This volume offers substantive clarification of the proper roles for public agricultural research and development (R&D) throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and introduces an analytical framework for assessing cross-country collective action in funding and carrying out research. To inform research policy decisions, the book provides a wealth of newly digested information about trends in agricultural production, productivity, consumption, and trade for the region, placing those trends in a comparative international context. It also provides new information about the spatial patterns of agricultural production and productivity in LAC - especially critical information for making informed research priority decisions given the inherent agroecological specificity of many agricultural technologies.