Rural areas are gradually losing their agricultural specificity. They now need to support the coexistence of two logical approaches to occupation of their space: one based on the supply of agricultural and forestry products, the other on the various demands from local residents and seasonal tourists. The focus is shifting from only supplying market goods to meeting the multiple expectations of the society. The paper analyses the policy outcomes of the rural development policy in Bulgaria and their impact on multifunctional agriculture.
The article shows the scale and reasons of regional disparities in the development of selected activities in multifunctional farmers in Poland, which are a an example of the diversification of farm activities. Moreover, they presented the benefits for farmers as a result of taking up and pursuit of selected multifunctional activities. Empirically, the paper is based on primary and secondary data. The primary data is derived from the findings of a survey carried out among farmers (interview with a questionnaire), whereas the secondary data comes from the Central Statistical Office of Poland. The findings of the research show high regional diversification of the development level of farmers’ nonfarming activity. The highest discrepancy was observed in the case of the percentage of organic farms in the total number of farms. Less intense were those in the case of the share of agritourism farm households, whereas the lowest regional differences were recorded for the farm households holding its own direct sales scheme of farm produce. Another important finding from the survey of the farmers running nonfarming economic activity is that the highest advantages of such activity are the increase in farm household income and improvement of the farm family living standard. However, farmers found it difficult to observe any advantages of nonfarming economic activity in rural areas.
Malopolska region is the region specific in many respects, it has crucial importance for the proper functioning of both economy and social life but also natural environment of Poland. Poland’s integration into the European Union provided a major and unique chance for relatively fast improvement of economic situation of rural dwellers and primarily for regulating processes associated with water cycle and water erosion, and the necessity to protect water resources and natural biocenoses which have been disturbed or degraded in result of too intensive development of agriculture in these areas in the past. EU agricultural policy allocates sufficient means from the Community funds to these aims but only if a number of complex activities to improve agricultural facilities and agrienvironmental measures are implemented by the farmers of the region. In many parts of the Malopolska farm production should be connected with protective and conservative measures. Agriculture in the province, so far focused only on production, should change into multifunctional one in the nearest future. The authors think that because of specific landscape, therapeutic, recreational and cultural values of mountain and upland areas of Malopolska and their importance for national economy and flood-protection of the country, three provinces (Malopolska, Podkarpacie and Silesia) should be included in a separate operational programme providing means for rational and complex reconstruction of rural utility structures.