large- and medium-sized agricultural producers, agroindustry, and input suppliers.
     As a result of strong pressure by international and national public opinion, in countries with fragile, threatened ecosystems, such as the Amazon, or with semiarid or arid zones, as found in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico, research programs include aspects related to protection and
conservation of the environment. The technologies generated are therefore adapted to these conditions, but few take into consideration the most vulnerable social groups, including peasants, subsistence farmers, or indigenous communities.

3.4.3.1.3 Agricultural production systems
The limited openness of borders and markets associated with social control of certain technologies, such as transgenic technology, creates a situation that works against incorporating knowledge into certain agricultural activities. Agricultural enterprises increasingly incorporate fragmented knowledge on use of inputs and machinery to improve the efficiency of production systems, generally by reducing costs.
     Export and product origin and quality certification companies also require the application and verification of a series of quality attributes to meet market requirements. Producers are required to include complex know-how associated with product and process standards.
     On the internal LAC market, there are two segments: (1) high-income consumers, a small segment but one that demands quality goods similar to those of consumers in richer countries; and (2) a large segment of poor consumers, for whom the most important factor is price. A considerable number of countries only have the poor consumer segment for their goods, and increasingly need more agricultural imports
in general, but especially food, because they are unable to meet the growing demand of their population.      Commodity production systems consist primarily of large capitalist corporations that produce for the external market and for mass domestic consumption. A considerable proportion of small-scale producers are linked to large production chains, such as the ones that participate in the poultry chain which is highly fragmented but efficiently coordinated. Others manage to find market niches for products with a high value added, either on domestic markets or on markets in wealthier countries.
     The problems of inclusion of farmers displaced by production chains, and without access to factor markets (land, water, and other inputs) and product markets, persist. Conflicts over development models and among organized social groups, the absence of public policies, and the shortage of resources constrain efforts to plan and implement programs
geared to these social segments.
     Limited openings in markets and borders and a short supply of public resources work against a healthy climate for investment in agriculture, although this is the economic sector that contributes the most to the economies of the countries of the region.
     Investment of resources in agribusiness fluctuates on the basis of the prices of export commodities, which go from boom to crisis situations based on price variations. Agribusiness is still the main source of income for many LAC countries, however.

       Since the main economic activity in the region is the competitive production of commodities for the international market, production systems focus on increasing their productive efficiency on the basis of comparatively lower production costs. To achieve this objective, the major corporations frequently take over and integrate all agricultural production, agroindustrial, and input production processes. Highly competitive national and multinational production chains are strengthened, for products such as soybeans and sugarcane, driven by the demand for biofuels.
     Efforts to develop systems to produce specialized and differentiated products, to meet social demands for higher quality products, are timid. There is a moderate increase in organic production systems, although it is limited by the lack of an efficient certification structure. Product differentiation
is restricted by the lack of a structure and R&D capacity in technologies for processing agricultural products.

3.4.3.1.4 Results of interaction among the systems Continued production of commodities for the external and internal market prolongs income inequality, caused by competition to reduce production costs. Thus, small-scale producers are prevented from participating in the most dynamic sector of agribusiness. Inequality persists becauseof a reduction in public investment in education, science and technology, and rural development.
     Social inclusion and agrarian reform programs are not successful in raising the income of most peasants and small farmers, due to widespread social conflicts and management and continuity problems. Only a small group of producers in the best ecological and economic conditions improve
their income profiles, because they form partnerships with companies that are in production chains or manage to produce for market niches for differentiated products with a high value added.
     There is still a considerable degree of social inequality at the end of this period, which is expressed in differences in the access to employment, food security, education, and health, by various social groups, including large producers, small family producers, agricultural wage-earners, and subsistence farmers.
     The effects of climate change, the intensification of pests and diseases associated with them, and the shortfall in financial resources contribute to a slight increase in social inequality that prevails to the end of the period. This is the general situation in LAC, but in a few countries improvements are beginning to be seen, as a result of changes in and more stable development policies.
     Food security problems in the region are much more the result of demand problems caused by consumers whose economic resources do not allow them access to the market, than due to the food supply. The region has the capacity to produce sufficient quantities to supply its domestic markets and also to create an exportable surplus, especially in agricultural commodity-exporting countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia. For the low per capita income countries that are highly dependent on food imports, the prices of these products increase, causing urban food security problems.
     Production of export commodities is generally based on the use of environmental factors, such as water and soil, and