The Agricultural Property Agency (APA) was founded on 16 July 2003 pursuant to the provisions of the Act of 11 April 2003 on the establishment of the agricultural system. The APA was established for the purpose of managing the agricultural property of the State Treasury in Poland. Its main tasks included the endorsement of ownership and structural changes relating to agricultural land in rural areas as well as the promotion of social goals. This article focuses on the social aspects of the APA’s operations based on an analysis of the data supplied by the Regional Branch of the APA in Olsztyn. The obtained information and materials were analyzed to identify programs and activities initiated by the Olsztyn branch in pursuit of social goals. The results of the analyses were presented in the table format. Community interviews were conducted and photographs were taken during the field study. The results were used to describe the social aspects of APA’s operations in rural areas.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection prepared in the municipality of Elektrėnai during the period between the years of 2012 and 2016, and to determine their potential impact on the growth of built-up areas and the rational use of land. According to the survey data, it can be stated that drafting rates of rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection tend to grow especially in those municipalities that are close to Vilnius and which have a good geographical position as well as a special landscape and national cultural heritage values (Vilnius district, Trakai district and Elektrėnai district municipalities). Having carried out the agricultural land change analysis, it is noted that during the analysis period (2012 - 2016) in Elektrėnai municipality, similarly to the whole Vilnius county, land utilities structure is dominated by agricultural land, mostly arable land, but the significant trend of agricultural land reduction at the expense of the growth of built-up areas was noticed. During the analysed period the built-up areas in the municipality of Elektrėnai increased even by 6 times, and the area of agricultural land declined on average, by almost 2 percent every year. A detailed analysis of specific projects and information gathered during qualitative research suggest that the prepared rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection are not prepared for the improvement of the actual farming activity conditions in constructing farm and other buildings.