Política agraria y desarrollo rural en Costa Rica: elementos para su definición en el nuevo entorno internacional[Agrarian policies and rural development in Costa Rica: definitions elements in the new international context]

In the last two decades, the Costa Rican rural areas have been under considerable transformations. The changes occurred in the international context and the reorientation of the economic policies executed in the country, provoked the loom up of a more diverse productive structure and the enhancement of inequalities between the different agricultural producers groups. The extraordinary scientific and technological developments current in the contemporary society, the big differences in the knowledge generation or in the access of it, the Southern nation’s economic aperture trends and the persistence of diverse producers´ protection mechanism in the Northern countries; as well as the stimulus to agricultural and agro-industrial production for the international market, and the efforts to attract external investment, are some of the conditional factors of large rural areas modifications. The difficulties of numerous families to survive is dedicated exclusively to agricultural activities; the increase of the rural non-agricultural productive activities (tourism, services, agribusiness); the growth of rural non-agricultural employment, and the expansion of the rural areas multifunctionality, reduce the effectiveness of the prevailing perspectives, exclusively centered in agriculture, and the definition of sectarian policies and institutional initiatives without an a articulator axis. A territorial perspective adoption and the agricultural and environmental policies´ redefinition, oriented to respond to the new conditions of rural areas, are necessary measures to stimulate the productive activities´ growth, to encourage the advance of different country regions and to promote rural wellbeing. The rural social actors´ participation in these processes is a crucial factor to respond to the needs and particular demands of the diverse territories, and to promote local development in the rural spaces.