Environmentally sustainable agriculture in Poland - economic assessment

Abstract

Agriculture is particularly linked with natural environment, due to the necessity of natural resources exploitation in the process of agricultural production. Intensive agricultural activity can cause exhaustion of the natural resources and some reduction in agricultural productivity. This interrelation substantiates promoting different forms of sustainable agriculture, that ensures, on the one hand, the volume and profitability of agricultural production, on the other hand, respect for the natural environment. The paper objective is the economic assessment of different forms of environmentally sustainable agriculture in Poland. There were analysed a few groups of farms with a different range of agrienvironmental practices, such as: a) industrial – specialized in cereal intensive production;  b) sustainable – with balanced plant and animal production; c) ecological – organized according to legal rules, d) norfolk – with balanced plant production; e) agrienvironmental – taking part in rural development program. Economic efficiency was calculated on the basis of productive and economic indicators, i.e.: total farm output, farm gross value added, family farm income. The analysis was based on Farm Accountancy Data Network 2012, that covered 11 000 holdings - the representative sample for commodity farms in Poland (750 000).

Keywords: productivity, agriculture, externalities, environment

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