Servicio de Asistencia Técnica y Extensión Rural – ATER como bien público para el fortalecimiento y perpetuación

Abstract

The Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Service (ATER) has a long history of being regulated, so the objective was to reflect on the possibilities of legitimizing it as a public good in Brazil. In this sense, a question arose: is there evidence that ATER can be understood as a “public good” in Brazil? The methodological approach was based on exploratory research that surveyed research and legislation on ATER and public goods, supported by the dialectical method that seeks to discuss information about the possibility of being converted as a public good, making a connection with the theory of path dependence that corroborates the construction of this study. Discussions have focused on regulations on Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Services (ATER), but for this transformation to occur, it is necessary for the Public Administration to understand the possibility and necessity of this change, so that it affects this public policy and there are no resource restrictions, since political representatives continue to exclude non-formal education, which includes the ATER service, from the characterization of a public good, which results from political interpretation or understandings due to its trajectory since implementation. It is concluded, through the evidence raised, that there is plausibility in incorporating this service as a public good, which is linked to the understanding of non-formal education, but it still requires in-depth studies.