Strategiczne priorytety rozwoju obszarów wiejskich a zrównoważone wykorzystanie ich potencjału

The aim of the paper was to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of development priorities adopted in the regional strategic documents for the development of agriculture and rural areas. The research was restricted to Podkarpacie, which is characterized by the lowest urbanization ratio in the country. Rural areas and agriculture have been prioritized in regional development strategies since they started to be formulated, i.e. since the late 90s of the last century. The strategies commonly assumed major structural changes, leading to improved utilization of resource associated with these areas. These objectives have been achieved to a limited extent, which resulted in the fact that the endogenous potential of agriculture and rural areas of the region is still being underutilized in the socio-economic development. This is evidenced by, among other things, still high unemployment rate in rural areas, high fragmentation of farms and their small average size, large declines in livestock and low growth in the SME sector. In fact, this means that the priorities for the sustainable development are also implemented to a limited extent