A TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF THE PUBLIC POLICIES IMPLEMENTED IN THE “COQUEIRINHO” AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENT, MUNICIPALITY OF PALMAS (STATE OF TOCANTINS, BRAZIL). The aim of this article is to discuss territorial development as an alternative methodology for evaluating the public policies that were implemented following the collapse and take-over by the state of the “Coqueirinho” agricultural estate (municipality of Palmas, state of Tocantins, Brazil), a part of which was set aside in 1993 for the settlement of agricultural workers. The findings presented here constitute some of the results of a research project on organizational systems of agricultural production, with a special focus on the ethnographic observation of the experiences of rural workers. The article draws on secondary sources as well as on primary data collected during fieldwork. The general characteristics of the public policies implemented between the 1990s and the present day are presented and discussed, and special mention is made to two radically different policies that were implemented in also very different economic and political contexts. Additionally, a number of methodological issues are raised in relation to territorial development, with a view to providing with added consistency the arguments that are put forth.