Contribuições dos Serviços de Extensão Rural em Assentamentos da Reforma Agrária no RS: uma Leitura a partir da Agroindustrialização como Estratégia de Acesso aos Mercados

This article focuses on the interactions between extension services and rural farmers in settlements of agrarian reform in order to find alternatives for the reproduction of families. For both groups, it tries to analyze the contributions and limitations of the extensionist action in processes triggered by projects of agro-industrialization (colonial mills) in rural settlements in RS. The problem is set up by the demand of specific knowledge (and therefore innovative) by farmers and services of Ater, and the frustration of expectations, mistrust and lack of adherence on the part of potential beneficiaries. From qualitative methodology (case study, primary sources), it was possible to illustrate innovations related to the product, the processes, organizational innovations, in addition to innovations in the system of rural advice. However, after repeated interventions, the colonial mills still remained with little autonomy. The results suggest limits not only to the colonial mills activity as a strategy for market access, but also of the extension services themselves, that showed little progress on disconnecting from the label of “paternalistic”