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 new strategies to successfully 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 labor 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 up-to-date data that help discern current trends in agricultural growth both within each state and the entire region.

Table of Contents:
Introduction by Michael J. Twomey and Ann Helwege The Substitution among Grains in Latin America by David Barkin, Rosemary L. Batt, and Billie R. DeWalt Social and Technological Transformations of the Argentine Pampa by Osvaldo Barsky Colombian Agriculture in the 1980s by R. Albert Berry The Agrarian Disaster in Mexico, 1982-1989 by José Luis Calva Agriculture, Export Diversification, and the Environment in Central America by Cameron Duncan Heterodoxy and Agricultural Development: The Recent Peruvian Experience by Raúl Hopkins Chilean Agriculture and Economic Policy, 1974-86 by Oscar Muñoz and Hugo Ortega External Adjustment and Agriculture in Brazil by GerVÁsio Castro de Rezende Agricultural Performance in a Small Petroleum-Exporting Country: Ecuador during the 1970s and 1980s by David W. Schodt The Organization and Performance of Cuban Agriculture by Andrew Zimbalist and Claes Brundenius Further Reading Index

About the Author :
MICHAEL J. TWOMEY is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. His articles have appeared in the Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, Explorations in Economic History, and, most recently, the Journal of Developing Areas. ANN HELWEGE is Assistant Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts University. She has had articles published in Challenge and Latin American Perspectives.

Review :
?The two introductory chapters of this work deal with Latin America in general, followed by chapters on Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Central America, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, and Cuba. With the exception of Peru and Cuba, all countries examined were characterized by IMF-type policies of economic "liberalism" during the 1980s. In general, the results of these policies have been to stimulate the growth of exportable crops rather than those to serve the food and raw material needs of their nations' consumers and industries; and, they have tended to stimulate grazing over crop growing, and within the latter, have encouraged the cultivation of crops providing food for cattle rather than for humans. The worst case examined is that of Mexico, which many regard as the great "success" of IMF-type policies; contributor Jose Luis Calva presents extensive data on how those policies have not only undermined domestic production of the staples of the average Mexican's diet, but also resulted in drastic increases in malnutrition and diseases associated with it. This work will interest Latin Americanists and those interested in economic development and agricultural economics. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections.?-Choice "The two introductory chapters of this work deal with Latin America in general, followed by chapters on Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Central America, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, and Cuba. With the exception of Peru and Cuba, all countries examined were characterized by IMF-type policies of economic "liberalism" during the 1980s. In general, the results of these policies have been to stimulate the growth of exportable crops rather than those to serve the food and raw material needs of their nations' consumers and industries; and, they have tended to stimulate grazing over crop growing, and within the latter, have encouraged the cultivation of crops providing food for cattle rather than for humans. The worst case examined is that of Mexico, which many regard as the great "success" of IMF-type policies; contributor Jose Luis Calva presents extensive data on how those policies have not only undermined domestic production of the staples of the average Mexican's diet, but also resulted in drastic increases in malnutrition and diseases associated with it. This work will interest Latin Americanists and those interested in economic development and agricultural economics. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections."-Choice