Zmiany w rolniczym użytkowaniu ziemi w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej po upadku

Abstract

The aim of this study is to diagnose and identify trends for agricultural land use structure in the Central and Eastern European countries. Particular attention has been paid to the spatial differentiation characterising that structure, and to the significance that diverse kinds of conditioning have had in shaping it. Analysis has extended to the basic structural elements of agricultural land that are arable land, grasslands and permanent crops, while the countries included are the East-Central Europe acceding to the EU, i.e., Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria. The main sources of database have been Eurostat and FAO. The region under study emerges as very much diversified in terms of structure relating to structural elements of agricultural land. However, once the Eastern Bloc fell, all the countries experienced losses in area of agricultural land, as well as declines in the amounts of land growing permanent crops. Where key crops were concerned, the share of industrial species increase at the expense of vegetables, fruits and potatoes cultivation. Key factors underpinning observed trends for land use comprised privatisation and restitution of land, demographic processes in rural areas, domestic and EU agricultural policies as well as agro-ecological conditions.