It is now May 2006

Poland has been a member country of the European Union for two years. Each such an
anniversary is an occasion for assessing the past period of time. Transformations which
occurred during that period are presented. Successes are mentioned more frequently, failures
rather more rarely. These assessments are made by the politicians, both those who are in
favour of UE and who are against it. This period is also summed up and assessed by ordinary
citizens. As a representative of the Federation of Agricultural Employers and Land Owners I
would like to present in brief the effect of Poland’s accession on the Polish agriculure. Did
these transformations bring the Polish farms to modern agriculture?
A short outline of the history of the most important events in the Polish agriculture in the 20th
century:
1. Agricultural reform before the Second World War
2. Decree of the Agricultural Reform of 1944, breaking up land estates and setting up
National Agricultural Farms
3. From 1991 privatization of the public sector in agriculture
4. Poland’s accession to EU

All these events had a significant effect on the Polish agriculture. The last, that is, Poland’s
accession to EU, covering our agriculture by the common agricultural strategy, charts and
shall chart the trends of development for the forthcoming years. Polish nation, including
farmers, had a lot of expectations from Poland’s accession to the European Union. Farmers’
expectations concerned the possibility of using the instruments of common agricultural
strategy in order to modernize and restructurize Polish farms towards creating modern
agriculture which might compete with the world food manufacturers. The most important
problems facing Polish agriculture on acceding EU and now are as follows:
1. Large number of fragmented agricultural farms
2. Large percentage of population earning their living from working in the agricultural
farms and, at the same time, low effectiveness of employees
3. Technical and technological backwardness
4. Ensuring that environmental protection standards are observed

Acceding to the EU and assuming a common agricultural strategy created excellent conditions
for charting the trends of transformations in the Polish countryside. Opening the borders made
possible access to modern machinery and equipment and technology to the extent
unattainable in the past. Conditions were created to use the production and environmental
standards and techniques which were verified in the EU agriculture. Union funds became a
source of capital necessary to introduce changes. Looking from the perspective of two years
one can say that the situation in the Polish countryside and agriculture did change in that
period. Restructuring of Polish farms which began in the nineties entered a new stage related
to the common agricultural strategy. Polish farmsteads started to introduce union production
standards in order to be able to sell their products at the union markets. Production was based
on modern production processes. Technical equipment of farms underwent significant
changes. It was not possible to use all these elements towards restructurization creating the
modern agriculture. These changes did not cover evenly the whole country. The errors made
during accession negotiations make sometimes a barrier to the development and
transformations. For instance, a too low milk quota which inhibits the development and
changes in the manufacture of milk and cattle breeding. The effects of this situation made an
impact on the entire milk industry. The system of extra payments to each hectare stopped the
surface restructurization of farms, thus fixing the structure of small fragmented farms.
In recent years Poland underwent a rapid economic growth. Integration between Poland
and Europe took place in all branches of life, both economic and political. Transformations in
the agriculture are much slower because of its cyclic annual nature. Clearly defined rules,
charted trends of the common Agricultural Strategy, defined the scope of changes in the
Polish agriculture. It was possible to determine economically profitable branches of
production which are a basis for appropriate profitable functioning of farms. It became quite
clear that there are regions predisposed to compete with the farmsteads from all over Europe
by developing the modern agriculture and there are also such regions where other alternative
sources of income should be found to provide living support for their rural population.
Farm owners in such new realities were forced to determine the trends in developing their
farms. Economic situation and long-time delays determined the rate of restructurization to be
carried out. The trends in transformations and their rates were also determined by specific
features of the Polish agriculture – fragmented small farms in Eastern Poland and large
farmsteads in Western Poland formed from the privatized state agriculture. Operating under
such conditions many farms took up a challenge of modernization and restructurization in
order to create modern farmsteads capable of competing in the European market. Specialist
farms were established which are dealing with a definite production branch – typical pig
farms or milk farms manufacturing milk under the European standards. A considerable
challenge in these farms was preserving the conditions of environmental protection. The
problem of environmental protection seems to be of crucial importance in the forthcoming
years in order to avoid destruction of the environment resulting from intensification of
agricultural production. Providing the farms with modern equipment resulted in the increase
in productivity of labour and decrease in the manufacturing costs. Producers’ groups became
a chance for small farms.
Attachment to the land which is so typical of Poland restricts considerably any proprietary
transformations. A serious element restricting the restructurization process of the agriculture
is the absence of system arrangements in this area, such as a lack of Lease Act. For proper
development of the National Economy branch such as the agriculture one should determine
clearly and precisely production potentialities with regard to domestic needs and export
opportunities. Taking into account the possibilities for supporting the rural population from
agricultural production and other sources of income, the stream of money from both the EU
and domestic budgets should be directed to the restructurization process and adapting our
agriculture to the European standards. Knowing the needs of our agriculture and having
specific trends of development we should undertake actions to include in the EU budget for
the forthcoming years such financial means which might change the Polish agriculture in the
most effective way, consistent with the guidelines. This is a difficult matter since the purposes
and guidelines of politicians creating the principles of the agricultural strategy differ quite
frequently from economic realities and social conditions in which this strategy is pursued.
Finally, I would like to present to you a few examples how the chances for restructurizing the
agriculture in my region were used.