Ruralities, territorial focus and public policies for rural development in Brazil: An abandoned priority?[Introdução à seção temática: Estratégias e práticas alimentares de famílias agrícolas multilocalizadas e os papéis das políticas públicas]

This paper invites a reflection on "styles" or "models" of development that have characterized social, economic and politico-institutional transformations in rural areas. It does so by evaluating territorial development, differentiated public policies, and the emergence of new ruralities in the agricultural context in Brazil, based on the experience over the last few decades. By drawing on international literature, this work assesses the meaning of the use of new ruralities to characterise farming environments, and its impact over important indicators and governmental policies. With a focus on Brazil, the article traces recent processes that help to sketch out possible "snapshots" of the national agricultural landscape, as evidenced in work based on land grabbing and financialization of land, and on the constitution of rural territories. These processes are supported by important governmental policies, such as rural credit and territorial development programs. The recent crisis of agricultural policies in Brazil brings new challenges in terms of understanding this broader context, and raises new questions, which will be addressed in the concluding remarks.