The paper investigates the selection mechanisms of rural development policy using a survey among farmers in the Southern Great Plain region characterising by the high level of unemployment and strong agricultural background. We focus on the farmers social-economic characteristics explaining of success of application for rural development subsidies employing selection and count models. Estimations show that the higher educated and older farmers more likely apply for rural supports, whilst the share of less favoured land affects negatively on the application for subsidy. We found selection bias in the success of application. Results imply that farmers with less favoured land less likely receive, whilst higher educated and older farmers more likely receive rural supports. Similarly, the share of less favoured area affects negatively for number of successful application both in terms of type and number of subsidy