This article aims to investigate how Pronaf (National Program for the Strengthening of Family Farming) is defined and assessed by the Brazilian government in order to deconstruct any causal relationship between development and recognition that may exist in the information about the program. The methodology used was a review of official data on Pronaf, which directed the questions about the volume of funds available for credit, as well as on the distribution of these between groups of beneficiaries and regions in Brazil. As main results, it is highlighted that only the redistribution of resources is not sufficient for the recognition of farmers.