technical training. This is one more reason to expand the coverage and quality of secondary education in rural areas, in particular for those who are falling behind such as the extreme poor, indigenous groups, and residents of remote areas. Quality is probably as important or more than quality if we want to increase the impact of education.

The agricultural producer income analyses for rural Argentina reveal that farms operated by women are slightly more productive than farms operated by men. Moreover, the size of the producer household’s land holdings is important for the income generated on the farm and at average values of other variables, income increases with farm size. As larger farms earn dramatically higher incomes than do their counterparts with smaller farms. However, whether the farmland is rented or owned have very little measurable effect on incomes. Additionally, access to infrastructural services (paved roads and electricity) and use of productivity enhancing production techniques (fertilizers and irrigation) are important for income generation. Farmers with access to paved roads and electricity earn significantly higher incomes than do farmers without access.

Infrastructure and location characteristics are other important correlates of rural nonfarm participation where policy makers can intervene. Road connections, communications, and energy have been shown to be important for the development of the rural economy. The lack of key infrastructural services is systematically associated with lower incomes and employment opportunities. This is another reason why raising the low levels of investment in rural infrastructure, in particular in grouped rural areas, could pay off. Potentially gains from a spatial policy that favor the concentration of investment and services and the establishment of links between these and their rural hinterlands are so far untapped in rural Argentina.

Pursuing rural nonfarm growth should not be seen as an impediment or an alternative to pursuing agricultural development; there are strong synergies between the farm and nonfarm sectors. In signaling the importance of the rural nonfarm sector and advocating for more policy focus on the nonfarm economy, this does not mean that the importance of agricultural development is reduced. There is no contradiction between the development of the farm and non-farm sectors as shown in Lanjouw and Lanjouw (2001). What is needed is a comprehensive rural development policy where farm and nonfarm can coexist and their connections enhance productivity in both sectors.

Poor small farmers need assistance to improve productivity and an important factor would be the presence of extensive and well functioning research and extension, increased access to land, and rural finance systems. Moreover, poorer farmers tend to face more market failures and need to have services like research and extension, as well as rural finance or credit, tailored to their needs. Finally, small farmers and rural poor in Argentina have never received much attention from governments—they are too few and therefore supply few votes. Government expenditure on agriculture and nonagricultural activities is low in Argentina, reflecting the traditional neglect by governments of rural areas, particularly the rural poor and small farmers, despite a fairly strong labor productivity performance of the sector. Hence a rural development strategy is called for that includes 30