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 and coverage surveys show that 30.5% of Brazil´s territory was dedicated to the production of food, fibers, biofuels and raw materials.  This paper fulfils a gap and provides information to society and decision-makers about the effectiveness of the adoption of Conservation Agriculture (CA) principles with Zero Tillage (ZT/CA) and integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest (iCLF-CA) systems as the central policies to mitigate soil erosion, the main agent of land degradation and productivity loss.    The increase in CA area by 2030 was estimated using Holt’s damped for ZT/CA and simple linear models for iCLF-CA.  The annual potential for soil erosion with intensive conventional tillage and monocropping, considering land use and cover in 2017, is of 3.0 billion tonnes.  The economic impact, based only on replacement of nutrient losses, is estimated to be 15.7 billion US$ per year. To control soil erosion by water, to intensify agricultural production and mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions are the goals of the PronaSolos, a national program for detailed soil survey and interpretation. The annual economic impact of the adoption of CA principles by controlling soil erosion were estimated as at 1.5 billion US$ for ZT/CA in 2017 and 0.5 billion US$ for iCLF-CA in 2015. The future increase of the CA area was forecast at 34.4 Mha and 25.4 Mha for ZT/CA and iCLF-CA, respectively.  The positive impacts of the adoption of CA principles in Brazil are the result of the determination of farmers, among many actors, and of the effectiveness of government plans and policies.