Trends in Agricultural Policy in Latin America

In a recent book, Agricultura, medio ambiente y pobreza rural en América Latina [Agriculture, the Environment, and Rural Poverty in Latin America], editors Lucio G. Reca and Ruben G. Echeverría have put together papers written by 13 agricultural economists that provide policymakers and anyone interested in Latin America and the Caribbean with background information on the region’s contemporary policies on rural issues. The book, copublished in Spanish by IFPRI and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is a collection of some of the papers presented in 1996 at 2020 subregional seminars organized by IFPRI, IDB, and the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA) in Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina.

Together the papers in this book attest to the “paradox of agriculture,” Reca says. “Even if there is verbal agreement on the importance of agriculture,” he explains, “investment requirements and in-depth discussions of agricultural problems are frequently postponed.” This book, as part of the IFPRI’s 2020 Vision initiative, attempts to “modify this dangerous and undesirable situation,” according to Reca.

Among other issues, the book illustrates the impact trade and exchange rates have had on agriculture in the region, analyzes poverty in the Andean countries, examines how agricultural transformations over the past 15 years demand institutional change, and takes a look at what’s expected in regional agricultural trends by 2020.

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