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Agricultural Policy as a Sustainable Development Maker

During the period of rapid technological progress and increased demand for quality agricultural products, danger of environmental deterioration rises as well, endangering future production possibilities. Croatia currently has a great chance to avoid that risk, due to low level of environmental pollution, and due to favorable institutional support as well, regulating production on environmental protection principles. The emphasis of this research is, therefore, the analysis of recent agricultural policy measures in function of agricultural production and rural development, also regarding principles of environmental protection. Since the "Strategy of agricultural development" is focused on balanced regional development, the first aim of this research is to identify regional priorities regarding two principal criteria: environmental protection and agricultural production requirements. Based on that, the hypothesis is that Croatian area could be divided into three basic areas: protected areas without agricultural production, marginal (neighboring) areas suitable for supporting the sustainable agriculture, and areas with conventional, more intensive agriculture. Criteria for this division are the result of numerous interviews with experts from different professional fields (agricultural scientists, policy makers, and environmental protection organizations), and with agricultural producers, together with theoretical analysis of resource allocation efficiency. Finally, it will be determined and evaluated the success of policy measures in supporting these possibilities so far. Some farm models will be recommended that could be developed on these principles, fitting into future agricultural and global policy interests, taking into consideration basic social and economics elements of agricultural and rural development.

agriculture; sustainability; policy; resources

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