Greece is traditionally considered to be an agricultural country. In the last decades however, and particularly after Greece joined the European Union in 1981, the role of the agricultural sector in the country‘s economy has decreased. Since the secondary sector has become stagnant, tourism and other tertiary activities gain importance in Greece. Rural development traditionally has been considered synonymous to agricultural development in Greece but also in several European countries. This was the case till the 1980‘s when the urban-rural dichotomy characterized rural space and rural population was identified in terms of employment in agriculture. Since the 1990‘s several studies in the European Union have indicated that rural regions present a great diversity. In fact the transformation of the agricultural sector from subsistence economy to market-oriented economy resulted to different patterns of rural development. Rural regions which possessed good agricultural potential took benefit from international markets, while mountainous regions with poor soils and small land ownership were left behind and experienced depopulation and economic decline. Besides agricultural potential some other factors proved to very significant for rural development. Accessibility to urban centers and to transportation networks is very important for efficient agricultural marketing. In addition non-agricultural activities, such as tourism or small scale manufacturing are considered to contribute significantly to rural development.
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