The EU membership requires introduction of significant changes in the agricultural sector. Such changes will not be possible without investments in human capital. The aim of the paper is to make an attempt at presenting the coincidence of three factors conducive to the development of lifelong learning process in rural areas: 1) EU and Polish legislation concerning the cross-compliance rule enforcement; 2) EU financial support for human capital development in the EU second programming period; 3) new banking product connected with financing adult education (Individual Learning Accounts, ILA).