Academic literature on the topic 'AGENCY FOR RESTRUCTURING AND MODERNISATION OF AGRICULTURE'

Abstract Modernising the agricultural sector and stabilising the agricultural markets in budgetary expenditures in Poland in the years 1997-2011 The purpose of the article was to evaluate the budgetary expenditure related to the modernization of the agricultural sector and stabilization of agricultural markets, which are implemented in the framework of the common agricultural policy by two paying agencies. Research related to changes in share of spending on activities of the Agricultural Market Agency (AMA) and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA) in total budget expenditure in the long run, ie in the years 1996-2011 (16 years) with honors from the period before and after accession to the EU. It shows the relationship between ongoing spending from the national budget for the institutions, and the total budgetary expenditure and the funds allocated to the agricultural sector (agriculture, rural development and agricultural markets), which show that a substantial increase in the role of the paying agencies in the post-accession period.

The purpose of this article is to assess the scale and nature of institutional support in the opinion of farmers engaged in organic farms in the Lublin region (NUTS 2). The following development was established on the basis of surveys conducted on a group of 30 producers of organic food from the Lublin region between the 4th and the 22nd of February 2013. The respondents were asked to assess the level of institutional support offered by the institutions to organic farmers. The highest in the rank were Agricultural Advisory Centres, certification bodies and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA). On the other hand, Local Action Groups, District Offices, Chambers of Agriculture, ecological associations and clusters were ranked as the least helpful to the organic farmers. The farmers expected to receive both financial and non-financial support (marketing, sales promotion).

This paper aims to explore the importance of the direct-payments scheme as a tool for supporting the sustainable development of agriculture in Poland, and to assess the effects of the 2015 Common Agricultural Policy reform in this context. In particular, the study attempts to investigate the impact of different fund-allocation criteria on the regional distribution of direct payments. The research employs a simulation method in the form of variant analysis (the “what if” model)—a mathematical method with elements of statistical description, based on the complete dataset. For the purposes of one of the variants, a multi-criteria composite indicator was constructed, including stimulants and destimulants of the level of environmental sustainability of agricultural plant production. The analysis was conducted at the NUTS 2 level (voivodeships). The timeframe of the study covered the period 2010–2019. The data published by Statistics Poland and the Agency for the Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture were used as the source material. The analysis indicated that the 2015 Common Agricultural Policy reform redistributed public funds away from sustainable agricultural management principles. Applying some basic sustainability criteria in order to internalise environmental externalities would lead to a radical redistribution of first-pillar Common Agricultural Policy payments. The paper concludes that a real greening of the European Union’s agricultural policy is a task still to be accomplished.

This paper analyses the influence of the implementation of milk quotas on the dairy sector and the situation of milk producers in the province of Warmia and Mazury and describes the changes taking place in the milk market from 2004-2009 in milk production, processing and management. The research material originated from a questionnaire-based survey conducted by the Chair of Economic and Regional Policy of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn in close collaboration with the Agricultural Market Agency (AMA). The survey encompassed 313 milk producers from the province of Warmia and Mazury during the quota year of 2009/2010. The remaining data referenced in the publication originated from materials developed by the AMA, the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoA) and the Central Statistical Office (GUS). The milk production quota system was intended to prevent excessive supply of raw material on the market and trigger concentration processes in the dairy sector. On the basis of the AMA studies results, it was determined that in the six years following milk production quotas, almost 3,500 producers withdrew from the market. Additionally, an analysis of data made available by the AMA indicates that the volume of milk produced has been constantly increasing (during the years 2004-2010 the volume of wholesale milk sold from a single supplier per year increased by 58.11% in the area of the province of Warmia and Mazury).

Abstract The aim of the work described here has been to point to the relationships between the field-forest boundary and crop productivity as regards the present agrarian land-use structure in Poland, and to provide new opportunities for arranging the agrarian process and the spatial planning of the rural landscape in the context of the sustainable shaping of the field-forest boundary. Impacts of forests and woodlands on crop productivity have been assessed using available data from relevant Polish literature. An assessment of the plot-distribution pattern characterising farms in Poland was made on the basis of reference data from the Agency for the Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture. Finally, the possibility of afforestation of agricultural land has been evaluated within the existing legal framework, and on the basis of available data, with attention paid to the need to include organization of the field-forest boundary within the comprehensive management and planning of rural areas, and to preserve woody elements in patchy landscapes. This all creates an opportunity to test innovative approaches to integrated land use which combines the creation of public goods and local products based on participatory learning processes that bring in local stakeholders and decision-makers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of farmers' trust toward state agricultural agencies in Poland, to identify its determinants and to develop a model illustrating the relationship between trust and the different dimensions of the agencies performance. Specifically this study looks at two agencies: the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture and the Agricultural Market Agency. Data were obtained from responses to a set of questions asked of the nationwide sample of 200 Polish farmers in December 2006–January 2007. The farmers' evaluations according to a range of statements about the agencies were measured using ten-point Likert scale. Partial Least Squares Path Modelling was employed to estimate the latent (theoretical) variables such as trust, image, performance, satisfaction etc. Additionally, descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and means as well as correlation coefficients were applied. Evidence is presented that the trust of farmers in the institutions of state, represented here by two agricultural agencies, is statistically correlated with the image of the agencies, respondents' expectations and their satisfaction about the way the agencies work as well as with perceived value of the services and programmes provided by the agencies. Farmer's socio-economic characteristics (gender, education, the period of their interaction with the agencies, farm size) did not relate to trust score with the exception of age. Causality analysis showed that trust towards both agencies was significantly impacted by their image with the customers. Trust had significant impact on the overall satisfaction with the ARMA.

SummarySubject and purpose of work: The article analyses the influence of optional instruments applied in Poland as part of the first pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy on the average support provided to farms in individual provinces.Materials and methods: The study was based on data from the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture as well as quantitative and analytical methods, especially simulations and comparative variant analysis.Results: The optional instruments applied in Poland increased the average support provided to farms in central and eastern Poland. The average amount of support paid per farm would have been bigger in northern, western and southern provinces if optional instruments had not been implemented. Primarily, the introduction of both redistributive payment and production-related support (all forms of this support taken together) resulted in a decrease in the average aid per holding in the same group of provinces and at the same time an increase in this size in other provinces (compared to the situation in which the amounts for financing these instruments would be distributed under the single area payment).Conclusions: The analysis of the influence of redistributive payment and coupled support on the average amount of financial aid per farm in individual provinces shows that the consequences of using these instruments were very similar to each other in their effect on the variable under study.

The aim of the paper was identify and assess progress in selected actions implemented under the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020 as a source of financing entities’ innovative undertakings. The availability of European funds allocated to entities for increasing their competitiveness through innovativeness is a key element creating and developing innovative economy. The paper describes the essence of innovativeness and indicates selected instruments supporting innovativeness under the RDP 2014-2020. It also discusses the areas, ranges limits and use of support provided to business projects. The empirical data came from reports, documents with public statistics and unpublished data of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture. The authors stressed out the fact that the perception as well as the economic and financial situation of entities currently functioning under precarious and unstable conditions, affect their openness to the EU offer. The EU funds will enable new entities to initiate innovative trends, whereas old entities can continue these trends through investment activity. The process of applying for funds is complicated, so it is not easy to receive support. It is necessary to take actions which will increase efficient use of the funds.

Decoupling economic growth from the exploitation of natural resources, protecting vulnerable ecosystems, restoring habitats and species, and supporting areas used for organic farming are, along with achieving climate neutrality, key tenets of the European Green Deal (EGD)—the EU’s new sustainable economic strategy. One direction of activities to implement several of these goals simultaneously is the provision of financial support for agricultural activities aimed at protecting valuable plant and animal habitats and species. This study aims to present research results that include an analysis of the spatial diversification of EU support for nature value habitats in Poland against the background of physico-geographical regions. To date, no such studies have been conducted; instead, analyses of the spatial differentiation in how selected forms of EU funding are taken up in Poland and other European countries have mainly referred to regional or local territorial divisions, and not to regions distinguished based on natural environmental features. Payments from Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds to support farms using nature value habitats were selected for the analysis. The analysis employed data from the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA), as a disburser of EU funds for agriculture in Poland; the data related to two packages (No. 4 and 5) of Agri-Environment-Climate Measures (AECM), which constitute one of the measures of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014–2020. The spatial and statistical analyses not only supported a general description of EU support for the protection of nature value habitats in Poland but also allowed a detailed evaluation of the distribution and areal coverage of nature value habitats subsidised by RDP funds to be presented, and a comprehensive assessment of the scale of support for the natural habitats covered by the programme.

The objective of this study was to measure the dispersion of the unit level of support, paid under the direct payment scheme, among voivodeships with a similar average agricultural holding size, and to identify the reasons for this dispersion. It begins with a description of the shape of the direct payments scheme in Poland. The paper further presents and analyses the results of the measurement of dispersion of support as part of the direct payment scheme between voivodeships with no significant differences in the sizes of agricultural holdings. It has been shown that this dispersion is a result of the differences in the structure of support absorbed by farmers in individual regions. The measurement of the support level is the average aid amount per unit of agricultural area and the average aid amount per one beneficiary. The source material used in this paper was the data from the Polish paying agency responsible for direct payments made to farmers, i.e. the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture. The reference period of the study is 2018. As three voivodeships with the most similar average farm size were selected, the study covered Łódzkie, Śląskie and Lubelskie Voivodeships. The analysis was performed with the use of descriptive statistics methods. The data was visualised with the use of pie and bar charts, and a choropleth map. It was found that the instrument with a particularly strong potential for the impact on support level in absolute terms (per one holding) and relative terms (per 1 hectare of agricultural land in a holding) is the so called voluntary coupled support. With this instrument, European Union Member States can adjust the distribution of funds between individual regions, reducing the strength of a relationship between the volume of support absorbed by individual regions and their abundance in agricultural land. The intention of such actions may be to compensate for social inequalities or to stimulate growth in peripheral areas.

Gospodarstwo rolne jako współuczestnik rynku gospodarczego, ulokowane jest w wielopłaszczyznowej regulacji zarówno na gruncie prawa krajowego i wspólnotowego. Klasyczne ujęcie czynników produkcji (praca, kapitał oraz ziemia), klasyfikuje gospodarstwo rolne jako swoistego rodzaju przedsiębiorstwo, które objęte jest odrębną i preferencyjną regulacją prawną, z uwagi na strategiczny charakter i rolę dla każdego Państwa i funkcjonującego w nim społeczeństwa. W pracy poruszono zagadnienia uwarunkowujące procesy legislacyjne w kontekście konkretnych zdarzeń polityczno-gospodarczych, które odzwierciedlały całokształt przybieranych przez Państwo koncepcji i modeli rolnictwa, jak również próbę wyważenie interesu prawa własności względem nakładanych obowiązków administracyjnych. Główny akcent w pracy położono na gospodarstwa rodzinne prowadzone przez rolników indywidualnych, które stanowią egzemplifikacje przyjętej normy programowej, wyrażonej w art. 23 Konstytucji Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej. Charakteryzując metody badawcze przybrane w pracy, wymienić należy przeprowadzoną analizę w oparciu o metodę prawno-dogmatyczną, historyczną, prawno-porównawczą z elementami statystycznymi oraz analizy typu SWOT. Dwie pierwsze z nich najpełniej pozwalają wyprowadzić wnioski dotyczące czynników kształtujących ustrój rolny w Polsce. Dwie kolejne ukazują bezpośrednie relację związanie z ówczesnym rolnictwem oraz płaszczyzną ekonomiczno-społeczną-prawną. Rozdział pierwszy został poświęcony zagadnieniom związanym z ewolucją instytucji gospodarstwa rolnego i jego prawnymi uregulowaniami. Przyjrzano się w nim źródłom pojęć oraz definicji gospodarstwa rolnego w ujęciu konstytucyjnym, administracyjnym i cywilistycznym. Podniesiono także kwestie dotyczące polityki rolnej, zasadności regulacji ochronnych i ustawowego wsparcia gospodarstw rolnych. Rozdział drugi zawiera charakterystykę i ocenę korelacji prawa rolnego względem pozostałych dziedzin prawa. W dalszej części ukazano odrębność systemu ubezpieczeń społecznych, podatków, systemu obrotu i ochrony nieruchomości rolnych, odstępstwa rolnego oraz systemów wsparcia i ochrony zasobów środowiska naturalnego w gospodarstwach rodzinnych. Wyjątkowo istotną materią tego rozdziału jest również nadal aktualna kwestia egzekucji świadczeń pieniężnych z majątku gospodarstwa rolnego. Rozdział trzeci odnosi się do zagadnień związanych z prawno-ekonomicznymi regulacjami wsparcia rodzinnych gospodarstw rolnych, w których skoncentrowano się na tematyce wpływu WPR, założeniach EFRROW, PROW w latach lata 2014–2020 i innych systemach wsparcia dla rodzinnych gospodarstw wiejskich. Rozdział czwarty zawiera analizę komparatystyczną ustroju i rozwiązań prawnych zapewniających wsparcie dla rodzinnych gospodarstw rolnych stosowanych w Polsce i wybranych krajach Unii Europejskiej. Postawione w wstępie pracy hipotezy badawcze rozwinięto w tezach i uzasadnieniu zawartym w zakończeniu. Rozważania oparto na twierdzeniu, iż ustawodawca otacza coraz to większym zakresem regulacji tryb i funkcjonowanie gospodarstw rolnych, co determinuje pozycję prawną gospodarstwa rolnego w licznych aktach normatywnych. Wyjątkowość sektora agrarnego dodatkowo ustawodawca uwydatnia poprzez rozwinięcie oddzielnych regulacji oraz odmiennego podejścia i ujęcia sfery majątkowej rolników, jak też ich obowiązków publicznych. Wysoce rozbudowana konstrukcja instrumentów regulacyjnych stawia gospodarstwa rolne jako równoprawny podmiot gospodarczy z zapewnioną uprzywilejowaną pozycją w stosunku do silniejszych kapitałowo podmiotów na rynku gospodarki wolnorynkowej, niemniej czynniki globalizacyjne spowodowały, że do dziś wiele osób traktuje rolnictwo w sposób bagatelizujący, wynikający najprawdopodobniej z niezrozumienia znaczenia i specyfiki tego sektora, w stosunku do ogólnoświatowej części systemu gospodarczego.
An agricultural holding as a co-participant of the economic market, is located in a multifaceted regulation both on the basis of national and EU law. The classic view of production factors (labor, capital and land) classifies an agricultural holding as a kind of enterprise, which is covered by a separate and preferential legal regulation, due to its strategic character and role for each State and the society functioning in it. In the dissertation issues were raised related to legislative processes in the context of specific political and economic events, which reflected the entirety of concepts and models of agriculture adopted by State, as well as an attempt to the balance between interest of property rights with imposed administrative obligations. The main emphasis was put on family farms conducted by individual farmers, which is exemplifications of the accepted program norm, expressed in art. 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Characterizing the research methods adopted at work, mention should be made of the analysis based on the legal-dogmatic, historical, legal-comparative method with statistical elements and SWOT analysis. The first two of them allows to draw the most complete conclusions about the factors shaping the agricultural system in Poland. Two next shown a direct relation with the then agriculture and the economic-social-legal plane. The first chapter was devoted to issues related to the evolution of an agricultural institution and its legal regulations. It looked at the sources of concepts and definitions of a farm in constitutional, administrative and civilian terms. Also raised issues related to: agricultural policy, the legitimacy of protective regulations and statutory support for farms. The second chapter contains the characteristics and assessment of the correlation of agricultural law in relation to other areas of law. In the following, the author shows separateness of the social security system, taxes, the system of trade and protection of agricultural real estate, agricultural exemption and support and protection systems for natural resources in family farms. An extremely important matter of this chapter is also the current issue of the judicial execution of cash benefits from farm property. The third chapter refers to issues related to legal and economic regulations for supporting family farms, which focus on the impact of the CAP, EAFRD objectives, RDPs in the years 2014-2020 and other support systems for family rural households. The fourth chapter contains a comparative analysis of the system and legal solutions that provide support for family farms used in Poland and selected European Union countries. The research hypotheses put forward in the introduction were developed in the theses and substantiation contained in the conclusion. The considerations were based on the claim that the legislator surrounds the mode and functioning of farms holdings by increasing range of regulation, what determines the legal position of an agricultural holding in numerous normative acts. The legislator emphasizes the uniqueness of the agrarian sector by developing separate regulations and different approach and recognition of the farmers property sphere, as well as their public duties. The highly developed construction of regulatory instruments places agricultural holdings as an equal economic entity, with a privileged position in relation to stronger capital market players in free market economy. However, globalization factors have caused that many people still treat agriculture in a downplaying manner, probably resulting from a misunderstanding of the importance and specificity of this sector in relation to the global economic system.

The turn of the 20th and 21st centuries has been a very dynamic period of change in Poland and around the world; also a period of change in thinking about the economy and agriculture. The present work is a study of the decline, divestments and development of agriculture in the areas of fragmented farming structure. The reflections presented herein, upon the processes of the remodelling of agrarian structures, of divestments in farming, and disagrarisation, are mostly anchored in the achievements of the theory of spatial economy (land management), and the microeconomic theories of choice, including the theory of an agricultural holding (farm) and land rent theories. The work focuses on the economic issues of remodelling the agrarian structure, but due to the nature of the issues discussed herein, specifically in relation to family-owned farms, the social and environmental aspects also needed to be taken into account – in response to the need for a heterogeneous approach, which is increasingly stressed in economic sciences today. The main objective of the research was to diagnose and assess the scale and scope of the mechanisms and processes that inform the decline and growth of agricultural holdings in the areas with fragmented farming structure. The study covered the area comprising four regions (provinces) of south-eastern Poland, which – according to the FADN nomenclature – form the macro region of Małopolska and Pogórze. The study of subject literature has been enriched with an analysis of available statistics; data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN); information obtained from the Department of Programming and Reporting at the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture; and author’s own research conducted among farm owners. The information thus obtained made it possible to: • Determine the theoretical premises for the spatial diversity of agriculture, and the role of small farms in the shaping of agrarian structure. • Adapt the concept of “divestment” for the description and analysis of the phenomena occurring in agriculture. • Indicate the role and importance of the processes of divestment and disagrarisation in the restructuring of agriculture. • Assess the natural, social and economic determinants of the process of restructuring agriculture in areas with fragmented farming structure. • Assess selected aspects of economic efficiency of agriculture in areas with fragmented farming structure, with the focus on small and micro farms. • Carry out an ex ante evaluation of the impact of agricultural policy instruments on the process of restructuring of agriculture in the macro region of Małopolska and Pogórze. • Identify the indicators of decline and fall, and barriers to the liquidation of farms. • Assess the relationship between the level of socio-economic development, the structure of farming, and the quality of agricultural production space in a given territorial unit, versus the intensity of the economic and production disagrarisation processes in agricultural holdings. • Propose targeted solutions conducive to the improvement of the farming structure in areas with a high framentation of agriculture. Observation of the processes occurring in agriculture, and the scientific theories created on the basis thereof, have shown that even the smallest farms have a chance to continue in existence, provided that we are able to positively verify their adaptation to the changing conditions in the environment. Carrying out farming activity is a prerequisite for implementing the economic, social and environmental functions associated with family farms. At the same time, based on the analyses performed, we need to assume that the advanced processes of the production and economic disagrarisation of agricultural holdings are to a greater extent determined by the anatomical features of agriculture, and by the natural conditions, than by the level of socio-economic development of the given territorial unit. In the current economic climate, the remodelling of the agrarian structure is only possible with the active participation of the institutions responsible for the creation of economic growth and agricultural policy development. It is extremely important from the point of view of environmental protection, and the viability of rural areas, to support small farms engaged in agricultural activities, and to introduce such instruments that will enable the replacement of an economic collapse with divestments, carried out in a planned manner, and allowing for thus released agricultural resources to find alternative application in units with a higher development potential. The area of theoretical research requiring further exploration includes the issues such as transactional costs of the liquidation of agricultural holdings, and the assessment of the economic effectiveness of conducting divestments.

AbstractThis chapter analyses the trend of transformation and diversification of higher education in Latvia due to political, economic and social changes in the country. Higher education institutions (HEIs) were established prior to Soviet legacy and during the first independence of Latvia in early twentieth century. During the Soviet rule in Latvia, HE was under full state control, organised to serve the needs of the centrally planned economy and the official Marxist-Leninist ideology. When Latvia proclaimed its independence from the USSR in 1990, its higher education system consisted of ten state HEIs; five of which were placed under the Ministry of Education and others were operating under the auspices of the ministries of healthcare, culture and agriculture. Multiple changes have taken place in the sector of higher education since then. The most important accomplishments of the HE reform during the transition period from the centrally controlled Soviet system to a democratically governed system of independent Latvia as reported in literature were autonomy of HEIs, the expansion of the HE sector in terms of the number of institutions and students, the creation of private HEIs, the introduction of HE quality assessment, the development of new study programmes, the modernisation of existing study programmes and the intensification of international cooperation between HEIs in Latvia and abroad. Hence, ensuring transformations of the HE sector involved continuing the diversification of the institutional landscape. Factors leading to this diversification include increased demand for higher education in social sciences, government’s initiated restructuring of higher education, regulation of the use of languages in higher education, secondary education reforms in early 1990s and shifts in demographic composition of higher education students.

Scholars typically characterize Faulkner’s rural figures in passive terms, as objects, witnesses, or outright victims of the modernization process, set adrift on the land by the economic restructuring of southern agriculture before succumbing to the commercial and cultural allure of the small town. But in The Hamlet, As I Lay Dying, “Barn Burning,” “Mule in the Yard,” and “Shingles for the Lord,” Faulkner proves more alert than his critics to the agency of his rural characters as modernizing figures in their own right, descending on various nodes of Yoknapatawpha community to upend familiar social relations, economic arrangements, and habits of perception, in a process of creative disruption that reaches deep into the human interior while also rippling outward to inform/deform the texts’ own patterns of imagery and verbal style. These characters force us to rethink the core-periphery relations and diffusionist pathways so often cited by theorists of the modernization process.