An Preliminary Review of the Literature About the Challenges of Sustainable Agriculture in Latin America

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture is key to achieving food security, environmental conservation and economic development in Latin America. This preliminary review article in the literature examines the current state of sustainable agriculture in Latin America. It is a descriptive, documentary-exploratory study, consisting of 4 stages: Planning, search, selection and organization, and analysis, based on a search for information in the databases: ScienceDirect and Scopus, and government documents, through a Defined search strategy. The article begins with an overview of sustainable agriculture, the types of practices and their importance, followed by the challenges faced by farmers and policy makers in Latin America. The results stand out as the most relevant agricultural practices to agroecology, sustainable agriculture and conservation agriculture. In addition, it was found that the most significant challenges for farmers are access to financing to carry out their harvests, the effects of climate change and the technical capacities to work the land. While the challenges faced by decision makers are focused on the processing of public policies to strengthen sustainable agriculture and the promotion of financing programs for sustainable agriculture. The authors conclude that although sustainable agriculture is well accepted in the region, the issue lacks will on the part of decision makers to formulate public policies consistent with the realities of farmers to guarantee the long-term development of the practices.