Precariousness of work in outsourced extension: an analysis of public calls for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER) in the state of São Paulo – Brazil

Abstract

As of 2003, the Brazilian government implemented the National Policy for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Pnater) that established a new governance format to provide public agricultural extension services, in which public and private agents share responsibilities. Within this new format, the funding, coordination, and regulation of the rural extension system is State's responsibility, while the execution of services relies on both public institutions and private outsourced entities. The research presented here explored the labor conditions of extension workers hired by private agents executing the Pnater, based on the hypothesis that the governance model establishes precarious conditions in extension work. To this end, semi-structured interviews were carried out with field extension workers who worked within this model in the State of San Paolo. Our results point to a more complex situation than we had initially imagined. However, they indicate that the so-called Institutional Pluralism contributes to precariousness becoming a common condition in rural extension professionals' working conditions hired by private agents.