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Abstract
Public-private partnerships have become increasingly important as an
arrangement that serves to encourage innovation in agricultural production chains in
Latin America. However, some observers have expressed concern that this institutional
arrangement may mostly favor the interests of the private sector without producing
sufficient social benefits for the public. This paper presents the results of a study of 124
cases of public-private partnerships in agricultural innovation in nine countries in Latin
America. The data from the study suggest that the partnership concept is used to generate
agricultural innovations in many different ways, involving public research and private
entities to varying degrees and focusing on different types of agricultural products,
processing, or marketing.
The results indicate that public as well as private sector actors often enter into
partnerships based on unclear expectations of the benefits to be obtained, but once
involved, these actors are usually satisfied with the results. Given the high degree of
satisfaction that partners experience in public-private partnerships, they constitute an
interesting new tool for development. However, in many cases public sector agents do
not clearly establish public priorities; in consequence, public sector goals are not
addressed sufficiently. Also due to the limited commitment of some of the partners to
partnerships their potentials of generating synergy are not met. One key recommendation
to emerge from the study is that when entering into public-private partnerships, public
agents should ensure that these partnerships comply with public needs.