Modernization and Stagnation: Latin American Agriculture into the 1990s

This volume is a compilation of essays that reviews the current status of agricultural progress in Latin America and evaluates its prospects into the 1990s. Various experts on Latin American affairs offer analyses that examine how economic and political changes over the past two decades, both regional and worldwide, have resulted in an imbalance between stagnation of output growth and modernization. Convinced that stability is vital to agricultural prosperity within the region, this study defines the major obstacles to this goal and develops strategies to meet the challenge. Although the work’s identification of the issues that are common to the entire geographical area is of significant value, the author of each essay brings his unique experience within the particular country to the study, resulting in a review of the diverse agricultural conditions that exist in each country, thereby hoping to stimulate further debate over their specific management. Each chapter studies a different country with reference to prices, technology, government policies, land tenure and labour markets. The effect of increased democratization and the continuing changes within the major nations of the world figure prominently, and together with numerous illustrative tables, the articles provide data that help discern trends in agricultural growth both within each state and the entire region.