Transformaciones agrícolas y despoblamiento en las comunidades rurales de la Región Pampeana Argentina

The aim of this work is to characterise the historical process of agricultural development in the Pampas and to examine —at the same time— the main features of the rural depopulation process. This characterization is accomplished by defining four historical stages, according to four criteria that point out particular aspects in them: 1) external economic conditions; 2) domestic economic policy framework.; 3) the behaviour of the factors of production and innovation; 4) the urban-rural demographic changes. It is proved that one of the most important changes of this historical process has been the loss of rural population. The historical characterization reveals the agricultural change and analyses the effects of rural depopulation and urban concentration. The reflection on these effects will be useful to understand the region better and to raise appropriate local developing policies that will enable the rural communities sustainability.