Abstract
Governmental intervention in agriculture and its impact on production quantity and quality; soil, water and energy exploitation; employment; investments; social services and overall sustainability of agriculture, rural regions and the economy has been objecting of discussions and analyses for decades.
Instruments for institutional support defer among countries and the analyses of their efficiency are complicated due to serious differences in business environment, natural resource base, technological level, social conditions, living standards etc. Differences are even deeper when comparing developed with developing countries or in the case of European Union old member states and new member states.
The main objective of this research is to analyze the positive and negative impact governmental support, especially direct payments have on the sustainable development of agriculture and rural regions.
Keywords: institutional intervention, governmental support measures, direct payments, subsidies, sustainable agriculture and rural regions