Changes in Farms` Economic Sustainability: The Picture of Polish Farms in the Last Decade

Abstract

The European Union took a course on sustainable agriculture and rural development. This direction of agricultural policy has been implemented for many years. With the passage of time is increasing need to determine the actual effects in terms of sustainability. Agriculture sustainability takes into account three basic aspects, i.e. economic, environmental and social. In the case of farms, the economic sustainability is particularly important because it is associated with the basic economic objective of farmers and motive of their economic activity. Sustainability of agriculture and farms is the subject of increasing interests of society and researchers. In recent years, various research institutions take attempts to measure sustainability, including economic issues, but there was no uniform approach to this research subject. The aim of the paper is to present the changes that have taken place in agriculture economic sustainability in Poland. Using public statistic, 2005 and 2016 data of Central Statistical Office, the direction in which tends the Polish agriculture was indicated. There was used a set of useful economic indicators that can be applied in other EU countries. Farms` economic sustainability was assessed on the basis of land and labour productivity and profitability, households income sources and farms market activity. The analysis concerns all individual agricultural holdings with at least 1 ha of agricultural land.

 Keywords: economic sustainability, farms` economic sustainability, agriculture, Central Statistical Office data,  Poland