corporating knowledge into production systems remain in effect. The region tends to become standardized in its technological efforts, and plentiful resources prevail throughout most of the region. Problems of access to water are solved by new technologies to reprocess wastewaters and by desalinization of salt or brackish waters. Land as a resource and environmental protection are ensured through the successful use of degraded environments considered as hostile to life in the past.
     The major production systems, which use modern production and management methods, operate with great efficiency and produce high-quality products using advanced processes; this enhances their capacity to compete on markets. A large component of knowledge and technology are incorporated into these products and processes, thereby generating countless differentiated products.
     Smaller-scale production systems (no longer called “small producers”) participate as suppliers of preprocessed raw materials for large production chains. The vast majority of the production systems are successful.

3.4.5.2.4 Results of interaction among the systems
If only agriculture-based productive activities are considered, income inequality is sharply reduced in this period, as a result of the insertion of many producers, considered as small producers in the previous period, into powerful production chains and transnationals. Thus all the social groups participating in this activity obtain higher incomes. However, wage-earners who were working in the fields before the work was completely technified lose their jobs and migrate to the cities, which are now faced with an increased demand for food and basic services.
     Access to education, housing, and food security are guaranteed by governments in different ways. Employment, however, is not guaranteed, although the diversification of agriculture has contributed to its increase and governments have implemented powerful mechanisms to create alternative
labor markets and provide compensation for the unemployed.
     Urban food security is supported by abundant, cheap, diversified food that meets high health standards. The sustainability of agricultural production systems gradually increases throughout the period, as a result of the application of more sustainable technologies, but also because agriculture has another paradigm, since environmental services are almost always provided along with the conventional production systems. Another important reason for this growing, yet incomplete sustainability is the use of regulatory
procedures and standards in the technified countries of the region. There are also isolated cases of newly emerging environmental problems, resulting from technological solutions to previously existing problems.


3.5 Implications of the Scenarios for
Innovation and Development Policies
The purpose of this chapter is to help answer the following question, with specific reference to Latin America and the Caribbean and alternatives for the future development of the region:

“How can we reduce hunger and poverty, improve rural

rural livelihoods, and facilitate equitable and environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable development through the generation, access to, and use of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology?”
     On the basis of these alternatives, it is possible to propose nonprescriptive recommendations as to how science and technology can best contribute to this development.
     The five scenarios constructed to answer this question show that knowledge, science, and technology can contribute to the changes suggested in the question, but in different ways, depending on each alternative scenario considered.
     The scenarios also make it clear that this contribution will be more likely and facilitated in situations in which other political, economic, and social conditions are also present. In each scenario, the direct influence of these conditions, and the interaction among them, will guide the action of formal AKST systems, and the use of traditional knowledge, and hence determine their contribution to sustainable development, as proposed in the question that generated this critical evaluation (IAASTD).
     According to the Global Orchestration scenario, society has abundant resources, it is guided by market forces and is highly interconnected, but is concerned only on a reactive basis with the impact of human action on the environment. Formal AKST systems are characterized by uncontrolled generation of new products, which increasingly incorporate more technology to meet ever more sophisticated demand. Little if any use is made of traditional knowledge. As a result of the high degree of technology incorporated into the system, there are unemployment problems. Due to the careless exploitation of natural resources, the impact of human action intensifies, generally leading to highly negative consequences for agriculture and human life.
     In the Order from Strength scenario, society is fragmented, and there is a pervasive distrust of the rich, and generally developed countries on the part of the poor and generally undeveloped countries; highly restrictive governance conditions and largely inadequate policies prevail in LAC, and there is a strong trend towards aggressive exploitation of the natural resources of the poor countries by the richer countries. The region even loses its capacity to generate technology independently, and becomes increasingly dependent on other regions. The incorporation of traditional knowledge in this scenario is only peripheral and marginal. As a result, LAC
becomes a mere supplier of inputs for the rich countries. There is an enormous social and economic crisis, and the environment is subjected to unprecedented impacts.
     The “Life as it is” scenario presents a world in which countries are integrated, but not to a great extent. The course of action is defined by the market, but not fully, and a division among countries persists, but it is still possible to conceive of change in the long run. There is both a proactive and a reactive approach to interaction between man and nature. In other words, it is a pluralistic world, in which none of the variables considered dominates others in its influence on the scenario. In these circumstances, the AKST system also obtains relatively mediocre results in its efforts to achieve any of the major sustainable development objectives referred to in the initial question that the chapter endeavors to answer, although the results are positive in the