2024, Baer-Nawrocka, Agnieszka, Sadowski, Arkadiusz, Wigier, Marek

The purpose of this paper is to assess the changes in agricultural producers’ use of funds allocated for environmental measures under the 2007–2013 RDP (Rural Development Program) and 2014–2020 RDP in Poland. The extent to which environmental CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) funds are used was examined on a geographic basis, so as to take account of socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of districts. Correlation analysis and a cartographic method were used. The study found growing differences in how the funds are used between territorial units. The analysis of correlation provided grounds for concluding that a relationship exists between the share of environmental funds used in total RDP payments and environmental conditions, mostly including the share of permanent pasture in the structure of agricultural land (0.515 in 2014–2020). Conversely, no relationship was discovered between the level of wealth and the local agrarian structure (0.249 and 0.327 in 2014–2020). The analysis of differences between territorial units revealed that in some geographic areas that had the potential for being granted environmental funds, the farmers decided not to apply for them. Based on the above, it was concluded that the potential beneficiaries’ activity in that respect is largely impacted not only by their environmental awareness and attitude but also by historical events.

2024, Malinowski, Mariusz, Smutka, Luboš, Sadowski, Arkadiusz

Organic farming takes on particular importance in the context of implementing the sustainable development concept as it combines environmentally safe farming methods with (as a general assumption) producing pollution-free food. Hence, environmental conditions might play a role in determining the development pace of that type of farming. The key objective of this paper is therefore to identify the scope and direction of multidimensional relationships between the development level of organic farming and environmental conditions. This was performed with the canonical analysis. The research process included the structuring of the authors’ own synthetic metrics used in assessing the condition of the environment and the development level of organic farming. The study covered European Union countries and all 380 Polish districts (Poland is one of the very few Union members where organic farming development is currently inconsistent with the expected trends adopted under the Common Agricultural Policy). It follows from the analyses that when the variables relating to environmental conditions are known, they can explain only less than 10% of variance in the set of variables used in describing the development level of Polish organic farming. In turn, the analysis at Union level suggests that a positive—but not stronger than moderate—correlation exists between the two phenomena.

2024, Gorzelak, Grzegorz, Kołodziej, Andrzej, Piotrowski, Ryszard, Poczta, Walenty, Pyrgies, Józef, Sadowski, Arkadiusz

2024, Sanyaolu, Mary, Sadowski, Arkadiusz

Despite the known benefits of precision agriculture, the adoption is challenging due to the cost of investment and the farm sizes. Therefore, profitability is an important aspect to consider. This study aimed to evaluate the net returns, profitability, and investment efficiencies of PA by different economic farm sizes. The study was based on data retrieved from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and Eurostat (year 2021). The study examined four countries (Poland, Germany, France, and Romania) under field crop farming using an investment cost of EUR 35,941–EUR 71,883 and a 20% and 15% reduction in the cost of crop protection and fertilizer usage, respectively, without compromising productivity. There is a positive relationship between the adoption of PA and farm returns for larger-scale farms. The result of the profitability and analysis of investment efficiency using Net Present Value (NPV) showed a positive value for economic farm sizes of EUR 100,000 and above. Hence, it is not economically advisable that all farmers use PA technologies with the hope that they will be profitable but with public support (subsidies) more farms will be able to use PA and be profitable. This is also an opportunity to meet the goals of the European Union Green Deal of minimizing emissions that cause climate change.