inputs, internalizing the costs of environmental degradation, and sustainable agriculture labeling are more realistic proposals than changing international commodity market prices to reflect the quality of products, when those prices
have in fact been on a downward trend, with the exception of hydrocarbons.        Generally speaking, the proposed transitions move in the direction of reducing production costs, with no associated decline in productivity. They also assume more intensive use of labor, distributed over the year, which could have a positive impact on unmechanized farming and could help compensate for the seasonal nature of monocrop agriculture in the mechanized sector. This process of converting one production system to another usually requires a prior cost-benefit evaluation. That calculation must include the real costs of production, which will internalize the costs induced by environmental pollution (loss of biodiversity, damage to producers’ health, contamination of waterways, etc.). Depending on the results, changes could be made in the systems to improve productivity and help reduce poverty, through concrete policies designed and applied by institutions in the agriculture sector (Gomero, 2001).

5.4.1.2 Policies to support sustainable management of production systems
The future challenges in moving towards more sustainable production models are enormous. Stakeholders will need to change their views about the value of agriculture in resolving problems of poverty, food security, and the conservation of agrobiodiversity. During these transitions, different levels of progress in different systems of production will coexist. It is clear that if policies are to support this process they will have to arbitrate in the development of highly differentiated technologies.

There is a global tendency to consume natural products, and governments, the private sector and civil society have an important task in promoting product niches. Consumers’ concepts are changing, placing greater importance on food quality and safety. Special markets are emerging for products certified according to various concepts of differential quality. Similarly, rural employment can be boosted with a sound management structure for sustainable production systems. Yet such jobs are still precarious in many countries of the region, and the state must facilitate a process of formalization, so as to improve working conditions within production systems.

Policies are also needed to develop technologies that will contribute to the sustainable management of production systems. Those technologies will need to be differentiated and must respond to different geographic, ecological and social conditions. In addition, production systems must remain competitive. The use of latest-generation technologies such as genetic engineering can be adapted to the various demands of biosecurity and their use should be prohibited in some countries that are centers of biodiversity.

These changes should facilitate consumer access, in particular in the large cities, to high-quality products and in this way strengthen domestic markets. To this end, local products will need to be promoted, processed (into flour, cheese, sausages, dried or smoked foods, marmalades, etc.) and introduced into mass consumption by various means,

such as school lunches. The proliferation of these processing firms, their size varying according to the market but oriented primarily to the domestic market, will have an impact on rural employment.

Other rural jobs should be promoted to increase the employment rate in the countryside and to give rural people a chance to find work at home and raise their incomes, and in this way allow them to stay on the land instead of migrating to the cities. Those jobs could be provided by family craft businesses, participation in the benefits of tourism (porters, guides, local accommodation, etc.), nonagricultural activities, or productive job-creating investments financed with remittances from abroad.

Various production systems have been developed throughout Latin America, and each has benefited from differentiated support policies: market-oriented conventional agriculture has received the greatest support in terms of subsidies and credit and technical assistance. This support has been used essentially to buy fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds, and to a lesser extent farm machinery. This kind of government support has produced an economic and social divide between market-oriented industrial/commercial agriculture and small peasant farming, focused on the domestic market and food security. Policy initiatives to provoke sustainable management of production systems should consider the following aspects:

• Establish concrete policies for reducing fertilizer and pesticide use and promoting alternative technologies for the sustainable management of production systems.
• Encourage approaches such as “polluter pays” mechanisms to discourage the excessive use of chemical inputs, especially in intensive farming systems.
• Reform landholding and ownership, access to water, and the mass distribution of credit so poor farmers can (1) stabilize their production system and devote themselves exclusively to it, (2) find a more satisfactory ways of marketing their output, by organizing producers into groups, associations, and producers networks built around on productive chains.
• Develop markets and business opportunities for sustainably produced products, through certification mechanisms.
• Help producers develop the capacity to implement on a large scale production models such as ecological, organic, biological, biodynamic, or permaculture farming.
• Pursue policies to educate consumers on the importance of consuming sustainably produced food.
• Promote changes in urban consumer demand toward diversified food consumption and a change in quality standards, including food safety.
• Provide direct incentives with more effective support for the development of agroecological production systems, especially in the transition stage where there may be a risk that output and incomes will drop.
• Adopt financing policies to ensure that the objectives of sustainable management can be achieved.
• Encourage the development of technologies for sustainable management of the different production systems. These could rely on existing experience with sustainable agriculture in the region, with technical support based on: