Challenges for sustainable development of agricultural holdings

Agricultural holdings have a very important role for the sustainable socio-economic development. Contemporary, the farms` activity is mainly determined by the market mechanism. Market imposes rules on agricultural holdings` functioning, on both the type and the scale of agricultural activities, agricultural production mode, as well as the sale conditions. The market mechanism forces the agricultural holdings` orientation on the economic objective achievement, aside from the agricultural production externalities. Those externalities are not the market transaction subject and are not a part of farmers` economic account. Agricultural production externalities, however, are the subject of increasing society` interests. Those interests particularly relate to natural environment protection and food supply. Referring to the above, there is a challenge to meet the requirements of a market, as well society. In order to meet the various agricultural holdings` challenges, there is a need to take action leading to micro- and macroeconomic criterion convergence of agricultural production. This is the fundamental principle of the sustainable development concept, which includes agriculture and agricultural holdings – the basic economic unit of this sector. Meeting these challenges requires taking into account the political factor to eliminate adverse effects of economic activity. The purpose of the article is to indicate the main challenges of agricultural holdings, determinants and measures of their sustainable development.