Abstract

The success of strategy of rural areas development in Poland except many other factors requires co-operation of local communities. In the context, coming of organisers of socio-economical activity into being is of essence. Analysis of a number of factors leads to conclusion that it is just owners of ecological farms who have considerable predisposition to the role of leaders in the process of rural areas development. An average age of ecological farms owners is about 40 years - thus they are in the period of the biggest professional and social activity. Ecological farm owners are generally better educated than an average farmer. In the researched population almost half of them have at least secondary education, and every Fifth respondent has a university education. Ecological farm owners much more often than an average farmer participate in various courses of professional improvement, organised by institutions and associations; they have also more and better contacts with scientific and research centres. The research findings show that the ecological farm owners took up their job of their own free will, and only such farmers are able to actively join the process of rural areas transformation. Because of the difficulties connected with the sale of produce farmers running ecological farms have to be farmers of initiative. Thus they are better informed of the rules and regulations of the market, and can act far better in unfavourable conditions. One of the reasons is that many of them are people of town origin, therefore they have more possibilities of making contacts between town and village, and also more possibilities of attracting capital from non-agricultural sources.