In  Poland  the  importance  of  agricultural  sector  in
generation  of  gross  domestic  product,  market  supply  and
creation  of  new  possibilities  for  employment  have   been
growing.  For the last six years “an explosion of  initiative”
was  observed.  The  number  of  established  enterprises   is
comparable  with the number of enterprises in higly  developed
countries.

  The state policy aims at supporting development of
agricultural sector and promotion of initiative by:

* liberalisation of legal regulations,
* credits,
* organization of training courses, seminars, etc.,
* educational publications,
* information activities/services.

     The  range  and efficiency of government support  is  the
subject  of  discussions and criticizm.  This  policy  demands
activity  from  many  state institutions, including  financial
organizations,    and   stimulation   of   cooperation    with
international organizations.

     One  of  the  basic tasks in this area  is  creation  and
development  of  technical, economic and business  information
systems. The term business information  is understood  as  the
published  data,  facts  and statistics  needed  for  decision
making in various organizations - private and public, as  well
as,  in government. It includes market information, financial,
bank  and  company  information,  laws  and  tax  regulations,
economic,  commercial  and  trade  information,  as  well  as,
factual information about environment in which businesses  and
other organizations operate.

     At  present,  in  Poland  there are  several  information
centres supplying technical, economic and business information
for farmers. Some of them are state, some are private.
Among them the most important are:

*  Central  Agricultural Library and some  academic  libraries
offer information mainly from bibliographic databases,

* Regional (voivodship) centres for agricultural advisory,

*  Branch  centres  for  technical and  economic  information,
operating in research institutions, laboratories etc.,

*  Information  centres  of  the agricultural  chambers  which
organize various forms of consulting and brokerage along  with
information services,

*    Market   analisis  and  information  sections   of    the
agricultural associations and unions,

*   the   other  state`s  information  centres  e.g.   Central
Statistics  Office producing many publications on the  grounds
off  the official statistics, Agency for Restructurisation and
Modernisation  of  Agriculture  delivering  information  about
possibilities  for  obtaining  credits  and  how   to   pursue
investments in agricultural and food industry, development  of
technical infrastracture,

*   Private   information  centres  -   Polish   and   foreign
organizations that publish catalogues of firms, render  access
to  databases containg information on farmers, their  addreses
and  agricultural  -   horticultural offers  of  co-operation.
Services are charged, prices are heighly differenciated.

     It is important for farmers to have access to information
close   to   their  operations,  because  they  do  not   have
possibilities  of remote access. For that reason  the  leading
role   in   information  services  was   taken   by   regional
(voivodship) centers for agricultural advisory. The basic  aim
of  their activity is to help farmers in solving technical and
economic  problems of their farms,  Usually the  centres  have
rich information resources and highly qualified personnel,
therefore  they  render  information services  to  farmers  in
following scope:

* agrarian economics (information about: costs and benefits of
animal and crop productions, prices of producer`s goods),

*  organisation of farms (working out business plan  in  order
crediting their, propageiting methods of effective management,
establishing agricultural producer`s companies).

* ecology and environment`s protection (providing databases on
ecological  methods  of food   production,  information  about
ecological farms, modern technologies),

* marketing of the products,

* access to data bank  of agricultural information,

* edition of bulletins and directories of partners looking for
possibilities of collaboration,

*  instructing of agricultural producers , auction sales  of
machinery and installtions etc.

     As it can be seen, the potential availability of business
information is relatively wide.
The  questions  is,  however, whether the information  sources
match  the information needs of farmers and whether  they  are
used  according to potential needs and expressed demands.  The
studies conducted by our Institute have to clear this problem.
As  it  comes out of these, the Polish farmers are  often  not
aware  of  the  potential  of an existing  information  market
because   of   insufficient  promotion   of   information   on
information  sources and services offered. The  actual  demand
for  business  information is still relatively  low  not  only
because  ofinsufficient promotion but also because of lack  of
understanding  of  information  value  and  limited  financial
resources observed in many Polish farms.

The most often used servises are:

*  information  on agricultural enterprises,  their  addreses,
activities, offers,

* evaluation of creditability farms and consulting,

*  information  on  agricultural fairs,  commodity  exchanges,
commerce exibitions etc,

*advertising  in  regional  publications,  as  well   as,   in
catalogues  or datebases edited by informations  centres  e.g.
catalogues of food producers and machines for food industry,

* information concerning sources of financing,

*   information  on  possibility  of  exporting   agricultural
products, etc.

We  are  planned  to  continue by  ISTEI  studies  on  various
services and their prices in order to establish a database  on
information services offered for Polish farmers.