Efficiency of Polish Organic and Conventional Farms – Pilot Study Results

Marta Baraniak

Abstract


Theoretical background: Organic farming is still a niche in Polish agriculture (but not only in Polish agriculture). According to Eurostat data, in 2020 only 2.7% of agricultural land (utilized agricultural area excluding kitchen gardens) was fully converted to organic farming. Efficiency is one of the most important issues when considering organic activities. Research often shows higher efficiency among conventional farms compared to organic, which may explain the limited interest among farmers in organic activities. The article addresses the problem of low interest in organic activities in Poland and contains the results of a pilot study conducted in 2023.

Purpose of the article: The article aims to assess and compare the economic efficiency of conventional and organic individual farms, as well as to characterize the basic motives and barriers to the conversion of conventional agricultural activities to organic ones on Polish farms from three voivodeships: Warmian-Masurian, Masovian and Lublin.

Research methods: The achievement of the goal formulated at the beginning of the article was possible by surveying a sample of farms that provided their accounting data through the Polish FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network). Survey in the form of CATI was conducted in 2023 on a total sample of 55 farms (27 entities conducting certified organic activity and 28 entities conducting conventional activity). Financial data were obtained from individual reports provided by FADN. The efficiency of farms was assessed using DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). The DEA input-oriented model was applied and it used total revenue as output, and agriculture area, total cost, and fixed assets as inputs.

Main findings: The analysis showed, first of all, differences between organic and conventional farms. It turns out that in the tested sample, organic farms are more effective than conventional entities. The most important motives for the surveyed farmers are economic ones, including higher subsidies than in the case of conventional activity and sales at higher prices. Before deciding to change their activity to organic farming, Polish farmers were afraid of low yields and high labor inputs. Importantly, the majority of conventional farmers are concerned about low yields.


Keywords


organic farms; conventional farms; efficiency; DEA; motives; barriers

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aldanondo-Ochoa, A.M., Casasnovas-Oliva, V.L., & Arandia-Miura, A. (2014). Environmental efficiency and the impact of regulation in dryland organic vine production. Land Use Policy, 36, 275–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.08.010

Alkahtani, S.H., & Elhendy, A.M. (2012). Organic and conventional date farm efficiency estimation, and its determents at Riyadh province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. WIT Transactions on Ecology and The Environment, 162(2). https://doi.org/10.2495/EID120

Badgley, C., Moghtader, J., Quintero, E., Zakem, E., Chappell, M.J., Avilés-Vázquez, K., Samulon, A., & Perfecto, I. (2007). Organic agriculture and the global food supply. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 22(2), 86–108. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170507001640

Baer-Nawrocka, A., & Błocisz, J. (2018). Efficiency of Polish organic and conventional farms. Studies in Agricultural Economics, 120(1), 55–60. https://doi.org/10.7896/j.1724

Baraniak, M. (2022). Are organic farms a panacea for the structural problems of Polish agriculture? Acta Scientiarum Polonorum, Administratio Locorum, 21(2), 173–184. https://doi.org/10.31648/aspal.7171

Best, H. (2010). Environmental concern and the adoption of organic agriculture. Society and Natural Resources, 23(5), 451–468. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920802178206

Blaće, A., Čuka, A., & Šiljković, Ž. (2020). How dynamic is organic? Spatial analysis of adopting new trends in Croatian agriculture. Land Use Policy, 99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105036

Blaikie, P.M., & Sadeque, S.Z. (2000). Policy in the High Himalayas: Environment and Development in the Himalayan region. ICIMOD.

Bórawski, P., Grzybowska-Brzezińska, M., & Dunn, J.W. (2015). The evaluation of efficiency of Polish agriculture. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 63(1), 175–183. https://doi.org/10.11118/actaun201563010175

Casolani, N., Nissi, E., Giampaolo, A., & Liberatore, L. (2021). Evaluating the effects of European support measures for Italian organic farms. Land Use Policy, 102, 105225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105225

Chmielinski, P., Pawlowska, A., Bocian, M., & Osuch, D. (2019). The land is what matters: factors driving family farms to organic production in Poland. British Food Journal, 121(6), 1354–1367. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-05-2018-0338

Ćwiąkała-Małys, A., & Nowak, W. (2009). Sposoby klasyfikacji modeli DEA. Badania Operacyjne i Decyzje, 3, 5–18.

De Ponti, T., Rijk, B., & van Ittersum, M.K. (2012). The crop yield gap between organic and conventional agriculture. Agricultural Systems, 108, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2011.12.004

Demetriou, D., Stillwell, J., & See, L. (2012). Land consolidation in Cyprus: Why is an Integrated Planning and Decision Support System required? Land Use Policy, 29(1), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.05.012

Dimara, E., Pantzios, Ch.J., Skuras, D., & Tsekouras, K. (2005). The impacts of regulated notions of quality on farm efficiency: A DEA application. European Journal of Operational Research, 161(2), 416–431.

Domagała, A. (2007). Metoda Data Envelopment Analysis jako narzędzie badania względnej efektywności technicznej. Badania Operacyjne i Decyzje, 3–4, 21–34.

Eurostat. (2023). Data Browser. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ORG_CROPAR/default/table?lang=en

FiBL. (2021). https://www.fibl.org/en/

Hartvigsen, M. (2014). Land reform and land fragmentation in Central and Eastern Europe. Land Use Policy, 36, 330–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.08.016

Heinrichs, J., Kuhn, T., Pahmeyer, C., & Britz, W. (2021). Economic effects of plot sizes and farm-plot distances in organic and conventional farming systems: A farm-level analysis for Germany. Agricultural Systems, 187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2020.102992

Hiironen, J., & Riekkinen, K. (2016). Agricultural impacts and profitability of land consolidations. Land Use Policy, 55, 309–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.04.018

Janus, J., & Markuszewska, I. (2017). Land consolidation – a great need to improve effectiveness. A case study from Poland. Land Use Policy, 65, 143–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.03.028

Jensen, K.O.D., Denver, S., & Zanoli, R. (2011). Actual and potential development of consumer demand on the organic food market in Europe. NJAS – Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, 58(3–4), 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2011.01.005

Juchniewicz, M., & Zagaja, A. (2023). Wyniki Standardowe 2021 uzyskane przez ekologiczne gospodarstwa rolne uczestniczące w Polskim FADN. Część I. Instytut Ekonomiki Rolnictwa i Gospodarki Żywnościowej – Państwowy Instytut Badawczy. www.polskifadn.eu

Kociszewski, K., Graczyk, A., Mazurek-Łopacinska, K., & Sobocińska, M. (2020). Social values in stimulating organic production involvement in farming – the case of Poland. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/SU12155945

Koesling, M., Flaten, O., & Lien, G. (2008). Factors influencing the conversion to organic farming in Norway. International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 7(1/2), 78–95.

Kurdyś-Kujawska, A., Strzelecka, A., & Zawadzka, D. (2021). The impact of crop diversification on the economic efficiency of small farms in Poland. Agriculture (Switzerland), 11(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11030250

Łuczka, W., & Kalinowski, S. (2020). Barriers to the development of organic farming: A Polish case study. Agriculture (Switzerland), 10(11), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10110536

Mazur-Włodarczyk, K., & Gruszecka-Kosowska, A. (2022). Conventional or organic? Motives and trends in Polish vegetable consumption. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084667

Mazurek-Kusiak, A., Sawicki, B., & Kobyłka, A. (2021). Contemporary challenges to the organic farming: A Polish and Hungarian case study. Sustainability (Switzerland), 13(14). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13148005

Miśniakiewicz, M., Łuczak, J., & Maruszewska, N. (2021). Improvement of organic farm assessment procedures on the example of organic farming in Poland – recommendations for organic farming in Poland. Agronomy, 11(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081560

Moutinho, V., Robaina, M., & Macedo, P. (2018). Economic-environmental efficiency of European agriculture – a generalized maximum entropy approach. Agricultural Economics – Czech, 64(10), 423–435. https://doi.org/10.17221/45/2017-AGRICECON

Mzoughi, N. (2011). Farmers adoption of integrated crop protection and organic farming: Do moral and social concerns matter? Ecological Economics, 70(8), 1536–1545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.03.016

Oude Lansink, A., Pietola, S.T.I., & Ba, S. (1994). Efficiency and productivity of conventional and organic farms in Finland.

Pawłowska-Tyszko, J., Osuch, D., & Płonka, R. (2022). Wyniki Standardowe 2021 uzyskane przez gospodarstwa rolne uczestniczące w Polskim FADN. Instytut Ekonomiki Rolnictwa i Gospodarki Żywnościowej – Państwowy Instytut Badawczy. www.polskifadn.eu

Pejnović, D., Ciganović, A., & Valjak, V. (2012). Ključne riječi: ekološka poljoprivreda, organska poljoprivreda. Hrvatski geografski glasnik, 74(1), 141–159.

Pimentel, D., & Burgess, M. (2014). An environmental, energetic and economic comparison of organic and conventional farming systems. In Integrated Pest Management: Pesticide Problems (vol. 3, pp. 141–166). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7796-5_6

Polat, F. (2015). Organic farming education in Azerbaijan, present and future. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197, 2407–2410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.302

Rahman, S., & Rahman, M. (2009). Impact of land fragmentation and resource ownership on productivity and efficiency: The case of rice producers in Bangladesh. Land Use Policy, 26(1), 95–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2008.01.003

Reig-Martínez, E., Gómez-Limón, J.A., & Picazo-Tadeo, A.J. (2011). Ranking farms with a composite indicator of sustainability. Agricultural Economics, 42(5), 561–575. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2011.00536.x

Skarżyńska, A. (2017). Efektywność techniczna, ekonomiczna i środowiskowa produkcji wybranych produktów roślinnych w regionach rolniczych Polski. Problems of Agricultural Economics, 350(1), 117–137. https://doi.org/10.5604/00441600.1232999

Stanny, M., Rosner, A., & Komorowski, Ł. (2018). Monitoring rozwoju obszarów wiejskich. Etap III Struktury społeczno-gospodarcze, ich przestrzenne zróżnicowanie i dynamika (wersja pełna).

Statistics Poland. (2022). Powszechny Spis Rolny 2020 : charakterystyka gospodarstw rolnych w 2020 r.

Stolze, M., Sanders, J., Kasperczyk, N., Madsen, G., & Meredith, S. (2016). CAP 2014–2020: Organic farming and the prospects for stimulating public goods. www.ifoam-eu.org

Świtłyk, M., Sompolska-Rzechuła, A., & Kurdyś-Kujawska, A. (2021). Measurement and evaluation of the efficiency and total productivity of dairy farms in Poland. Agronomy, 11(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112095

van Dijk, T. (2004). Land consolidation as Central Europe’s panacea reassessed. https://www.fig.net/resources/proceedings/2004/france_2004_comm7/papers_symp/ts_01_vandijk.pdf

Vasile, A.J., Popescu, C., Ion, R.A., & Dobre, I. (2015). From conventional to organic in Romanian agriculture – impact assessment of a land use changing paradigm. Land Use Policy, 46, 258–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.02.012

Wan, G.H., & Cheng, E. (2001). Effects of land fragmentation and returns to scale in the Chinese farming sector. Applied Economics, 33(2), 183–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036840121811

Wier, M., O’Doherty Jensen, K., Andersen, L.M., & Millock, K. (2008). The character of demand in mature organic food markets: Great Britain and Denmark compared. Food Policy, 33(5), 406–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2008.01.002

Wojciechowska-Solis, J., & Soroka, A. (2017). Motives and barriers of organic food demand among Polish consumers: A profile of the purchasers. British Food Journal, 119(9), 2040–2048. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-09-2016-0439

Wojewodzic, T. (2014). Dezagraryzacja produkcyjno-ekonomiczna gospodarstw rolnych w Polsce – próba pomiaru zjawiska. Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, 4(34), 213–223.

Wojewodzic, T., Janus, J., Dacko, M., Pijanowski, J., & Taszakowski, J. (2021). Measuring the effectiveness of land consolidation: An economic approach based on selected case studies from Poland. Land Use Policy, 100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104888

Wollni, M., & Andersson, C. (2014). Spatial patterns of organic agriculture adoption: Evidence from Honduras. Ecological Economics, 97, 120–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.11.010

Zalewa, J. (2015). Przesłanki nowej strategii rozwojowej polskiego rolnictwa. Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska – sectio H, 49(1), 213–219.

Zrakić, M., Jež Rogelj, M., & Grgić, I. (2017). Organic agricultural production on family farms in Croatia. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 41(6), 635–649. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2017.1290731




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/h.2024.58.2.7-25
Date of publication: 2024-07-05 15:44:46
Date of submission: 2024-01-27 17:26:35


Statistics


Total abstract view - 263
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 0

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2024 Marta Baraniak

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.