This document presents the final report concerning the research “Evaluation of Extension Reforms in Brazil”, which objective was to evaluate Brazilian federal government’s actions related to Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER by its acronym in Portuguese). In order to do so, we have analyzed the implementation and execution of the National Policy of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (PNATER by its acronym in Portuguese) from 2004 to 2015.

This report has been divided into five chapters. The first chapter presents a history of governmental actions related to ATER in Brazilian history. The objective of this chapter was to recover the main issues related to ATER 's Public Policies in Brazil based on documentary research and extensive literature review. It represents an attempt to understand the institutional arrangements and the behavior of different agents in the execution of rural development policies. The first chapter also presents a detailed explanation of the principles and guidelines in which the PNATER is based. In addition, it highlights its main innovations in comparison to previous ATER policies.

This article aims to present the evolution of the main facts in Brazilian RAS and its recent history, focusing on institutional and legal changes, showing some relevant data derived from official sources with support from specialized literature.

Institutionalized rural advisory services in Brazil emerged during the 1950s and played an important role in the modernization of some sectors of its agriculture. However, they faced many difficulties that resulted in a long term crisis, which only recently began to be solved. Despite the progress of public policies, huge challenges remain in the way of providing quality and continuous services to all farmers.

Power Point Presentation held at the Innovations in Extension and Advisory Services International Conference in Nairobe, 15. - 18. November 2011.