ABSTRACT
In 1948, the American International Association for Economic and Social Development, at the invitation of the state government of Minas Gerais, Brazil, organized a rural-development program called the Associacao de Credito e Assistencia Rural (ACAR). The 16-year experience of the ACAR program in Minas Gerais offers a useful case study of methods and techniques of planned change for farmers under conditions of semi-subsistence agriculture. Despite gradual reduction in the percentage of its population that is rural, over the past 20 years, 60 per cent of its people still live from the land, while the absolute number of rural people has actually increased. The traditional supervised credit approach is one where selected farm families receive short-term farm-operating or production loans, combined with individual farm and home planning and supervision of their farm operation during the year.
