The study discusses various aspects of the functioning of small agricultural farms in Poland, especially in its southern part. Among the provinces (voivodeships) of southern Poland, where small farms with up to 5 ha of agricultural land dominate in terms of both number and area, the Małopolskie Voivodeship shows the greatest variability of the conditions of agricultural production in the whole country. This results from the combination of mountains, foothills, uplands and fertile valleys with high-quality soils occurring in its area. For at least 10 years, various problems connected with disagrarisation have been observed to exacerbate in the voivodeship. Namely, the use of the productive potential of land has decreased and the area of fallow lands,
especially in the western part of the voivodeship and in areas with prevailing poor soils, has increased. These changes have been concomitant with the decrease in them animal population. The present study touches also upon the position of agriculture in the Małopolskie Voivodeship compared to entire Poland and upon the issues of rural development.