Agricultural research policy issues in Latin America: An overview

The paper reviews two critical challenges facing research organizations and governments in the region: obsolete institutional structures and lack of stable funding for agricultural and natural resource management research. The paper describes recent trends in research investments, financing alternatives, and the institutional evolution of research organizations in order to meet those challenges. A preliminary conclusion is that the current low level of funding research, together with the dramatic organizational changes taking place in several public research organizations in the region, provide an opportunity to develop truly national agricultural innovation systems. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.