CHANGES IN THE POLISH AGRICULTURE IN THE LIGHT OF THE CAP IMPLEMENTATION

Agricultural policy in Poland supports the functioning of numerous types of agricultural models, including the following models: traditional, industrial, environmental, induced development and sustainable growth.The CAP objectives and mechanisms, as well as individual characteristics of the Polish agriculture indicate that in the long run the development pattern should be based on a dual model.Certain farms, while maintaining the basic requirements of environmental protection, should implement production methods ensuring high economic viability (industrial agriculture); other farms should base their development on more eco-friendly methods, which enable the use of environmental, social and cultural assets at hand (sustainable agriculture).This paper defines the most important development stages of global agriculture, indicates the connection between the necessity of state's intervention policy and sustainable development, presents selected characteristics of the Polish agriculture with an analysis of the most important effects of implementing the CAP and illustrates the conclusions concerning the shape of the future long-term agricultural policy in Poland. Model of development of world agricultureOver the centuries, the most important task of agriculture was the production of food.This goal marked the development strategies of the whole food economy, which evolved from a peasant to farm-enterprise model (Fig. 1).Agriculture was the primary source of income and the most important work place in the rural areas.Industrialisation, mechanisation of production and the market mechanism transformed this situation.In highly developed countries, because of the explosion of growth in agricultural productivity, together with the parallel development of other sectors of national economy, agriculture has been gradually pushed to the margins