This article seeks to analyze relevant federal public policies in Brazil related to soil and water conservation in order to extract the key lessons learned upon its implementation to support the participatory formulation of the National Plan for Soil and Water Sustainable Management. The policy analysis was made based on six strategic axis: Legislation, Prevention, Conservation, Recovery, Monitoring and Integration. These analyzes results aim to contribute to subsidize the Plan construction and identify instruments to increase the use of soil and water resources efficiency in agricultural production according to the different environmental, social and economic conditions of the country’s regions. Seven public policies were selected, characterized and analyzed. The results showed that none of the analyzed public policies are taking enough actions to accomplish with the six strategic axis for soil and water sustainability. These gaps were detected and described as opportunities to be considered under the new national policy framework. The needs for greater involvement of civil society and other relevant stakeholders on policy design and decision making as well as integration among federal ministries were also identified. In conclusion, it is suggested that the new Plan should be designed under a decentralized and participatory process to effectively gather engagement and stronger commitment from governments and other strategic stakeholders in public decisions towards soil and water sustainable management in the agriculture, thus contributing to sustainable rural development.

Land use surveys show 30.5% of Brazil´s territory is dedicated to production of food, fibers, biofuels and raw materials; however, soil erosion is the main agent of land degradation and productivity decreasing. This paper reports the impacts of the adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) principles in controlling soil loss by water erosion, where Zero Tillage (ZT) and integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest (iCLF) management systems are the central policies. Annual soil loss potential, estimated for a scenery lacking CA practices, intensive conventional tillage and monoculture, is of 3.0 billion tons, with 29.5% of losses in croplands and 61.4% in rangelands. The economic impact of soil erosion based only on nutrient losses is estimated in 15.7 billion US dollars. Efforts to control water erosion, intensify agricultural production and mitigate the emission of greenhouse gases are the goal of a recent national governmental program for detailed soil survey and interpretation for land use - PronaSolos. Practices and technologies based on CA, such as ZT and iCLF, already adopted in 44.4 million hectares, with an economic impact of 2.3 billion US dollars, will be recommended to reach 60 million ha by the year 2025. Other benefits are maintenance of rural roads, reduction of soil and water pollution, increase of water quality and storage capacity of reservoirs. The success of the program and current achievements with CA in Brazil result from determination of farmers and many actors involved in controlling soil erosion; as well as plans and policies to implement practices and technologies based on CA principles.