Chilean agriculture has shown an unprecedented dynamism since the 1980's and its importance in the world food market is no longer questioned. The subject of this article is the role played by innovation and the agricultural advisory services in this striking growth. The objective is to explain how the Chilean state, through a voluntaristic policy, has managed to promote agricultural innovation while dealing effectively with the wide diversity amongst Chilean farmers, agricultural methods and agricultural products. This paper first briefly presents the whole Chilean system of innovation and then analyses in detail the government's agricultural advisory plan. The emphasis is put on its institutional organization, actors, objectives, programs and working methods. We then specify the new issues and challenges that the current (agricultural advisory services) plan must face: better cohesion between research and advisory services, high-quality advisory services adapted to distinct agricultural realities, implementation of a more reflexive model. We end with a more critical analysis.