ROLE OF LARGER FARMS IN POLAND AND SELECTED EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES IN 2005 AND 2016

Abstract

The rates of increase in labour costs in non-agricultural sections and prices of means of production for agriculture, which are higher than selling prices of agricultural products in countries with a market economy have resulted in a decrease in unit profitability of agricultural production. Farmers wishing to obtain a satisfactory income must increase their production scale, mainly by increasing farm area. The study covers two intentionally selected groups of countries differing with regard to economic development specified by gross domestic product (GDP) value per capita. The reason for this selection is the dependence of the farms’ economic strength on the national economy level of analysed countries. The first group of countries with a high level of this indicator (GDP) includes: Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain and France. The second group covers – Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Analyses covered the changes in average farm area, share of farms with an area of 30 ha of UAA or more in the total number of farms, land use, employment and standard production in 2005 and 2016. In both groups, the following increased in the analysed period: the average farm area and share of larger farms in land use and production. In the majority of analysed countries, the share of farms with an area of 100 ha or more, when it comes to production, exceeded 50%.