Begining of the thesis consists of the agricultural policy characteristics, rural development in the European Union and the Republic of Croatia. Which also leads to the problem in employment and land lease in agriculture. Main objectives of this thesis are to define family farms, to show the possibilities of their financing and also to show how family farms in the County of Istria have been financially successfull in various ways. This thesis also deals with traditional sources of financing, with an emphasis on various bank loans, but also direct support and this becomes the most important source of funds. Alternative sources of financing, such as crowdfunding and business angel funds are increasingly used an the most important of them all is definetely EU funds. In 2013, the Republic of Croatia became a member of the European Union, which led the republic of Croatia to start using funds from European Union. This allowed many family farms to be financed, unfortunately this wasn`t the best solution. In the final part of this thesis, it is presented on practical examples of how five different family farms from Istria are financed. Regardless of the many possibilities, availability of abundant funds from the European Union, family farms from the republic of Croatia make insufficient usage of available funds.