a whole and in individual countries of the region, investment in AKST systems is low, and this trend needs to be reversed by strengthening investment in various components of the system, in order to sustain its dynamics and to reduce AKST dependency on technological innovations from outside the region. This increased investment should take place not only at the national level but also at the subregional and regional levels in order to capitalize on experience and minimize duplication in R&D.

12. Differentiated financing policies for the extremely poor and the creditworthy poor. In order to create comprehensive financial systems, we must differentiate between people who are extremely poor and people who are poor but creditworthy. The first group are unable to borrow, and they require specific solutions along the lines of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The second group, on the other hand, can access financial services under certain prerequisites, primarily the resolution of property rights, education, the acquisition of management capacities, etc.

13. Financial support programs for communities to make the transition to a sustainable production system. One very important aspect to consider in financing policies for supporting AKST systems is the fact that communities in many parts of LAC are starting from very backward conditions marked by the immediate demands of subsistence, and they have few resources of their own. Consequently, it is virtually impossible for these communities, by themselves, to meet the challenge of moving from their current condition towards a productive system that is sustainable in both economic and environmental terms. This challenge must be addressed through financial support so that the transition can be made in an orderly and progressive manner.

14. Social spending geared to growth in GDP. Social policies targeted at the rural population should be based on the assumption that social spending in general (and in particular that for promoting AKST) will grow in real terms by at least the same proportion as the increase in GDP, although it would be desirable for it to grow more than proportionally, since LAC faces the challenge of overcoming the severe shortages and needs of rural people and vulnerable groups.

5.1 Objectives and Conceptual Framework
This chapter recommends policy options for supporting AKST in relation to food sovereignty, development and culture; strengthening institutions and developing the legal framework; sustainable management of productive systems; promotion of markets and financing, which will contribute to reducing hunger and poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), in light of the goals set by the IAASTD.27

27 The goals are to improve rural livelihoods and to promote equitable development, with environmental, social and economic sustainability that will reduce poverty and hunger through the generation, availability and use of agricultural knowledge, science and technology.

The AKST assessment of LAC in Chapters 1 and 2 has identified a number of economic, social and environmental limitations in the management of agricultural production systems, and a series of support policy measures must be designed and implemented to promote the conversion of current agricultural systems to ones that will guarantee sustainability.

To achieve this purpose, we must address the critical points that are hampering system change, relating to capacity development, research and innovation, and the supply of technology, recognizing the opportunities that arise in the productive chains and the need to make trade-offs between domestic market development and export subsidies. Currently one of the barriers to achieving competitiveness in Latin America is the limited capacity of those who manage productive units, and policies are needed to address this through rural schools, technology institutes and advanced training centers, with a new curriculum focused on development and sustainability, consistent with the objectives of each country and recognizing multicultural diversity.

Similarly, we must note that this conversion process will only be possible if research policies are at the same time oriented toward technological innovation based on the sustainable exploitation of biodiversity and natural resources. The challenge is to find new technologies and alternative inputs, and ways of combining them without sacrificing competitiveness, to identify incentives and protection policies for the various stakeholders, and to select readily observable indicators of progress achieved.

Various experiments with productive development projects show that training and research alone are not enough to achieve sustainable development. Those efforts must serve to link producers to the domestic market. To date, technology has been the preserve of export-oriented productive chains.The market for technologies and inputs has historically been controlled by the multinational agrochemical and seed companies, and there have been no alternative companies present on the market offering clean agricultural technologies. This means that policies are needed to encourage small- and medium-sized firms to enter the market under better conditions of competitiveness (Lizarraga, 2002).

The agroecological conversion of farming systems can also be accelerated if there is an increasingly demanding market for safe, high-quality products. This trend is already apparent and is forcing market-oriented producers to initiate or speed up the conversion of their systems. Similarly, public policies can facilitate the process through incentives scaled to performance. What is essential here is a clear governmental willingness expressed in a policy for financing and strengthening the institutions involved in facilitating productive development in the countryside.

Figure 5-1 summarizes and illustrates the interactions between the set of AKST support policies proposed in this chapter for moving forward in the transition to sustainable production.

It is useful to note here the importance of the models that multilateral agencies and international treaties impose on overall policy guidelines. Examples are the problems flowing from the stalemate in negotiations on the agriculture chapter in the World Trade Organization, and the outcome of free trade treaties, which have exposed broad