Evolution of social and economic situation in Polish agriculture since the accession to the European Union

Ten years after the accession to the European Union, and despite all the funding and efforts, which have been undertaken during the recent years, Polish agriculture is still based on small - sized family-owned farms with low economic efficiency. The position of agriculture in this Central European country is underprivileged due to its peripherality as well as topographic restrictions and over-employment. This situation causes integration problems with the common market. In the whole country, small-scale and low-tech agriculture still prevails and suffers from a lack of many natural resources and lack of investments. The dominant traditional economy is not adapted to the market conditions. Currently, Polish situation in the primary sector and in the whole economy becomes even more critical due to the problems with global financial crisis and economic problems in the euro-zone countries. The Polish Gross Domestic Product per capita equals only about 60% of the European average. The main goal of Poland's budget strategy for the year 2013 is to reduce the general government deficit below 3% of GDP. In addition, Poland plans to keep public debt below the constitutional threshold of 55% of GDP in the year 2013. During the past years, the population of Poland has witnessed a spectacular decrease in the contribution of the agricultural sector to Poland's total employment and total value added of the whole economy. However, despite this, the process of structural changes in Poland's agricultural employment exceeds 13% of labour force and value added is close to 3% of GDP.