Polish farms are “in the EU average” in terms of area
Eurostat has published data on the number of family farms in the European Union. It turns out that Polish farms are within the EU average. The smallest areas are in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship and the largest in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.
According to Eurostat data, as many as 93 percent farms in the European Union are family farms. It is worth taking into account that in the Eurostat research methodology it was assumed that a family farm could be considered a unit where at least 50 percent family is the workforce.
If only those where all tasks were performed by family members were considered family farms, their share in the total pool would amount to 36%. Taking into account that there are 9.1 million farms in the EU, 8.46 million were considered family farms. In turn, 640,000 farms are units where the family is not the basis of the labor force – calculates Farmer.pl.
Small farms dominate in Poland
In which countries is the share of family farms the highest? In three: Poland, Romania and Greece, the share of such units in the overall structure of farms in these countries is around 99%.
The average farm area in our country exceeds 11 ha. The smallest areas are in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship and the largest in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. In Poland, farms up to 2 ha constitute approximately 20 percent. all units. Over 63 percent area is cultivated by farms over 15 ha, which constitute 16%. total farms.
According to data from the agricultural census, we have just over 40,000 in Poland. farms over 50 ha.
