Comparison of the Polish results of the main stage with those from the other countries

While assessing the results relating to Polish farms, it must be strongly emphasised that they are exclusively representative of farmlands larger than the average farm in terms of the size of the arable land area. This is extremely vital because of the very large number of small farms which, on the basis of their economic size, are classified within the range of 0.1 to 0.5 ESU, and whose existence, it seems, can only be justified from the social point of view. For example, in 2005 there were 2,733 thousand farms in Poland of which 947 thousand were farms occupying less than 1 ha. Moreover, 60% of the farms consisted of less than 3 hectares of land per farm. They were, therefore, self-sustaining, social, or residential farms. It is likely that for economic reasons the existence of such farms in most cases cannot be justified, even in Eastern Europe. The exception are situations where the work on the land is supplemented with an income from hired labour or services rendered. Another example are farms which serve as a place to live, with the agricultural land being used more as a hobby than a source of income. Therefore, taking them into consideration in the research panel would distort the results, given that such farms often serve as mere places for survival for their owners, who never do anything to improve the conditions of their existence. Moreover, such farms are predominantly run by people who are well advanced in years, often far beyond the age of 60, whose reluctance to accept changes and face new challenges is mainly a result of the limitations imposed by their age rather than by their ability to come up with new ideas or their enterprising skills.

While taking into consideration the overall main stage results it is necessary to state that there is no significant difference between the results obtained in Poland and those from the other countries participating in the ESoF Project.

Conclusions

In the last dozen or so years there have been great changes in the agriculture of Central European countries. These changes occurred mainly as a result of the open policies of the EU oriented towards its expansion and also thanks to its huge technical and financial support. The involvement of the people in each of the countries aspiring to membership of the EU has also played a significant role. For that reason, in the 12 countries that are now new member states of the EU, the process of adjusting technical and economic conditions in agricultural production to those existing in the former EU has to quite a large extent already been completed.

This has been possible only through mutual cooperation between those trying to help as well as the beneficiaries themselves, mainly the more aware and better educated owners of good and very good farming properties. However, what is very significant here is that exceedingly positive changes have also occurred even on those farms which previously aroused great anxiety, e.g. dairy farms. For these, there were only two possibilities: either to adjust production (in this case with respect to milk quality in order to satisfy customer requirements) or to cease production. An analogous situation has also arisen among pig farmers, who either had to adjust their methods of fattening to meet the norms of meat and fat content and carcass weight, or who find it impossible to sell their products on the market. These are just two of very many examples of the changes that have taken place in recent years in the agriculture sector of the new EU member states.

In general, it would appear that, as is commonly thought, those farming businesses which had even the smallest chance of taking a leap into modernity have actually done so. The two basic prerequisites for achieving this were the possession of a sufficiently large production potential that would allow changes to be implemented, and knowledge, or at least being aware that knowledge needs to be acquired in order to achieve success.

As a result of globalisation, better access to information, faster information transfer and the possibility of using the Internet, the awareness of farmers in Poland has increased considerably in recent years. For that reason, as far as the recommendations for the development of entrepreneurial skills are concerned, there is no need to treat Polish farmers in any different way to farmers in Western European countries.

The only exception may arise if there is a desire to reach the owners of small farms whose level of awareness is expected to be far below the average. However, because of the peculiarities in the behaviour of such farmers and their very traditional attitude towards the reality surrounding them, it would be necessary to develop a set of completely different recommendations. And this would require carrying out new, detailed studies in this area on a suitably chosen population.

As far as the other Central European countries are concerned, possible recommendations on the development of entrepreneurial skills may also be the same as those for farmers in Western Europe. In the case of countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, this could be done to an extent greater than in Poland, mainly because in those countries there is a greater number of large farms. On the other hand, the implementation process might not be so efficient in, for example, Lithuania, where the percentage of small farms is higher.

In any case, at present these recommendations can apply only to the 12 member states of the EU. In the current situation, the process of change that has taken place in Belorussia and Ukraine has not gone far enough. This concerns both the poorly advanced process of privatisation and the considerably lower awareness among farmers than that observed in the new EU member states.