ARDA is the only Paying Agency for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Hungary, and is responsible for the implementation and execution of all kinds of agricultural and rural development support schemes, irrespective of their financial resource (EU, national or co-financed) or the type of the measure (public intervention, direct payments, investment-type or market measures etc.).

As such, its duties include the management of CAP agricultural aid schemes, the processing of support applications, the performance of necessary administrative and physical controls, and the allocation of funds to the Beneficiaries. ARDA began its operation in 2003 and since then it is an independent legal entity which consists of a central office in Budapest and 19 county branch offices. The Central Office consists of 6 directorates (mainly managing different groups of aid schemes) and 10 departments (mostly providing back office). 

The Agricultural and Rural Development Agency is a central budgetary agency in Hungary with a separate legal entity and nation-wide competence, under the supervision of the Minister of Rural Development. ARDA was established on 1 July 2003, a year before Hungary’s EU accession on 1 May 2004.