SOCIALLY BALANCED AGRICULTURE- IN SEARCH OF A NEW MODEL FOR POLAND

The general idea of a new strategy for the development of agriculture boils down to strivings to create modern, technically and economically efficient agriculture which should, simultaneously, be friendly to man and the natural environment. Such agriculture would be based mainly on family farms. It would be integrated with the entire national economy and it should be complementary to other types of economic activities conducted in rural areas. The policy pursued within such development strategy should provide for a reasonable degree of state interventionism and assistance, multifunctionality of agriculture and rural areas, consolidation of rural and agricultural self-government, regionalisation and internationalisation, the process of integration with the EU structures included. The main objective of the strategy in question ought to be the elimination of historical delays in the development of agriculture. This general task can be translated into three main political goals, namely: the achievement by rural population (or more precisely farmers) of earnings adequate both to the amount of work done and to the engaged production potential, and the achievement of the level of personal incomes comparable to that characterising other principal social-vocational groups; the creation of similar conditions for the farming and rural population to use the achievements of modern civilisation as those enjoyed by other large social groups, especially in respect of education; the implementation of the concept of sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas.