Discussion Papers 1999.
Spatial Research in Support of the European Integration 113-119. p.
CHANGING SPATIAL PATTERNS OF POLISH AGRICULTURE
113
CHANGING SPATIAL PATTERNS OF POLISH
AGRICULTURE AND SOME COMPARISONS WITH EU
AGRICULTURE
ROMAN KULIKOWSKI
The political changes which took place in Poland after 1989 initiated a number of
processes which aim at the transition to a market economy. Alongside this, Polish agri-
culture faced significant problems resulting from the need to adapt it to integration
with Western European structures. Although the analysis of structural and spatial
changes in agriculture in the period 1989-1996 shows the generally limited scope of
such changes, they take on quite significant dimensions in some areas of the country,
and are not always a cause for optimism. This applies particularly to the areas of
Northern and Western Poland, where large proportions of land belonged previously to
the state farms.
The share of farming in the Gross Domestic Product has been quickly decreasing —
from 12.1% in 1989 to 6.2% in 1996, and this was largely due to the production col-
lapse in the liquidated state farms and to the more dynamic growth of other branches
of national economy. The indicator mentioned was spatially differentiated and ranged
between 1.5-3.5% in the highly urbanised voivodships such as Warsaw metropolitan
voivodship, Lod2, Cracow and Katowice, up to 20-28% in some eastern Polish
provinces.
Agriculture still makes up some 25% of total employment, and in some voivodships
of the eastern part of the country this share exceeds 50% (Ciechanow, Ostrolcka, Biala
Podlaska and Lom2a voivodships). At the same time in Warsaw, LOd2 and Katowice
voivodships this index was contained between 5-7%. (The average for the EU coun-
tries is about 6%.) Employment in the whole sector of food economy in Poland is at
slightly more than 30% of total employment in national economy, while in the EU
countries it is contained between 10-15%.
In the period of 1989-1995, notwithstanding the continuing decline of natural
increase, the population of rural areas increased by 110,000 in Poland, and the popula-
tion within private farming by 2% (190,000). The average level of employment in pri-
vate farms increased by 2.5% between 1989-1994 and was 37 persons per 100 hectares
of agricultural land at the end of this period, thus exceeding threefold the value of this
indicator for the EU countries. The highest increase of employment was characterised
by the agricultural holdings with an average area of up to 5 hectares. However, the spa-
tial setting of the employment level has not undergone more important changes
(Figure 1) and its value is still very high in South-Eastern Poland (more than 50 per-

Roman Kulikowski : Changing Spatial Patterns of Polish Agriculture and Some Comparisons with EU
Agriculture. In: Spatial Research in Support of the European Integration. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies,
1999. 113-119. p. Discussion Papers. Special
116
ROMAN KULIKOWSKI
(though in the latter these averages ranged from 4 hectares in Greece up to 64
hectares in the United Kingdom).
The greatest transformations in this period occurred in the agriculture of the former
state farms.  (Figure 3) During the last five years the Agency for Treasury Agricultural
Property has put to use almost 85% out of 3,743,000 hectares of the former state farm
land that had been taken over by the Agency. Out of this share more than 7% of land
was sold and nearly two thirds (2.9 million hectares) were leased out. The farms
administrated by the Agency now comprise 8.5% (320,000 hectares). The land still
waiting for permanent use is composed of 280,000 hectares used currently by the farms
of the temporary administration and some 400,000 hectares of fallow land. Most of the
fallow land and farms under Agency temporary administration are located in the
northern part of the country.
The negative effect of the transformation of state farming and partly because of the
decrease of employment outside of agriculture (the number of persons linking work in
agriculture with employment outside of it decreased by almost 12% in the years 1989-
1995) is constituted by unemployment in rural areas, which amounted at the end of
1995 to 1,084,500 persons, i.e. 42% of total unemployment number in Poland. Rural
unemployment concentrates in the southern voivodships with small acreage of farms
and in the post-state-farm provinces of Northern Poland. The hidden unemployment
in private farming was estimated at some 500,000 persons in 1994.  (Stasiak-Zgliriski
1997, p. 13.)
The processes of economic transformations and the decreasing profitability of agri-
cultural production resulted, in accordance with the report of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Food Economy, in the impoverishment of rural population. In com-
parison with 1989 there has been an 30% increase of the number of persons receiving
welfare benefits.  (op. cit. p. 38.)
The effectiveness of agriculture in Poland, as measured with an average annual pro-
duction value per hectare of agricultural land (land productivity), was three times
lower than the average for the European Union, while the value of gross agricultural
production per single person actively employed in agriculture (labour productivity)
was five times lower. Labour productivity in Polish agriculture is closely correlated
with the size of farms and with the level of development and specialisation of agricul-
tural production. The value of this index is the highest in Wielkopolska and in the
western and northern parts of the country, as well as in agricultural suburban zones of
big agglomerations. A single person employed in Polish farming produced food for 8.6
persons of non-agricultural population, while in the countries of the European Union
food was produced for 50 persons. At the same time the state subsidies connected
directly with agricultural production were, however, almost four times lower in Poland
than in the countries of the EU.
In the years 1989-1995 there has been a distinct collapse of agricultural production
in Poland. Global product in agriculture was 12.5% lower in 1995 than in 1989, and
commercial product even 19.3% lower. In the public sector of agriculture the decrease
amounted to as much as 70% and the share of this sector in the country's agricultural

Roman Kulikowski : Changing Spatial Patterns of Polish Agriculture and Some Comparisons with EU
Agriculture. In: Spatial Research in Support of the European Integration. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies,
1999. 113-119. p. Discussion Papers. Special
118
ROMAN KULIKOWSKI
fertilisers applied in this period has been observed in the northern and western territo-
ries of Poland.
Side by side with the afore-mentioned decline in plant production, there has also
been an even more pronounced decline in animal production in this period. Thus in
the years 1989-1994 the number of cattle decreased by as much as 33%, and the most
significant decrease was mainly caused by the liquidation of cattle raising in the former
state farms and in the private farming in the western part of the country. As a conse-
quence of the general drop in the cattle numbers the respective indicators per 100
hectares of agricultural land were in 1995 very low indeed — from 20 heads in northern
and western areas and in Warsaw metropolitan voivodship, to more than 50 in some
voivodships of the north-eastern parts of the country. In 1995 more than half the farms
would not raise cattle (only 29% in 1990).
The number of pigs increased in this time by 3.4%, although in the western and
northern areas an important decrease in numbers has been observed, attaining in some
provinces 30% and even 50%. At the same time within Wielkopolska, Kujawy and in
the central-eastern part of the country there has been a significant increase in the pig
numbers.
There has been a drastic reduction of the number of sheep (from 4,837,000 in 1985
and 4,400,000 in 1989 to 713,000 in 1995). It must be admitted, though, that sheep hus-
bandry had not constituted a very important branch of animal production in the pre-
ceding periods.
Owing to these changes in the values of basic indicators of agricultural production
Poland regressed in the domain of plant production by 15-20 years, in meat production
by a dozen years, in milk and egg production by almost 35 years, and in cattle numbers
even back to the level of the mid-fifties. (Kulikowski-Szczesny-Tkocz 1997, pp. 121-127.)
Stagnation or even regression in a number of agricultural production branches,
brought about by the technological backwardness of this sector of the economy and the
worsening profitability of production, caused foreign trade in agricultural and food
product from 1993 to note a deficit and negative net balance in trade with the coun-
tries of the EU.
Further processes of transformation of Polish agriculture are, however, unavoid-
able, although they will be significantly distributed over time. The hope for the resolu-
tion of this problem resides not so much in agriculture itself as in the remaining links
of the food economy, which, following the model of the Western European countries,
ought to form with time a food system chain united by the common interest, rather
than a set of isolated links.

Roman Kulikowski : Changing Spatial Patterns of Polish Agriculture and Some Comparisons with EU
Agriculture. In: Spatial Research in Support of the European Integration. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies,
1999. 113-119. p. Discussion Papers. Special
CHANGING SPATIAL PATTERNS OF POLISH AGRICULTURE
119
REFERENCES
KULIKOWSKI, R. (1997) 'Transformation of Polish Agriculture after 1989', In:  Rural Geography and
Environment. 2nd Moravian Geographical Conference CONGEO `9Z  (Valtice, Czech Republic, 15-19
September 1997), Institute of Geonics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
KULIKOWSKI, R. — SZCZUNY, R. — TKOCZ, A. (1997) 'Przestrzenne konsekwencje przemian organiza-
cji rolnictwa w Polsce' (Spatial consequences of agricultural transformations in Poland), In:
Podstawy naukowo-badawcze koncepcji polityki ptzestrzennego zagospodarowania kraju,
(Warsaw,
Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN)
STASIAK, A— ZGLINSKI, W. (1997)  Wid polska na przelomie XX-XXI. wieku  (The Polish village at the turn
of the twenty-first century),  Biblioteka Ludowca, 98  (Warsaw, Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe)
STASIAK, A. — ZGLINSKI, W. (1997) 'Wplyw przeksztalca strukturalnych rolnictwa na zagospodarowania
przestrzeni wiejskiej' (Influence of the structural transformations in agriculture on spatial develop-
ment of rural areas), In:  Podstawy naukowo-badawcze koncepcji polityki przesttzennego zagospo-
darowania kraju, (Warsaw, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN)