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Topic · General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Latin American rural development

Latin American rural development is a research topic within General Agricultural and Biological Sciences. Science Explorer counts 4.1k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the intersection of agriculture, sustainability, and rural development in Latin America, with a focus on the social, environmental, and economic impacts of globalization, trade liberalization, and climate change on rural communities. It addresses issues such as food security, environmental policy, and the challenges of achieving agricultural sustainability in the face of economic and climatic pressures.

  • Agriculture
  • Sustainability
  • Rural Development
  • Climate Change
  • Food Security
  • Globalization
  • Social Impact
  • Environmental Policy
  • Rural Communities
  • Trade Liberalization
Research works
4.1k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
407
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-17%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Mexico
54% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Latin American rural development

Which countries lead Latin American rural development research?

By volume, Mexico and Argentina publish the most (386 and 130 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Mexico 386 works
  2. 2 Argentina 130 works
  3. 3 Colombia 46 works
  4. 4 Ecuador 36 works
  5. 5 United States 26 works
  6. 6 Spain 26 works
  7. 7 Peru 22 works
  8. 8 Brazil 14 works
  9. 9 Costa Rica 14 works
  10. 10 Chile 13 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Mexico: 54.2%Argentina: 18.2%Colombia: 6.5%Ecuador: 5.0%6 others listed: 16.1%54%largest
Mexico386 · 54.2%Argentina130 · 18.2%Colombia46 · 6.5%Ecuador36 · 5.0%6 others listed115 · 16.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Latin American rural development research?

By volume in 2022-now, Colegio de Postgraduados publishes the most Latin American rural development research, followed by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Colegio de PostgraduadosMexico 64 works
  2. 2 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y TécnicasArgentina 43 works
  3. 3 Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y PecuariasMexico 23 works
  4. 4 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMexico 21 works
  5. 5 Universidad VeracruzanaMexico 19 works
  6. 6 Universidad Autónoma del Estado de MéxicoMexico 16 works
  7. 7 Universidad de Buenos AiresArgentina 12 works
  8. 8 Secretaría de Ciencia, Humanidades, Tecnología e InnovaciónMexico 12 works
  9. 9 Tecnológico Nacional de MéxicoMexico 11 works
  10. 10 Universidad Autónoma MetropolitanaMexico 11 works

Who are the leading researchers in Latin American rural development?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Latin American rural development include Douglas S. Massey, Pamela A. Matson and Claudio Alberto Dávila-Cervantes.

  1. 1 Douglas S. Massey United States 67k citations
  2. 2 Pamela A. Matson United States 62k citations
  3. 3 Claudio Alberto Dávila-Cervantes Mexico 53k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Latin American rural development?

The most cited paper in Latin American rural development is "Keepers of maize in Chiapas, Mexico" (M.R. Bellon, Stephen B. Brush, 1994), with 224 citations. Next come "The ecological basis for the application of traditional agricultural technology in the management of tropical agro-ecosystems" (218) and "The Situation for Quinoa and Its Production in Southern Bolivia: From Economic Success to Environmental Disaster" (180).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Keepers of maize in Chiapas, Mexico M.R. Bellon, Stephen B. Brush · Economic Botany Apr 1994 224
2 The ecological basis for the application of traditional agricultural technology in the management of tropical agro-ecosystems Stephen R. Gliessman, Ricardo García, Moises Amador · Agro-Ecosystems Oct 1981 218
3 The Situation for Quinoa and Its Production in Southern Bolivia: From Economic Success to Environmental Disaster Sven‐Erik Jacobsen · Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science 22 May 2011 180
4 Maize Diversity, Variety Attributes, and Farmers’ Choices in Southeastern Guanajuato, Mexico Mélinda Smale, M.R. Bellon, José Alfonso Aguirre Gómez · Economic Development and Cultural Change Oct 2001 167
5 A maize landscape: Ethnicity and agro-biodiversity in Chiapas Mexico Stephen B. Brush, Hugo Perales · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 3 Feb 2007 157
All 102 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Latin American rural development research done?

The largest centres of Latin American rural development research in 2022-now are Mexico City (Mexico), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Montecillo (Mexico) and Texcoco (Mexico). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Texcoco, Coyoacán and Montecillo.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 Mexico CityMexico 67 works
  2. 2 Buenos AiresArgentina 52 works
  3. 3 MontecilloMexico 35 works
  4. 4 TexcocoMexico 31 works
  5. 5 XalapaMexico 26 works
  6. 6 CoyoacánMexico 23 works
  7. 7 BogotáColombia 18 works
  8. 8 TolucaMexico 17 works
  9. 9 Tuxtla GutiérrezMexico 14 works
  10. 10 Puebla CityMexico 13 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. TexcocoMX · 31.2 works650×
  2. CoyoacánMX · 23.4 works555×
  3. MontecilloMX · 34.9 works551×
  4. XalapaMX · 26.0 works98×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Latin American rural development than the world average.

See Latin American rural development on the map

Where is the best place to study Latin American rural development?

Among universities, judged by research, Colegio de Postgraduados, Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 9.26667%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Universidad Autónoma…Universidad de Guada…Colegio de Postgradu…Universidad Nacional…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Colegio de PostgraduadosMexico 72.113.2%709.2×64 -3.8%
2Universidad Autónoma de ChiapasMexico 56.816.7%461.1×9 +82.8%
3Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMexico 48.58.3%31.8×21 -36.5%
4Universidad de GuadalajaraMexico 30.313.4%50.5×10 -38.1%
5Universidad Autónoma del Estado de MéxicoMexico 27.66.2%154.3×16 +7.3%
6Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de PueblaMexico 27.16.1%95.2×10 +18.6%
7Universidad de Buenos AiresArgentina 24.95.8%44.8×12 -35.5%
8Universidad VeracruzanaMexico 21.15.3%145.2×19 +42.3%
9Universidad Autónoma MetropolitanaMexico 18.98.4%79.4×11 -42.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Latin American rural development, country by country

Is Latin American rural development research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2018.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Latin American rural development as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0026% in 2024.

still counting0.0025%0.0050%0.0075%Latin American rural development0.0032% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Latin American rural development over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Latin American rural development10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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