Summary:

Some results of analyses and forecast studies conducted by IBMER on development of sustainable agricultural production integrated with multifunctional development and protection of rural areas were presented in the paper. Good quality plant and animal production must be intensified on decreasing arable lands (AL) with changing structure of material, energy and production service outlays to make possible leaving the agricultural and rural development to the next generation in a better condition than now. Quantitative and substitute changes in man power expenditure, material and investment outlays and in direct energy carrier expenditure in agriculture and its infrastructure influence not only the level of unit production costs of agricultural raw materials for foodstuff manufacturing, but also affect the progress of rural multifunctionality and the rate of implementation of agro-environmental programmes. Using the methodology of research, updated by the IBMER, on the current state and forecasts concerning cumulated material and energy expenditure computed by the rolling costs method we find that: – unit energy consumption in agricultural production calculated by the number of energy units (EU) per assumed corn unit (CU) decreases systematically and will further decline owing to rationalization of employment and the use of agrochemicals, utilization of durable means and reducing the former consumption of solid fuels (mainly coal), – energy effectiveness (CU/EU) of both plant and animal production is still negative, which is the reason of still insufficient utilization of biomass, biofuels and other renewable energy resources (RER) in rural areas, – positive results of investigations on balancing agricultural production and its integration with rural infrastructure, application of organic methods of agricultural product manufacturing and the use of RER and other unconventional energy sources, allow to forecat human friendly model of future rural areas and agriculture, operating in protected ecological rural areas. It is necessary to undertake further interdisciplinary basic and developmental research on energy saving and environment development including establishing real production and living standards and in order to unify the opinions of specialists from different ecological and energy options.