Technical assistance and rural extension in in south american countries: challenges in the cotton sector

The main goal of this study is to describe the ATERservices for the cotton production of the countries Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru, members of the Strengthening the cotton sector through South-South Cooperation Project(+Cotton). It should be noted that currently, the ATERservices in these countries are involved in realities and different scenarios, in rural territories, which are multidimensional spaces, which house multiple actors and activities, and therefore require not only the productivedimension, agricultural and non-agricultural, but also other functions such as environmental care, landscape, cultural heritage, etc (Rodriguez, 2016).From the documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews and focal groups, it was possible to characterize the rural extension for the cotton sector, its specificities, bottlenecks and the productive aspects of the item in order to contribute in the organization of the services, starting from the perspective of the users and those who offer the ATER service. Although the challenges of thecountries are great, byrelatingcottonproduction and rural extension, it demonstrates that this rural serviceis strategic for the resumption of sustainable development of the cotton production chain in Latin American countries. The efforts of different actors, public and prívate sectors contribute to achieve this challenge.