The multi-functionality of agriculture and agricultural policy

Agriculture in former agricultural societies had significant influence on the economy and social life of the countryside. Developing industrialization, which caused general lagging of the countryside, diminished this influence. Gradually, under the principles of integrity, new policies and programmes were modelled for advanced development of rural areas and agriculture gained new, extended meaning in these concepts. In addition to its economic function, new functions were attributed, such as: ecological, social and cultural, but also the settling function. Due to multifunctionality of agriculture, tendencies toward equal integration of agriculture in each rural developmental plan on the local, regional and state level appeared. The paper presents the course of consciousness building about the multifunctionality of agriculture and its part in the rural development of West European countries as well as Slovenia, in the time frame from the Second World War to the beginning of the EU budgetary period 2007–2013. The period after attainment of independence in 1991 and joining the European Union in 2004 were given more attention where Slovenian agricultural policy is concerned