Government Expenditures on Agriculture in Latin America

Book excerpt: Extract: The main effort of this research was directed toward assembling as long and as complete a set of data as possible for government expenditures on agriculture in nine Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. It covers the period 1950-78 on an annual basis. An effort was made to include estimates for many kinds of expenditures, such as research and extension, irrigation, marketing, transport, health, education, administration, agrarian reform, and so forth. The purpose is to identify government expenditure policies for the agricultural sector; to measure their importance in relation to the total government budget and agricultural output; to analyze their trend and variability throughout the time period and from country to country; and to begin to study their effects on agricultural production.