Changes in the number and area of certified organic farms in Poland after accession to the European Union

Abstract

Organic farming is of great importance in the concept of sustainable development and its basis is the use of natural, technologically unprocessed resources, which are intended to ensure soil fertility, animal welfare and production of crops characterized by high biological quality. Over the last several years we have seen dynamic changes in the development of this system in Poland. The paper presents an analysis of changes in the structure, area and number of certified organic farms in Poland after joining the European Union in 2004-2016. A clear upward trend was observed regarding both the number of farms and the area of agricultural land managed using ecological methods. This trend was maintained until 2013, after which there was a slight decrease. The interest in running an ecological management system in Poland is characterized by very large regional diversification and the development of certified organic farms is facilitated by prevailing environmental conditions and financial support for agriculture.