Alicja Mierosławska “Spatial Concentration of Land in Poland in 2002-2007”, Journal of International Studies, Vol. 2, No 1, 2009, pp. 141-145.

Spatial Concentration of Land in Poland in 2002-2007

Alicja Mierosławska

Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics

National Research Institute

Warsaw, ul. Świętokrzyska 20

mieroslawska@ierigz.waw.pl

Abstract  The publication presents regional changes in the concentration of land in agricultural holdings in 2002 (before the accession of Poland to the EU) and in 2007 (three years after the accession) in 16 regions (voivodeships) of Poland. The thesis was adopted that the integration of Poland with the EU contributed, among others, to the increase in the concentration of farmland.  

To assess the level of concentration of land in a given Polish voivodeship, the Lorenz concentration ratio was used, which synthetically takes into consideration the degree of concentration of a number of holdings and of arable land in a given land-size group. The ratio was calculated on the basis of eight land-size groups of holdings: 1-5 ha, 5-10 ha, 10-15 ha, 15-20 ha, 20-30 ha, 30-50 ha, 50-100 and 100 or more ha. 

The ranking of voivodeships was created according to the level of land concentration ratio in 2002 and 2007 and changes were determined between the years 2002-2007. In addition, the correlation ratio was calculated between the average size of a holding in a given voivodeship and the Lorenz concentration ratio, calculated for this voivodeship. The conducted analyses show that the concentration of arable land in the country has slightly increased, but in specific regions the changes were varied with the tendency towards convergence.

Keywords: agricultural holdings, arable land, Lorenz concentration ratio, regions/voivodeships

Submitted: March, 2009

1^st revision: May, 2009

Accepted: June, 2009

JEL classification: Q1, O18, P1