Small Farmers and the Transition to Non- Traditional Agriculture in Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Many government officials and policy-makers in developing countries support the adoption of non-traditional export crops among peasant farmers as a way of promoting economic development in the rural sector and providing new production alternatives for the rural poor. Nonetheless, these policy initiatives many times fail because the small producers are not able to adapt to the new technologies, cannot access the production and marketing structures of many agro-export products, or lack the necessary initial conditions in terms of financial and capital investments to be able to penetrate these types of activities. This thesis studies what public sector officials in the rural sector institutions can do to facilitate the transition of smallfarm producers from traditional to non-traditional agriculture. It focuses on a case study of a group of basic grains producers in the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, who started to plant cayenne pepper for the export sector, and on the innovative role of the public sector extension service agents in this locality. The analysis of this case study derives important lessons for agricultural policy, and for the design and implementation of projects for the rural sector. Thesis Supervisor: Alice Amsden Tittle: Professor of Political Economy Chapter