Commercial farms in metropolitan areas in Poland: changes in production factor resources

Both in literature and in economic practice, differences in the course of adjustment processes taking place in farms operating directly in the vicinity of large cities and other commercial farms are increasingly noticed. In areas subject to urbanization and metropolitanization processes, agriculture encounters a number of barriers, but also development opportunities, hence the processes of structural change are faster here. Identification of trends in changes in the resources of production factors of farms can be the basis for developing research, much needed in Poland, aimed at developing appropriate strategies for the development of urban and suburban agriculture. The aim of the study is to present the directions of changes in the production potential (production factors) of commercial farms operating in six selected Polish metropolitan areas. Detailed analyses were carried out on 189 farms located in 6 Polish metropolitan areas (OM). In the period 2004–2016, these farms continuously conducted agricultural accounting within the FADN system. The comparative material for the conducted analyses consisted of 1,665 farms conducting agricultural activity outside metropolitan areas. As a result of the analyses of the production potential of commercial farms, it was found that entities operating in the inner zones of the MA (in municipalities directly bordering the MA core) had larger average resources of land, labour and capital in 2004. In the period 2004–2016, the production potential of farms operating in the inner and outer zones of the MA was significantly equalised. At the same time, they still had larger potential on average than farms operating outside metropolitan areas. Observation of the changes confirmed that the farms in the inner zone had the largest percentage of entities reducing their resources of land, labour and capital, which confirms the existence of barriers to their further development, i.e. limited land supply and high opportunity cost of labour. It seems that these entities must seek alternative development paths, including focusing on diversification of activities and development of non-agricultural services.