Adam Majchrzak

EU agricultural policy and productivity of soil in countries varying in terms of intensity of agricultural production

Summary It was emphasised in the work whether there are differences in soil productivity of FADM farms from countries belonging to EU-15 and EU-12, and whether CAP subsidies impact the degree of these differences. For this purpose, a comparative analysis was conducted for the soil productivity indicators (taking into account the value of CAP subsidies in the value of production from agricultural activity and without such subsidies) as well as a statistical assessment of differences between those indicators in EU-15 and EU-12 countries based on the Mann-Whitney U test. EU-FADN data was used in the work. The timeframe covered the period of 2007-2013, the spatial scope covered EU-27 countries while the subject scope covered farms representative for particular EU-15 and EU-12 countries. A hypothesis was made that including subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy in the total production generated from farming causes absence of the significance of differences, in the productivity of soils from EU- 15 and EU-12 countries. As a result of the conducted analyses, it was confirmed that CAP subsidies increase the difference in the scope of soil productivity between farms from EU-15 and EU-12 countries. A bigger level of differences occurred between FADN farms from countries composing EU-15.

INTERVENTION IN AGRICULTURE IN TERMS OF ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS – THE CASE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES

In this article, the Authors attempt to evaluate whether the interventions in the agricultural sector in the European Union Member States is justified by the economic situation in the sector. There is a thesis, according to which subsidies received by agricultural producers do not serve in correcting the economic situation of farms resulting in the dynamics of prices. The study was conducted in the period 2005–2011. It is based on the analysis of correlation between indicators of support for agriculture published by the World Bank and the synthetic indicator of economic situation estimated on the basis of earned/lost revenue due to changes in prices of agricultural products. Conclusively, contemporary intervention in the agricultural sector in the EU Member States remains in isolation from changes in the economic situation. This makes the current objective of the Common Agricultural Policy not to stabilize markets, but to provide an adequate level of income to the owners of farms, which is carried out by the rents obtained for the provision of nonproduction services and political rents.

Economic size of farms and adjustments of the total factor productivity to the business cycle in Polish agriculture.

Th e article presents an approach to changes in the total factor productivity (TFP) which diff ers from that generally found in the literature. Changes are calculated in the real terms using the detailed input-output matrices for representative farms in Poland, for diff erent economic size classes, in the years 2007–2013. Input-output matrices were used for the decomposition of the Hicks-Moorsteen TFP index. Th e goal is to evaluate changes in the real TFP in the downturn and recovery phases of the business cycle in agriculture. It was found that the reaction of TFP to business cycle changes on “small”, “medium” and even “large” family farms in Poland is diametrically opposite to that observed in the case of large-scale farms. More than 90% of farms in Poland (except for the largest) increase technical productivity in the conditions of the economic downturn and lower it in the conditions of the economic recovery. Such behaviour is pro-cyclic and irrational, alluding to the 17th-century King’s eff ect, which is vanishing in the agricultural systems of highly developed countries. Th e hypothesis is proposed that the size of the price expectation error which causes that eff ect is negatively correlated with the economic size of the farm, but at the same time it is proportional to the percentage of agricultural income obtained from subsidies and other payments under the SAPS system.

Mechanisms of valuation of public goods on the agricultural land market - considerations in the context of sustainable development

Summary Mechanisms of valuation of public goods on the agricultural land market - considerations in the context of sustainable development Since the beginning of human civilization, the land has been creating certain utilities which satisfy human needs. When the dangerous side effects of industrial agriculture have occurred intrinsic land utilities are being discovered anew. They have a nature of public goods and constitute a hard core of the sustainable agriculture paradigm. Despite irreversible accumulation of capital in the anthropogenic environment many new utilities of the land come into existence without additional capital and labour outlay. Since they are public goods, they are paid from taxes in great measure. This way an intrinsic land utility takes a form of a financial product and can be called „intrinsic productivity” of land. The aim of the elaboration is to identify the mechanism that make intrinsic land utility transforms into productivity in monetary units. A conducted research consists in deriving a land rent capitalized in land prices and estimating its share in land value in comparison with the share of lease fees in the different regions of Poland in years 2000-2009. In the authors’ opinion since accession of Poland to the UE a market valorizes intrinsic utilities of land, whereas the new role of capital and labour is distribution of those utilities for consumers. Streszczenie Mechanizmy wyceny dóbr publicznych na rynku ziemi rolniczej - rozważania w kontekście zrównoważonego rozwoju Od początków cywilizacji człowieka ziemia tworzy samoistnie pewne użyteczności, które zaspokajają jego potrzeby. Od kiedy pojawiły się niebezpieczne efekty uboczne rolnictwa industrialnego ta twórcza rola ziemi jest odkrywana na nowo. Jej użyteczności stają się dobrem publicznym, którego ochrona jest istotą paradygmatu rolnictwa zrównoważonego. Pomimo nieodwracalnej akumulacji kapitału w środowisku antropogenicznym, wiele wspomnianych użyteczności powstaje bez dodatkowych nakładów kapitału i pracy. Jako że są one dobrami publicznymi opłaca się je z podatków. W ten sposób samoistna użyteczność ziemi przybiera formę produktu pieniężnego i może być nazywana „samoistną produktywnością”. Celem opracowania jest identyfi kacja mechanizmu transformacji użyteczności ziemi w produktywność w wymiarze fi nansowym. Przeprowadzone badania zakładały oszacowanie rent gruntowych zdyskontowanych w cenach ziemi rolniczej, a następnie określenie ich relacji do wartości ziemi oraz do czynszu dzierżawnego w przekroju województw w Polsce w latach 2000-2009. W opinii autorów od momentu akcesji Polski do UE rynek waloryzuje w cenach samoistne użyteczności ziemi rolniczej, podczas gdy rolą czynników kapitału i pracy jest ich dystrybucja od rolnictwa do konsumenta.