Abstract

ARENAS CALLE, Wendy Catalina; CARDOZO CONDE, Carlos Iván  and  BAENA, Margarita. Analysis of seed systems in Latin American countries. Acta Agron. [online]. 2015, vol.64, n.3, pp.239-245. ISSN 0120-2812.  https://doi.org/10.15446/acag.v64n3.43985.

Latin America is a diverse region that exhibits a high environmental, cultural and social wealth, likewise, this region presents a variety of ways according to their agricultural production conditions, cultures, practices and cultural, economic and political factors; this wide variety of factors influence the levels of agricultural productivity and hence competitiveness capacity of the region. The seed sector is different in each country and includes features, activities, dynamics and norms according to their local contexts, even within the same country coexist differences among seed crops sectors and / or regions. Considering that each system has its own characteristics, actors and interactions, it is necessary to propose studies to address knowledge through which the state of development of the sector in each country is determined. In this study a literature review and search for available data on seed systems in Brazil, Guatemala, Peru and Colombia is done to present factors and conditions on the state and development of the seed system in each of these countries. Overall, Brazil system shows an evolved system according to the Douglas (1982) classification criteria system. Colombia and Peru, have more developed systems for some crops than others, the most developed systems correspond to crops with higher economic interest while other cultures rely on informal systems such as self-sufficiency. In Guatemala, the supply of seeds is largely dependent on the farmers’ own production and public organizations through programs aimed at supporting small farmers

Keywords : Seeds; formal seed system; informal seed system.

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