Abstract

This paper proposes a critical evaluation of the technological standards recently imposed on Brazilian agriculture and suggests alternative strategies for technology policies for small producers. Initially, a diagnosis is made of the situation and characteristics of the peasant sector in Brazil and the impacts of agricultural modernization on this sector of agri-culture. In this diagnosis, there is also a concern to reveal that the institutional organization for the generation and diffusion of agricultural technology by the public sector tends to reinforce the penalties imposed by the economic system on the small agricultural producers. The last part of this work deals with an analysis of possible modernization strategies for small producers. In this part, there is a concern to reintroduce the “technological issue”, revealing that a discussion of the appropriation of the results of increased produc-tivity brought about by modernization is more important than technological adequacy problems.