Editors' Note. Building Modern Rural Development Policies for Poland

This special issue was inspired by the release of the Rural Policy Review of Poland published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2018 (OECD 2018). Two other important reports on rural areas in Poland were also published in 2018: “Rural Poland: Rural Development Report” (FDPA 2018)1 and “Rural Development Monitoring: Phase III” (Stanny, Rosner and Komorowski 2018).2 All these reports stress the rapid pace of rural development in Poland since its accession to the European Union in 2004 and, at the same time, show that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the cohesion policy have supported the modernization process of Polish farms, household and business income growth, infrastructural and educational improvements for rural residents, etc. However, the agricultural sector and rural areas in Poland still face several serious challenges and limitations. The most important include: the severe fragmentation of the agrarian structure, a low level of productivity in farming as well as of innovation in agricultural production, a low level of investment competitiveness in rural areas, and continuing gaps in infrastructure and accessibility to public services especially in more remote rural municipalities. This is why questions about the shape of rural development policies in Poland are still topical even though the most recent tendencies have shown significant improvements in most intervention areas