CHANGES IN AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY SERVICES IN POLAND AFTER ACCESION TO THE EU

The main objective of this article is to analyze and evaluate the state and development of agricultural advisory services in Poland after accession to the European Union. The most important change, based on the Act from 22 October 2004, was to obtain legal personality by the Agricultural Advisory Center in Brwinów (CDR) and 16 provincial agricultural advisory centers (ODRs), and the possibility of charging fees for selected services. This Act was changed three times during the research period. The changes concerned mainly the subordination of ODRs; from the Governors to the provincial self-governments (2009), then to the Boards of provinces (2012), and most recently to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (2016), and how they are financed. At present, two main public organizational units exist within the agricultural advisory structure; there are the CDR responsible for training of advisers and the 16 ODRs responsible for farm advisory services and rural development.