Objectives and means in Finnish agricultural policy

The aims of the Finnish agricultural policy are to safeguard agricultural self-sufficiency and the evolution of farmers' income, to develop the structure of agriculture and to try to maintain the rural population. Price and income policy, production policy, structural policy and regional policy are applied to reach these objectives. The application is hampered partly by their contradictory effects. The most important instrument in Finnish agricultural policy has been the price policy. It has been based on price Acts, which have given general guidelines on the price level. In recent years, however, measures restricting production have become dominant in agricultural policy.