download file

Polish Presidency in the EU
The unquestionable phenomenon from the
perspective of land management and development
of agriculture in Europe is the Netherlands,
which is part of the world's leading
exporters of agricultural products. Toine van
Poppel, Counsellor for Agriculture, Nature and
Food Quality Netherlands Embassy in Warsaw
did speak during the seminar about the specific
Dutch solutions in the
field of agricultural land
management.
Alexandre Martinez,
Counselor for Agriculture
at the Embassy of the Republic
of France made a
presentation during the
seminar on the 50-year experience in land management
in France, on the example of activities
of the Association for Planning and Settlement
(SAFER). The French solution targeted on the
support for young farmers in creation and development
of farms using state funds seemed
to be particularly valuable.
Extremely broad and complex analysis of issues
of ownership transformations in Polish agriculture
in the last 20 years was presented by APA
President Tomasz Nawrocki, in the presentation
“The Role of the Agricultural Property Agency in
the management of agricultural land in Poland”.
He pointed out that such broad and diverse tasks
as APA is responsible for, were not performed by
any institution in the field of ownership transformation
in Poland over the last 20 years. Today
the Agency, having acreage of more than 2 million
acres of state land with a huge market value,
still plays a significant role in land management,
including the investment and creation of biological
progress in strategic companies owned by the
State Treasury, which are under its ownership supervision.
The particular importance for Polish agriculture
of these 47 companies dealing with plant
and animal breeding was a subject of speech of
Sławomir Pietrzak, the Vice President of APA. Many
times during the presentation he pointed out that
these companies not only have a significant impact
on the level and size of Polish farms grow
as well as the state animal
breeding policy, but also
have a role in protecting the
most valuable genetic material,
which forms the basis
for the implementation of
national breeding programs.
During two panel discussions,
which were led by professor assoc. Andrzej
Kowalski, Director of the Institute of Agricultural
Economics and Food Economy, the seminar participants
discussed mainly the priorities in the
activities of agricultural land management institutions
in different countries, as well as the importance
and role of the leases for the operation
of a sustainable and efficient agriculture.
Summarizing the seminar, President of APA
said that the knowledge gained on the functioning
of state institutions managing the land in
the EU countries, cannot only have the theoretical
significance, but also – what is even a bigger
advantage – is likely to find practical solutions
in the future. President Tomasz Nawrocki noted
also that the September conference starts a series
of meetings summarizing 20 years of the
Agricultural Property Agency.
Grażyna Kapelko
Spokesperson
Agricultural Property Agency
Discussion
of the participants
in the seminar
on legal regulations
in trade in land
Autumn 2011 15