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comparative advantage are relative and subject to change. Entrepreneurial
capability is not only important in identifying and exploiting competitive
advantages, but in maintaining that advantage and expanding or adding to it
over time. The case study summarised by PROEXAG in illustration A (attached)
demonstrates how one firm in the PROEXAG activity made good use of marketing
opportunities for a commodity that has its own unique grower/exporter
environment.
3.0 THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY
Research and extension are the essential building blocks for long-term
agronomic performance in any agricultural system. It is especially critical
in a non-traditional system where new crops are being exploited. Successful
experience establishing non-traditional export crops in the U.S., Chile,
Mexico, and New Zealand strongly suggests that the main impetus and direction
for NTAE-type development has to come from the private growers, shippers and
exporters themselves. Yet these businesses remain high risk ventures because
they: (1) usually involve a relatively new crop that has an unproven local
technological base, thus needing considerable local Ldbptation; (2) are
subject to unpredictable weather and ever-increasing pest and disease
problems; (3) generally involve a highly perishable crop; (4) have very little
agro-ecological margin for error or correction; and (5) require consistent and
timely access to inputs.
The reality is that NTAE enterprises have little "learning time" in any given
season to make necessary corrections and/or modifications. New crops also
often perform unpredictably in new and untested environments, and therefore
site-specific technologies need to be tested and worked out. This takes
time. Establishing and sustaining these enterprises in the region then
becomes a long-term undertaking. It took over 15 years in Chile and 20-30
years in Mexico, for example, before many of these "new crop"-oriented
businesses became self sustaining. Even with the proliferation of quality
research complexes around the world, it must be recognized that much of the
technology is still generated and tested on experiment stations under more
controlled environments. Not enough of this is being tested over a long
enough period by working farmers on their own farms and under realistic
conditions of work and actual site-specific agro-ecological conditions.
Because the public sector role in the overall research-extension system is
often times weak, and the private sector adaptive research program for the
non-traditional crops is in its infancy, individual entrepreneurs often have
to make their own investments in adaptive research to identify the appropriate
technology for growing crops under CA agro-climatic conditions. The important
lesson here is that in case after case in Central America, success has been
possible when the -xporter and grower maintain control over technological
needs and themselves secure the best available resources.
In Guatemala, for example, a melon eqoitia venture whch became very
successful was based on a technology adaptation process using resources and
technical expertise from local and stateside research institutions. 'This
process, which took place over several seasoas,4locused on varietal
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