Infrastructure and technical means of production in agricultural holdings in the aspect of selected farming factors in districts of the malopolskie province

key words: agronomic usability of soils, biological conditions or farming, agricultural infrastructure, synthetic measure of development

Summary:

The paper presents an assessment of the influence of biological conditions for farming in selected agricultural districts on the quantity of basic and specialist means of production on farms described by many authors as agricultural infrastructure of these farms. The conditions of crucial importance for the method and results of farming are the indices of soil agronomic usability, size and agrarian structure and other natural conditions, e.g. agroclimate, area relief and aspect, water conditions, etc. Spatial analysis comprises spatial distribution of agricultural infrastructure potential as a synthetic index of development and subsequently, considering this index as a measure of development, determining a portion of groups similar considering soil quality and other biological conditions of agricultural management (spatial evaluation index). For comparison, technical infrastructure of agricultural holdings was characterized using aggregated synthetic index of many diagnostic features, whose construction bases on Hellwig development measure. Data for the analysis were taken from the results of Agricultural Census 2002 and data on agronomic usability of soils and biological framing conditions supplied by IUNG at Puławy. Proper technical infrastructure of agricultural holdings is one of more important factors affecting the character of agriculture. In many cases the infrastructure on farms of Polish villages is insufficient. However, there are regions where the level of technical infrastructure in agricultural holdings is similar as observed in a majority of the EU countries (old fifteen). New chances of development, particularly for the poorest areas, will be provided by funds equalizing conditions of rural areas functioning or assistance for the development of backward areas. In the united Europe Poland is one of the poorest regions which causes that it may fully utilize assistance funds for regional programmes and multifunctional agricultural development and development of socially diversified agriculture. Only farms, open to changes and ready to channel their production according to market demand and improve its quality even through modernizing their technical infrastructure have any chance to meet the competition. It seems justifiable to investigate technical means of production on farms (farm technical infrastructure) and its spatial diversification in view of defined farming conditions. In result of the investigations conducted it was found a significant correlation between synthetic measure of development di and investigated factors, i.e. quality of agricultural soils and the index of natural conditions evaluation. Positive value of correlation coefficients allows for a conclusion that infrastructure on farms improves with growing quality of farmlands and the index of biological conditions evaluation.

Citation:

Woźniak A., Sikora J. 2006, vol. 3. Infrastructure and technical means of production in agricultural holdings in the aspect of selected farming factors in districts of the malopolskie province. Infrastruktura i Ekologia Terenów Wiejskich. Nr 2006, vol. 3/ 3 (2)