beyondbrics

Poland is a fast-growing country catching up to western Europe – which is why the number of people making a living from agriculture should be falling. Instead, the number of farmers is actually growing – thanks in large part to EU agricultural subsidies.

In 2002, about 2m people were making a living as farmers – while as of last year that had grown to 2.2m, reports the government’s statistical agency.

Paradoxically, the number of farms has fallen by 13 per cent over the same period to 1.9m – which means that more people are eking out a living on fewer farms.

A big part of the blame lies with the 112bn zlotys (€28bn) paid out to farmers since Poland joined the EU in 2004 thanks to EU subsidies. That works out to about €200 per hectare, which is enough to make the difference between deciding to stay on the land or pulling up sticks and moving to the city.

A lot of people are using farming to supply only part of their income – the number of people for who farming is the main, but not the only, source of income has grown from 68,000 in 2002 to 271,000 last year.

Part of that movement has been bolstered by Polish migrants leaving recession-hit countries like the UK and returning home to Poland, says the Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

Poland’s unreformed social security system also helps keep people on the land, as farmers pay much smaller pension and medical taxes than city workers. However, the government has been unwilling to tackle the issue because the smaller coalition partner of the ruling Civic Platform party, the Polish Peoples Party, relies on the countryside for the bulk of its support.

Ryszard Petru, a Polish economist, notes that during the four decades of communist rule in Poland, there was an average annual migration of about 1 per cent of the population from the country to the city, similar to what happened in other industrialising countries. But in recent years that movement has stalled, trapping millions of people in the subsistence agricultures, which adds almost nothing to the economy.

“We need to get serious about urbanisation,” he says, which would entail the government bucking both rural lobbies and the powerful Roman Catholic Church in encouraging people to leave their farms and get the education and training needed to move to the city.

Related reading:
Winners and losers of the EU budget, FT Brussels blog
Poland says it is committed to euro, FT
Poland file, beyondbrics