Agricultural growth rates in the LatinAmerica and the Caribbean (LAC) region have been much slowerthan the rest of the developing world. In the regions ofEast Asia, South Asia and Middle East and North Africa, theannual growth of agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP)in 1980-2004 exceeded 3 percent, while growth in Sub-Saharan Africa averaged almost 3 percent. This paperattempts to present an overview of the agricultural sectorin LAC, discuss its distinctive features, and the potentialrole of Information and Communication Technology's(ICTs) in improving agricultural productivity and marketefficiency in this region. The discussion in this paper willrefer to the evidence provided by studies that evaluate theimpact of ICTs interventions. While the emphasis will be puton the studies that evaluate interventions in the LACregion, there will also be references to studies in otherdeveloping economies whenever these are pertinent to the LACcontext. The commercialization of agricultural products hassuffered important transformations in recent decades, posingbig challenges for farmers in the LAC region. Finally, theadoption of agricultural technologies will also beconstrained by insecure land rights. Investing intechnologies with long-run returns will not be attractive iffarmers are uncertain about their property rights in thefuture (Jack, 2011). This is certainly an issue in severalcountries in LAC, where land conflicts, expropriation and defacto ownership are common.
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