Brazil has achieved impressive results in reducing poverty with “Fomento,” a set of large-scale, government-run social programs targeting smallholder farmers. Rural poverty in Brazil dropped dramatically from 51.4 percent in 2002 to 29.1 percent in 2011; during the same period, family farmers’ incomes also grew by 50 percent. When an initiative shows these kind of positive impacts, it raises questions for further research: What are the keys to its success? Can it be replicated in other countries where alleviating rural poverty is a similarly critical issue?