Productivity and location in private agriculture around Warsaw, Poland

Conclusion

The pattern of private agricultural development around Warsaw shows marked regional differences in productivity, inputs and other production factors, in which the proximity of Warsaw appears to have played a major role, but possibly of a changing character, e.g. transport costs are much less significant now than they were in the late 1940s. Of the 116 gminy examined, 22 exhibit intensive production and another 23 are in districts with low levels of gross production but with more than half their output commercial (Fig 13.) The remaining 71, which are mostly peripheral, have low levels of productivity and less than half their output commercial (one gmina of the 71, Zaluski in 2d, has medium level productivity with less than half its output commercial). The data suggest six regional types:

• 1. considerable production concentration depending mainly on the highly intensive production of vegetables, fruit and flowers;

• 2. medium levels of productivity, with a more mixed character, including farms of both high and low intensity;

• 3. depending mainly on vegetables and fruit in the higher output farms, but with over-all low productivity;

• 4. some emphasis on commercial productivity, but at a low level of output and with livestock commercially important;

• 5. low productivity, few farms dependent on commercial cropping, considerable dependence on cattle and pigs, but with farms averaging over 7 ha so that many can manage to provide an adequate income to support a family;

• 6. as region 5 but with farms below 7 ha.

The more serious problems are in region 6 where small farms and low productivity provide only a poor living, especially for the older full time farmers who include several over retirement age, or where farming families must depend on incomes from occupations outside farming.

The regions identified, their boundaries and characteristics are only approximate indications of the pattern of private agricultural development around Warsaw, since the data base is not farms but gminy. The variables have been limited to those available to us. The addition of others could have given a much clearer appreciation, particularly final and net production, fixed and turnover capital and data for the different crops and livestock.

The current national agricultural policy aims at national self-sufficiency in food supply and therefore at increased productivity on Polish farms (Olszewski 1985). Input resources are limited and feed grain imports have to be controlled. A fuller use of the productive potential is essential. Subject to environmental limitations, the map of productivity around Warsaw suggests there is room to raise output. The question is where the effort to raise productivity should be located, given that it is unlikely that sufficient extra resources could be made available for over-all development, or that equally cooperative farmers would be uniformly distributed. In the present situation there is a need to concentrate most of the resources where they will be most effective in order to obtain the best possible return for the investment. At the same time growth in the industrial and service sectors of the economy will tend to attract labour out of agriculture and to increase the number of farms with family members in non-agricultural employment. Furthermore it has been argued that the contribution to agriculture from Polish industry and services remains low — so low that only limited changes in the agrarian structure are possible (Klodziński 1987). Many private farms need modernization and better buildings to provide attractive living and working conditions for young and progressive full time farmers (Pietrewicz 1984b), but the building industry in Poland is currently affected by a considerable delay in the provision of homes (Adamowski 1986).

The small size of private farms has frequently been cited as a major productive constraint and certainly around Warsaw there are many which are very small, have low output and lack modern equipment. However, as Klodziński (1987) comments, farm size is only one of several constraints in agricultural development. Around Warsaw it is generally only poorly related to the other variabless, although we may find a clearer relationship to certain enterprises. The current tendency in the evolution of the frequency distribution of sizes of Polish individual farms is towards polarization of the extremes. Farms of 0.5 – 2 ha and over 10 ha have been increasing in number, whilst the numbers in the intermediate size classes have declined (GUS 1985; Adamowski 1986). Many of the smallest farms are amongst the most productive, both on a per hectare and a per farm basis, because of investments in glass, plastic tunnels, heating equipment, fertilizers and skills, and because they concentrate on particularly profitable crops or livestock enterprises such as chicken and pig rearing suited to highly intensive production methods. Such farms are valuable in providing for the needs of a particular sector of the market, but not for the larger scale needs for grain, cheap vegetables, meat and milk products where gross production levels per hectare of agricultural land are lower and where there is a need for larger, modernized farms in order both to raise productivity and to provide satisfactory incomes from full time working. More attention also needs to be paid to the “punkty skupu”, i.e., the cooperative resource supply and purchase points for farm produce. Ilbery's (1986) plea in the UK for more attention to the role of marketing in agricultural geography is just as relevant in Poland where the marketing system has played an important role in the evolution of the current agricultural regions. The regional map of productivity should be a guide to the districts and punkty skupu locations where younger and better educated farmers are already present or where they would prefer to acquire land. Any expansion of the production system must look at the map of marketing and also at the map of the advisory and further education system which should improve the efficiency of use of the new inputs and the knowledge of the marketing possibilities. Price variations and minimum price guarantees are important in risk reduction, but so is reliability in input supply and marketing. Seasonal labour is becoming hard to obtain, particularly reliable and semi-skilled labour. On the most intensive small farms an adequate labour supply is essential. Shortage and rising cost may reduce productivity where labour is diverted to other sectors of the economy. More attention may have to be given to the provision of labour-substituting equipment and the supporting services. Adamowski (1986) has argued that future investment will aim more in the direction of increasing crop yields than economizing labour, although in recent years the rising costs of more intensive production and reduced purchasing power have tended to reduce the rate of growth (Mierwiński 1986).

The regional map may be a guide for the implementation of some elements of existing policy. Our map is for 1978 and does not reflect all the elements in the present situation, nevertheless it is indicative of some of the possibilities for spatial management and development. Further investment in regions 1 and 2 is suggested, especially in 2 with its lower output. In these regions the less productive farms have nearby examples of higher productivity and the punkty skupu are already supplying some of the appropriate materials for intensive production. The less productive but still highly commercial districts in regions 3 and 4 are also well suited to further expansion of fruit and vegetable production. They already have high fertilizer inputs and 3 and 4e have low percentages of older farmers and above the average percentages of people with better than basic education. 3 also has a high index of specialization. For increased cattle and feed grain production the larger farms of region 5 appear to have the best potential for immediate results. Most of the region — more especially 5a —has low percentages of older farmers and high percentages of livestock contribution to commercial production. The remaining districts need improvement, but have more widespread problems of environment and of restructuring.