Abstract:
Quantitative analyzes of the effects of technical assistance and rural extension (Ater) are fundamental for the improvement of the policy. With the objective of evaluating the effect of the use of technical assistance on the monthly income of Brazilian family farmers, the econometric instrument Propensity Score Matching was applied in the present work, using data from the National Survey for Household Samples (PNAD) of the year 2014. The results evidenced a statistically significant increase of R $ 490.54 on the monthly income of the family farmers due to the use of assistance. In addition, the aggregate-level analysis allowedto infer that the increase in total monthly income for family farmers in 2014, due to Ater's actions, that was statistically higher than the government's annual expenditure with the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Program in Family Agricultur . It is concluded that there is a strong indication of the viability of the expansion of Ater's actions, especially considering that only 17% of family farmers were assisted by such services in 2014. The expansion of the policy, coupled with systemic analysis for its constant improvement is, therefore, a promising route for the economic development of family agriculture in Brazil.
Keywords:
Agricultural policy; family farming; technical assistance; training