Adjustment Processes in Selected Types of Farms Depending on Their Income Situation

This article presents the development capacities of farms in groups divided according to the level of income from farm per unit of work of a farmer and farmer’s family members. According to the income criterion, farms were separated into:

– auxiliary in which income from the farm per hour of family work input in the owned farm was lower than the level of payment for employed labor in agriculture;

– transitional (“at the crossroads”) in which this income was higher than the level of payment for employed labor in agriculture, but lower than the rate of payment in the national economy;

– developmental in which this income was equal to or higher than the rate of payment for labor in the national economy.

The analysis covered types of farms specialized in: field crops, permanent crops, vegetable crops, dairy cattle raising, granivores raising, and mixed production. The source of research materials was the panel of farms covered by the monitoring of the Polish FADN in 2009-2016. Groups were separated according to the FADN methodology. The development capacities of the analyzed farm groups were determined with the competitiveness index (CI). In the analyzed period, the share of auxiliary farms was significant, ranging from 24.5% (dairy farms) to 43.1% (farms with mixed production). This share increased in subsequent periods. These farms did not have development capacities. The share of transitional farms was small, ranging from 8.5% (field crops) to 13% (with mixed production). Farms in this group also did not show developmental capacities. The share of developmental farms was quite varied, ranging from 44.4% (with mixed production) to 69% (with field crops). The applied criterion for the division of farms according to the level of income from farm per unit of work of a farmer and farmer’s family members increases the possibilities of their analysis.