One of the main reasons for creating FORAGRO was to highlight the growing importance of
cooperation and strategic alliances between research centers, transnational research and technology
development networks and other agents of technological change to modernize the agricultural
technical change. Also the fact that agricultural research, and the technological developments derived
from same, are no longer only the result of the work of national and international research centers, but
rather of the joint efforts of different public and private national, regional and international
institutions. Also, there is sufficient maturity in the region, despite problems and vacuums that have
led to the process of institutional strengthening and diversification that has taken place in many
countries, to re-define the function of several of the National Agricultural Research Systems and
Institutes and attach growing importance to the role played by the different institutional actors, such as
the private sector, universities, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This context provides an
excellent opportunity for the mutual collaboration between Latin America and the Caribbean and other
regions of the world in terms of technological innovation, concept that goes beyond R&D.