392 Copyright © 2016, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 17 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8798-1.ch017 Innovation and Agronomy: An Empirical Review of the Case for Chile ABSTRACT This chapter presents an empirical discussion about the relationship of agricultural industry and innova- tion in emerging economies. Then, a general revision of the innovation, agronomy and public policies associated will be reviewed. This chapter is immersed in the Chilean case. The author justifies that Chile can be a representative case because it is a country that wishes to become a world power in agro-food, but has very low investment in innovation. Besides, it has very low participation of agricultural innova- tive firms in the market. After the background is presented, innovation and development will be reviewed; subsequently, innovation in developing countries will be discussed, concluding with agro-innovation in Latin-American countries, especially in Chile. INTRODUCTION As of 2015, Chile is the only South-American country member of the OECD, which, unlike its neighboring nations, places it within a commu- nity of developed countries. This feature implies that Chile is facing a transition process towards economic development. However, as a developing country, the agricultural sector is still an important drive for its domestic economy. If we add the fact that Chile has a national policy of innovation more than 20 years old, it becomes interesting to study the case of agricultural innovation in said country since it sets a precedent for the rest of the Latin-American community. The public administrations’ view of innova- tion in Chile, and in the majority of countries, possesses the imprint of the classical Schumpter theory, which divides the pillars of business in- novation into four areas. The foundation of these pillars, rooted in both scientific and secular research, comprises the body of innovation: (i) product, (ii) production process, (iii) organiza- tional process, and (iv) marketing. In the context of the vision of Schumpeter, it should be said that he popularized the concept of “Destructive Creativity” (Schumpeter, 1942), and it is defined as a dynamic process of change, through time, where ideas of new goods and/or services are constantly born and die, searching for improve- Ariel R. Soto Caro Universidad de Concepción, Chile