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The subject matter of this paper are the changes in the directions and content of the agrarian strategy and policy in the Republic of Serbia during the last two decades, which occurred primarily due to the need to adjust to the standards of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. The paper starts from the assumption that the process of creating agrarian policy and its transmission to economic flows is very complex and slow and requires the activity of a large number of actors and relevant institutions. Key strategic documents in the field of agriculture as well as measures of the current agricultural policy were analyzed. The aim of the paper is to examine the compliance of current agricultural policy measures with the priorities of agricultural development that are determined by these strategic documents, and above all the Strategy of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Republic of Serbia for the period 2014-2024.

The development of modern democratic states implies respect for the principle of subsidiarity, which means bringing down decisions and their execution to the local level. The decisions regarding the use of agrarian potential in the Republic of Serbia are still under the jurisdiction of the central government authorities, which contributes inadequately to the overall stability and development of agriculture in modern geopolitical correlations. The goal of this paper is to point out to the necessity of understanding the need to enable as much as possible the authorities at the local self-government level of the Republic of Serbia to implement the strategic goals of agrarian policy while improving permanently their agricultural capacities. Based on the research on the opinions of relevant state and local authorities and on empirical and theoretical arguments, the authors support this claim and provide a new perspective for the content of agrarian policy, as well as the development of the rich agricultural potential that the Republic of Serbia has at its disposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]