative impact on food security in some regions and with a detrimental impact mainly on small-scale producers, indigenous populations and other traditional communities. The use of by-products or animal and plant waste is another source of biofuels whose use attenuates environmental problems

19. The structures of agricultural regulation in LAC are not institutionally adequate, resulting in regional weaknesses such as low competitiveness and the vulnerability of the endemic natural patrimonies. There are some international agreements on biosafety, animal and plant quarantine, food safety, intellectual property and access
to and management of genetic resources that have been important in other regions of the world as part of a sustainable agriculture development agenda. The understanding of these agreements by countries has not always meant that they adhere to them, but it has encouraged them to develop particular and appropriate regulatory strategies, for example, on the protection, access to and use and management of autochthonous natural patrimonies, independent of
whether they adopt international regulatory frameworks.

1.1 Objectives and Conceptual Framework
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has a population of 569 million people, 209 million of whom are poor and 81 million of whom suffer extreme poverty, most of whom live in rural areas (UNDP, 2005b; CEPAL, 2006b; FAO, 2006b). The region has great biodiversity and an abundance
of natural resources, which contributes to the production of 36% of the cultivated foods and industrial species worldwide. Nonetheless, these resources are rapidly degrading (UNEP, 2006). The situation is all the more complicated since the region is one of those most affected by economic inequality in the world (CEPAL, 2004a; Ferranti et al., 2004). The region is facing the important task of improving rural livelihoods and ensuring nutritional security while reducing environmental degradation, addressing social and gender inequality and guaranteeing health and human welfare. Evaluating how AKST can contribute to these goals is a multisectoral task that requires paying attention to a wide variety of economic, environmental, ethical, social and cultural factors.
     The authors of The Millennium Development Goals: A Latin American and Caribbean Perspective (UNDP, 2005a) conclude that the region produces sufficient food to meet the nutritional needs of all its inhabitants. Though this is not uniform across the region, all the countries, including those with a high rate of malnutrition, have a food energy supply

 of more than 2,000 kilocalories per person per day, which exceeds the minimum recommended for an adult (1,815 kilocalories) (Figure 1-1). In all, the region produces three times the quantity of food it consumes (UNDP, 2005a). These data suggest that hunger and malnutrition in the region today are not due exclusively to the failure to produce sufficient food and that the problem is more complex, hence the solution must go beyond technical aspects related to production. The divergence of opinions with respect to the causes and possible solutions underscores the need to undertake a critical international evaluation that makes it possible to analyze, using a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach, aspects crucial for policy making.
     It was with this purpose in mind that the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was undertaken. This evaluation is an initiative sponsored by different United Nations agencies, the World Bank and multilateral funds,1 which seeks to analyze the complexities of the systems of knowledge, science and technology (KST) in Latin America and the Caribbean to understand how these systems can contribute to improving the living conditions of the poor in the region. The objectives of this chapter are: (1) to develop the conceptual framework for the evaluation, (2) to present the context (social, political, economic, environmental, cultural) that impacts on or is affected by agriculture in the region and (3) to undertake a critical assessment of the recent evolution and current situation of production systems, in particular an evaluation of the performance and impacts of the three main systems of production in the region: the indigenous/traditional, the conventional/productivist and the emerging agroecological system. The conceptual framework, context and current situation (Chapter 1), as well as the historical analysis of the role of knowledge, science and technology in agriculture (Chapter 2), will provide the elements needed for analyzing future scenarios (Chapter 3) and options for the future (Chapters 4 and 5). In particular, an effort is to be made to evaluate how agricultural knowledge, science and technology systems can contribute to the goals of sustainable development and in particular to reducing hunger and poverty, improving nutrition and human health, strengthening ways of life and equity and achieving environmental sustainability.
     Reducing hunger and poverty, improving human nutrition, strengthening ways of life and achieving environmentally and socially sustainable economic development remain on the social and economic agenda of all local, national, regional and global strategies and interventions. Similarly, generating, accessing and using knowledge, science and technology are considered driving factors of and therefore fundamental components in such strategies and interventions, especially those geared to rural development and poverty reduction.

¹ World Bank (WB), Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO),
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), United Nations
Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Global
Environment Facility (GEF).