agriculture and food economy in poland

AGRICULTURE
A characteristic feature of Polish agriculture, composed of 1 853 000
agricultural holdings in total in 2003, is large differentiation of farm size from one
hectare to several thousand hectares. The latter can be found in the private and
public sectors alike. The largest agricultural holdings were established on the
former state-owned farms. The problem of farm fragmentation occurs solely in the
sector of private agricultural holdings (1 850 500 farms). The average size of a
private farm is 7.4 ha of UAA with significant regional differentiation. In southern
Poland the average farm size is 3.3 ha of UAA, whereas in the northwest – over 20 ha
of UAA. In 2000 in the EU-15 there were 6.7 million agricultural holdings, the
biggest number in Italy (more than 2 million), Spain (nearly 1.3 million), Greece (ca
800 000) and France (644 000). The average farm size in the EU was 18.7 ha,
however, in certain EU countries it was even smaller than in Poland: Greece (4.4 of
UAA), Italy (6.1 of UAA). Following 1990, the number of agricultural holdings has
been falling down systematically, however, mainly at the sacrifice of medium-size
farms, whereas the number of the biggest and smallest holdings has increased. In
2003 a decline in all groups of agricultural holdings was observed.
Figure 9. Structure of private farms by UAA size in 1995 and 2003 (%)
10,7
26,6
9,2
22,1
8
9,9
1995
2003
Source: Agriculture in 2003, GUS.
Total number of farms with UAA (ha)
1995 - 2047,6
2003 - 1850,5
33
21
33,7
25,8
10
31
44,1
UAA size on farms:
1995 - 13819,9
2003 - 13604,8
19,1
1995
4,7
2003 5
15,2
17,1
28,1
14,5
1-2 h 2-5 h 5-10 h 10-15 15 and more
21,2