USE OF AGRICULTURAL SERVICES IN EUROPEAN UNION REGIONS – A TYPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify types that represent differing classes of European Union regions and agricultural service consumption indicators as of 2017. A comparison of the characteristics of agricultural farms in the identified types was used to search for a relationship between selected farm characteristics and the level of use of agricultural services. Data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) were used in the research. The analysis covered 131 FADN regions located in 25 countries. The Ward method clustering procedure resulted in identifying five types of EU regions differing from one another in service consumption levels and selected agricultural indicators. The costs of agricultural services per hectare of agricultural land was the lowest on farms classified as types with the lowest average area of agricultural land (I and II), higher on farms encompassed by the types with a high average area of agricultural land (III and V), while in the type composed of regions with the highest average area of agricultural land (IV), it was lower than in types III and V. It can be supposed that farms with a small area of agricultural land almost exclusively used own equipment, neighborhood assistance and joint machinery ownership, while limiting the use of commercial agricultural services. Agricultural farms classified as the fourth type of regions primarily used own high-effective machines in plant production, while on large farms, but not large-scale farms, it was economically more favorable to purchase the services. The costs of agricultural services per 1 AWU were subject to similar regularities as the costs of agricultural services per hectare of agricultural land.