Sustainability of agriculture in view of the agricultural censuses of 2010 and 2020

Abstract

Data provided by official statistics, including those obtained through agricultural censuses, can serve to analyse and assess the progress made in the sustainable development of agriculture, which is consistent with the objectives set out in policy documents and development strategies. In 2021, Statistics Poland published the first results of the 2020 Agricultural Census (2020 AC), comparable with the 2010 AC data, along with the tendencies of the development of agriculture in Poland observed in certain areas. The aim of the paper is to make a preliminary and selective assessment of the changes occurring in sustainable agriculture on the basis of the available agricultural census data. Furthermore, the study is meant to emphasise the need for Statistics Poland to collect and publish additional data allowing for a fuller illustration of the progress made in the area of agricultural sustainable development. The data provided by Statistics Poland enable a general assessment of the changes taking place in the agrarian structure, labour input, agricultural land use, agricultural technologies, industrial resources input, and specialisations and sources of maintenance of households with a user of an individual agricultural holding in the context of agricultural sustainability. However, a more comprehensive and complete evaluation requires Statistics Poland to take into account information from sources other than agricultural censuses in its further, post-census publications. Moreover, the aforementioned evaluation necessitates the establishment of new farm groupings according to sustainability indicators, the type of gmina (municipality), the used agricultural technologies and practices, labour input, farms’ market orientation and sources of support, the areas of different agricultural valorisation (LFA), the Natura 2000 areas, and others.