In agriculture, as in any branch of the national economy, strategic thinking is needed. System-level planning lays the foundation for a company’s short-, medium-, and long-term tasks to achieve its goals. In order to establish the results, it is essential to assess the external and internal environment of agricultural enterprises, to quantify and evaluate the influencing factors.

In our paper we examined the agriculture of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county through the opinions and experiences of farmers. SWOT analysis helps to analyze the situation of companies and develop a strategy. We can identify its strengths, weaknesses, market opportunities and environmental threats. In the course of our analyzes, we determined, based on the distribution of the answers to the questionnaire survey, whether certain factors appear as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats in the judgment of farmers.

Based on the obtained results, agriculture with poor potential in a good natural environment is taking place in the county. The proximity of the option, with the exception of land prices and production costs, shows that farmers see an opportunity for improvement in this regard. The result for production costs highlights the shortcoming of underestimating the cost records and underestimating their role in developing profitable management. Examined together with the producers' association, it can be concluded that they do not take advantage of the cost-reducing and revenue-increasing effects of collective purchasing and sales. The classification of producer sales as weak also confirms this observation. Examining in the light of the fact that producer cooperation is a weak or opportunity factor in the county, it is understandable that there is little enforcement force in the sale. Examining this item together with the purchase and sale price, it shows that one by one they cannot negotiate a good price with the processors. Sales to end consumers are low in volume. The vulnerability of county farmers is high due to the production of raw materials.

Keywords: agricultural sociology, strategy, situation analysis, agricultural policy