COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE CHANGES IN POLISH AGRICULTURE

Abstract

In Poland, as early as in the pre-accession period to the European Union, the activities aiming at the creation of conditions for implementation of the principles of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which assumed supporting of agricultural production with direct payments and match-funding, had already been undertaken. In order to realize that task, the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARMA) was formed. In the years 2004-2013 it gave agriculture 94,9 billion PLN, within the frames of subsidies and its beneficiaries were farmers. A considerable increase in the development of agricultural production support, from less than 9% in pre-accession period to about 60%, in the years 2009-2010, did become a fact. Those financial means were mainly destined for creating production potential and structural alterations in agriculture. To determine the influence of CAP on Polish agriculture, the following parameters were subjected to analysis: factors of production and their structure, as well as productivity of agricultural production factors and food self-sufficiency. Significant changes, resulting in the increased agricultural productivity and factors of production, were recorded for all the analyzed fields. Also the production of majority of agricultural products per 1 inhabitant has increased, which contributes to food self-sufficiency of Poland.