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Knowledge As A Factor of Rural Developme PDF
Knowledge As A Factor of Rural Developme PDF
Knowledge
as a factor
of rural
development
vol. 10
ISBN 978-83-7658-378-5
vol. 10 Editors:
Paweł Chmieliński
Agnieszka Baer-Nawrocka
EUROPEAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
Knowledge as a factor
of rural development
WARSAW-POZNAŃ 2013
Editors:
Dr Paweł Chmieliński
Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics - National Research Institute (IAFE-NRI)
Świętokrzyska 20
00-002 Warsaw, Poland
Dr Agnieszka Baer-Nawrocka
Poznań University of Life Sciences
Wojska Polskiego 28
60-637 Poznań, Poland
Reviewers:
Professor Andrzej Kowalski
Professor Walenty Poczta
PUBLISHED by the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics - National Research Institute
COPYRIGHT by the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics - National Research Institute
The opinions expressed in the individual papers are the sole responsibility of the authors
ISBN 978-83-7658-378-5
Contents
This volume of „Rural areas and development” series has a special cha-
racter while proving sustainability of European Rural Development Network
(ERDN) idea. We are proud of this 10th volume that documents decade of
international cooperation in the field of rural development particularly in Cen-
tral-Eastern Europe. The effort of network members in investigation of rural
processes across Europe provides extensive knowledge needed to understand
what is the meaning of agricultural development. The originally agriculture
sector orientation is strongly moving towards rural space policies. Thanks to
broad multinational and multidisciplinary approach ERDN manages to cap-
ture main streams and regionally specific processes related to changing para-
digms of rural development and provides solid base for policy and strategic
planning formulation.
The tenth volume of the series „Rural areas and development” consists of
12 chapters proposed and discussed during the ERDN conference hosted by
Poznań University of Life Sciences in Zielonka, October 2012. The current
EU development strategy, “Europe 2020 - A strategy for smart, sustainable
and inclusive growth” underlines the role of knowledge in stimulation of eco-
nomic growth and in increasing employment. Namely the smart, sustainable
and supporting social inclusion growth was added to the three main priorities
of the economic growth of Europe. The concept of smart development inclu-
des the continuation of the need for strengthening sectors of economy based
on knowledge and for promoting the innovation. On the other hand the sustai-
nable-development priority has underlined the need to transform the economy
towards technologies more friendly to the natural environment indicating di-
rection of agricultural sector development.
Priorities in the area of social development would stress the need for econo-
mic development towards high employment, and secure social and territorial
cohesion that is directly linked with the rural and urban disparities. In the
strategy the process of the transformation of the European economy through
the implementation of energy- and material-efficient technologies works as
an engine for economic growth. However the differences between stage of
development between rural areas indicate different need for knowledge and its
transfer. The ERDN community possesses extensive knowledge of rural pro-
cesses that would support effectiveness of knowledge transfer to food sector
6 and rural areas. Different scientific backgrounds and cross national origin of
ERDN experts provide complex and interdisciplinary quality solutions. Sub-
mitted papers related with the process of knowledge transfer to food sector
and rural areas provide us evidence that we have interesting research in this
field.
In the second chapter Andrew Fieldsend and Erika Székely assess the nature of
knowledge flows through the agricultural knowledge and innovation system
(AKIS) in Hungary. According to the authors, to encourage innovation more
effectively the functioning of the AKIS must be improved, i.e. future planning
should be based on a state-of-the-art understanding of AKIS as multi-actor
networks, it is also recommended that new models should be developed and
tested on the basis of experience from other EU Member States.
The next chapter was written by Vladimír Székely and investigates the deve-
lopmental potential of rural areas in the surroundings of Bratislava. The study,
based on the results of newspaper monitoring about “two tier” rural society
and face-to-face interviews with rural inhabitants, shows positive and negati-
ve impact of immigrants and their knowledge transfer into rural environment.
The authors of the fifth chapter, Monica Mihaela Tudor, Violeta Florian and
Mihai Alexandru Chitea, investigate the organisation and functioning of the
Agricultural Knowledge System in Romania. The researchers examined the
set of public and private organisations dedicated to research, education and
extension, and their interaction with knowledge users (traditional farmers).
According to the authors, the processes related to innovation production and 7
knowledge transfer to agriculture and rural areas are still tributary to the tradi-
tional model based on a strong confidence in scientific progress and in the role
of the State as a driver of modernization.
In the following chapter, Marie Trantinová and Marie Štolbová discuss future
of the LEADER programme in the new Czech Rural Development Plan 2014-
2020. The authors point out that it is vitally necessary to increase employment
in rural areas by strengthening rural economy and social capital. It is very
important to exchange experience among European countries during the pre-
paration, implementation, delivery and evaluation of the RDP.
The next chapter considers the issue of organic farming. The study’s author,
Marcin Żekało argues that restricted legislation in organic farming regulates
in detail the manner of production, impacting directly on production character
and also economic results achieved in organic farms. Therefore theoretical
and practical knowledge of farmers are needed to meet these formal require-
ments. But the study on the economics of organic production indicates lower
than in conventional farms direct costs of production, as well as good income
performance from particular production activities.
The book closes with the study of Cornelia Alboiu and Filon Toderoiu which
purpose is to assess the role of collective organization forms in farmers’ par-
ticipation in the Romanian supply chains, more exactly the possibility of far-
mers to adapt to the dynamic retail chains using new institutional economic
theories. The results of the research signal out a small degree of farmers’ parti-
cipation in collective forms of organizations. Also, they reveal a certain degree
of uncertainty among stakeholders in terms of institutional arrangements and
participation in collective action.
We hope that the publication we pass onto your hands will give you a picture
of different approaches to the issues of knowledge diffusion and knowledge
transfer in rural development.
Chapter 1
Governance of Internet development
in rural areas in the context
of territorial competitiveness:
the case of Poland
Governance of Internet development in rural areas in the context of territorial competitiveness: ...
The unequal benefits of ICT can be explained by the differences in accessibili-
ty of modern communication technologies. This digital divide phenomena can
be observed from different perspectives: racial, economic, ethnic and educa-
tional (Compaine, 2001). The differences in economic and educational level
of development between urban and rural areas made the problem of unequal
distribution of ICT a territorial issue. Lower accessibility and utilisation of
modern communication technologies known as rural digital divide are clearly
noticeable in less developed countries and regions (FAO, 2002). In most of
them the problem of poor ICT utilisation is of economic and political nature.
Therefore, it requires governmental actions to overcome technological and
social gaps. At the EU level the rural areas are lagging behind urban ones in
term of broadband Internet utilisation (European Commission, 2007). This is
explained by the connectivity and content imperfections (Alakeson, 2003).
Rural inhabitants usually have imperfect knowledge of the Internet potential
and accessibility to the technology. Simultaneously the “user interface” and
“design interface” are less friendly for rural population. Another explanation
of spatial nature of digital divide problem in Europe is failure of liberalised
market that is not able to provide telecommunications services effectively
across regions (European Commission, 2005). The EU current policy stresses
the importance of territorial cohesion and aims at providing better accessibili-
ty to Internet products and services in regions lagging behind in development.
Governance of Internet development in rural areas in the context of territorial competitiveness: ...
point out the human factor among main obstacles in the process of the Internet
diffusion.
Formulation of policy aiming at the Internet diffusion in rural areas can be sup-
ported with Christaller's central place theory (Christaller, 1933). This theory
underlines dominant role of certain size towns at the regional scale. Because
of their functional structure and influence on neighbouring area they are consi-
dered to be socio-economic centres. In this theory the concepts of threshold of
minimum market size and range to define border of area of consumers acqui-
ring goods form the centre. This theory was developed by A. Lösch, B. Malisz
(1984), H. Beguin (1992), that pointed out hierarchic structure of cities in
certain area from their functional type perspective. As regards the stimulation
of the Internet diffusion in rural areas the urban centres are likely to be a major
partner in this process. However, their influence according to the theory tends
to decline with growing distance and technological improvement of means of
communication. On the hands the process of technology development would
lead to equalisation of the Internet accessibility and utilisation in rural and
urban areas, making flat space, as suggested by Thomas L. Friedman (2005).
Increasing up-taking of the Internet technology should result in decreasing the
distance between centres and its periphery.
14 From the microeconomic perspective planning policy of the Internet diffusi-
on it to be based on the theory of localisation (Lösch, 1961). Localisation of
Adam Wasilewski, Zbigniew Floriańczyk, Marek Wigier
economic entities is determined by the scale of benefits and costs that are re-
lated with their activity. Concerning the Internet diffusion localisation theory
has two major implications. Firstly, local community can undertake specific
actions in order to increase the local level of Internet services. This way they
provide attractive environment for investors and stimulate local economic de-
velopment. The second implication of localisation theory is concerned with
the Internet services providers. They are likely to concentrate their effort in
larger, city located markets. This is justified with the relatively higher absorp-
tion of their services. In this light, the chances for improvement accessibility
to Internet services of rural communes basing on free market are relatively
small. Therefore, small communes are not enough attractive for Internet pro-
viders and should be supported in their efforts to provide Internet by central
and regional policies.
Governance of Internet development in rural areas in the context of territorial competitiveness: ...
cess of Internet diffusion. This top-down approach made the administration
technological leader at local level. The above described processes prove that
the Internet diffusion and its relations with socio-economic development have
a complex nature. The social contest in the socio-economic development pro-
cess based on the technology diffusion was characterised by models proposed
by Björn-Sören Gigler (2004) and Mitchell and Gillis (2005). The first one
postulates that the dynamics of the Internet diffusion process depends on in-
terrelationship between innovation and communes that are gaining powers
from it’ adoption. The relationship between the Internet and local develop-
ment was characterised by Mitchell and Gillis as a multi-dimensional where
the different stakeholders interactions deciding on its diffusion dynamic. This
model can be adopted for analysis the balance between different stakeholder
of the economic system of the Republic of Poland (…)” (art. 20), and “(…)
public authorities conduct policy leading to full productive employment (…)”
(art. 65). Achieving this goal directly supports actions to be undertaken by
different level administration to facilitate the development of the Internet .
The choice of forms and range of engagement of local-governments in the
development of the Internet should be based on results of cost-benefit analy-
sis. This to take into consideration local community social costs and benefits.
Moreover, supporting the Internet development by local-governments is ju-
stified by constitutional regulations concerning shaping human capital. The
Constitution obliges public authorities to:
• supporting guidance and professional trainings (art. 65)
• elaborating individual systems of financial support for children and studen-
ts in order to ensure equal access to education (art. 70).
Governance of Internet development in rural areas in the context of territorial competitiveness: ...
man made ones, including the opportunities offered by the particular loca-
tion. Research covered 85 communes of which 14 were rural-urban ones and
71 rural enabled the identification of the Internet development barriers at the
local level. The questionnaire was directed to representatives of three major
groups of the Internet stakeholders (Floriańczyk, Wasilewski, Chlebek, 2009):
1) Internet expert – specialist most familiar with current Internet issues at the
community level, 2) Local economic leader – the expert with an economic
orientation and 3) Administrative leader – the expert representing the interest
of the community.
Governance of Internet development in rural areas in the context of territorial competitiveness: ...
their socio-economic potential (figure 2). The analysis enabled finding some
patterns. The lowest accessibility rate was observed in peripheral commune
(18,7%), at the same time having the lowest socio-economic potential. Where-
as, the highest rates were observed in communes representing tourism-recre-
ational type (37,7%). Between these extreme groups there were agricultural
communes (29,5%) and residential-commercial ones (22,2%). This last type
was also characterised by the highest socio-economic potential.
Governance of Internet development in rural areas in the context of territorial competitiveness: ...
among internet users and increasing internet resources of this type. Also
a large number of responses, more than 75%, mentioned using the internet
for settling official affairs, such as filing tax declarations, making use of
job offers from labour offices’ sites, registering in healthcare centres and
hospitals (e-health) and ordering official declarations and duplicates. Fur-
ther places in the popularity ranking of services were taken by: formalities
related to obtaining personal documents, registering vehicles or domicile
registration. Nearly 70% of the total number of respondents reacted posi-
tively to the perspective of providing an on-line access to such services by
local authorities. Lack of acceptance for on-line services in the surveyed
population was low and amounted to 16-20% (“no” answers). Half of the
surveyed respondents expressed positive opinion on the perspective of ha-
ving the possibility to file complaints at the police or enrol children to cre-
che, kindergartens or schools via the internet (1/4 of the surveyed did not
see the possibility of accessing these services on-line). At the bottom of
the ranking there were activities concerning outlook on life. About 44% of
the respondents thought that it should be possible to accomplish formali-
ties related to baptism, wedding or similar issues via the internet, whereas
1/3 expressed a negative opinion.
Findings from the conducted research show that there is large diversity
among different functional types of communes in their potential demand
for public services provided via the internet. An analysis that was focused
on this issue enabled the identification of some regularities. The lowest
readiness for making use of intenet services (figure 3) was observed in
tourism-recreational communes, where only slightly more than 50% of the
surveyed population gave either the answer “probably yes” or “definitely
yes”. In these communes more than 1/3 of the surveyed population has
a negative attitude towards providing some public services via the inter-
net. In agricultural communes this readiness was at a slightly higher level
amounting to almost 2/3 of positive responses. Lack of acceptance for
e-administration was much lower in this group of communes than among
tourism-recreational ones (app. 20% of negative and definitely negative
answers). The highest acceptance level for transferring the contacts with
organs of administration to the internet was observed in two groups the
most different in their level of socio-economic development and location,
that is: residential-commercial and peripheral types. In both cases the pro-
portion of positive responses to the question concerning the readiness to
making use of services provided via the internet reached more than 75%,
whereas the share of negative responses was relatively insignificant and
did not exceed 6 and 14%, respectively. In the surveyed population of
communes there were 66% of positive responses to the posed question and
18% of negative ones.
22
Adam Wasilewski, Zbigniew Floriańczyk, Marek Wigier
Figure 3. Demand for on-line public services according to commune types (pro-
portion of accepting answers or non-accepting ones to the possibility of accom-
plishing some formalities via the internet)
The impact of spreading the internet access in rural areas can be limited
if central institutions together with local-governments at lower levels of ad-
ministration do not prepare a strategy for popularizing the technology based
on precise criteria of differentiating the policy towards specific functional ty-
pes of communes.
Governance of Internet development in rural areas in the context of territorial competitiveness: ...
Conducted research indicates low level of incomes of local population and
administration financial constrains as the main obstacles in internet diffusion
to rural areas. These problems are followed with the obstacle reflecting defi-
ciency in basic telecommunication infrastructure required to provide internet
services. Potential private business offering such services are not interested
in investing in Internet infrastructure in rural areas. This because low level
of incomes and density of population does not provide environment to gene-
rate satisfactory profits.
The possibility to actively stimulate internet diffusion are limited from the
rural communes budget perspectives. Their low economic potential causes
scarce budget to finance large infrastructure projects. This implicate the pos-
sibility to ample the development disparities between different types of rural
communes.
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27
Andrew Fieldsend1, Erika Székely
Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, Zsil utca 3-5, 1093 Budapest, Hungary
1
andrew.fieldsend@aki.gov.hu
Chapter 2
An assessment of the agricultural
knowledge and innovation system
in Hungary
Knowledge flow systems are the flows of knowledge through an AKIS, in-
cluding producers of knowledge (the supply side), information channels, and
users of knowledge (the demand side). A traditional view of a knowledge flow
system would include research as a source of knowledge, extension and ed-
ucation as knowledge and information channels, and agricultural entrepre-
neurs as recipients of knowledge (Dockès et al., 2011). This ‘linear’ view is
especially applicable to the situation in which researchers produce knowledge
in terms of new technologies, such as farm machinery. Extension and educa-
tion can disseminate this knowledge to the farmers, for instance by demons-
tration or written communication, and the farmers can apply it by using the
new technology or machinery.
A number of factors have led to the erosion of the traditional concept of Ag-
ricultural Knowledge Systems (AKS) that was based on a strong integration,
at national level, of public research, education and extension bodies, under
the control of the Ministry of Agriculture. They include both theoretical and
empirical factors:
• Research, extension and education have undergone a major restructuring.
They have been transformed by the trend towards liberalisation, which has
led to privatisation of service delivery or to public/private partnerships,
the multiplication of extension organisations, farmers contributing towards
the cost of these services, competitive bidding for research and extension
contracts, and tighter evaluation procedures;
• The policy agenda has been modified by increasing concerns about the
environmental impact of industrial agriculture, the quality of life of rural
populations, rural employment and the need to support the positive ‘ex-
ternalities’ (public goods) linked to agricultural production. This has led
to new emphasis being placed on balancing and integrating agricultural
policies with rural development;
• The ‘linear’ model of innovation has progressively been replaced by
a ‘participatory’ network approach, in which innovation is ‘co-produced’
through interactions between firms, researchers, intermediate actors (input 29
providers, experts, distributors etc.) and consumers;
The European Commission’s (EC) proposals for the CAP after 2013 ack-
nowledge the importance of research, knowledge transfer and innovation in
addressing the challenges faced by European farmers and recognise the cen-
tral role of AKIS (EC, 2011). The EC accepts that a major weakness is the
inadequate information flow and missing links between different actors in
the AKIS. To overcome the bottlenecks to getting research results adopted in
practice, the EC proposes to reinforce the role of the Farm Advisory Service
(FAS) and to create a ‘European Innovation Partnership (EIP) for agricultural
productivity and sustainability’. As a part of the European Network for Rural
Development, the EIP will be a new instrument created to ‘facilitate the infor-
mation flow between research and practice’.
EIPs as a novel approach to innovation were first proposed in the Europe 2020
strategy (EC, 2010a) and further elaborated in the EC’s Communication on an
Innovation Union (EC, 2010b). They focus on improved governance arran-
gements to help speed up the adoption of research findings and to overcome
the fragmentation of research activity in Europe. Through Innovation Part-
nerships, the European Union (EU) aims to rebuild broken links in the chain
between research and bringing innovation to the market.
This paper reviews the current state of the AKIS in Hungary in the light of the-
se recent research and policy developments. It focuses on the nature of know-
ledge flows through the AKIS in general and through the extension services in
particular, and on the factors that encourage and discourage these, rather than
on a simple description of the institutional structures. The paper concludes by
making six recommendations on how the functioning of the AKIS in Hungary
can be improved.
30
Andrew Fieldsend, Erika Székely Methodology
While participating in the SCAR Collaborative Working Group on AKIS
in the period from May 2010 to March 2012, the lead author carried out
desk research and several informal interviews with AKIS actors in Hungary
about the overall structure of the AKIS and its constituent organisations,
and the incentives and monitoring of the AKIS. In 2009 the second author
conducted 28 interviews with representatives of organisations that either di-
rectly or indirectly participated in the advisory system (the Ministry of Rural
Development (VM), NAKVI (an institute of the VM), the Regional Advi-
sory Centres, private consultants, the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture,
the County Chambers of Agriculture, the Chamber of customer service ad-
visors, the HVI, the ‘Network of Village Agronomists’, and representatives
of commercial companies). These interviews explored the effectiveness
of the extension system. The paper presents results from the research
of both authors.
RESEARCH
EDUCATION
SUPPORT SYSTEMS
Producers’ associations
• Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture (11,000 members); MOSZ and MAGOSZ
Product boards
• Covering: Poultry; Fruit and vegetables; Meat; Grain and feed etc.
Agricultural Administration Office
• Associated with the VM; the Hungarian National Foodchain Safety Authority
(NÉBIH) delivers regulatory, monitoring and accreditation services through local offices
32 Agricultural and Rural Development Agency
• Supervised by the VM; the sole paying agency of EAGF and EAFRD funds and national
Andrew Fieldsend, Erika Székely
funds
Hungarian National Rural Network
• Operates within the Rural Development, Training and Consultancy Institute (NAKVI) of
the VM
Source: authors’
Although compilation
several links between the different components can be identified,
which in theory should facilitate the flow of information and knowledge
within Although
the Hungarian AKIS
several links (tablethe2),different
between previous researchcanhas
components be shown that
identified, there
which in
istheory
clearshould
scopefacilitate
for further improvement. Tóth (2005) remarked that ‘extensi-
the flow of information and knowledge within the Hungarian AKIS
on ought to… start to establish and improve relations between organisations’
(Table 2), previous research has shown that there is clear scope for further improvement. Tóth
while Székely and Halász (2010) noted the need ‘to strengthen the relation-
(2005) remarked that ‘extension ought to… start to establish and improve relations between
ships among the participants, to conduct research adjusted to the needs, to
ensure stricterwhile
organisations’ Székely and
co-operation Halászeducation,
between (2010) noted the need
research ‘to strengthen the
and advising’.
relationships among the participants, to conduct research adjusted to the needs, to ensure
Table 2.co-operation
stricter Examples of linkages
between between
education, the different
research components of AKIS in Hungary
and advising’.
• The Ministry of Rural Development controls the Farm Advisory System, and funds both
Table 2:that
Examples
and theofFarm
linkages between the
Information different
System components
mainly of AKIS
via EU funds, in the
and Hungary.
Network of Village
Agronomists from its own budget (support systems-extension)
•• The Ministry
The universities are theDevelopment
of Rural locations of controls
the seventheRegional AdvisorySystem,
Farm Advisory Centresand
of funds
the FAS and
both
(with the colleges) are also the locations of some of the Territorial Advisory
that and the Farm Information System mainly via EU funds, and the Network of Village Centres
(education-extension)
Agronomists from its own budget (support systems-extension)
•• The universitiesFAS
Some of the advisors
are the are of
locations university
the sevenand college
Regional staff orCentres
Advisory teachers
of of
the agricultural
FAS and
vocational
(with schools (education-extension)
the colleges) are also the locations of some of the Territorial Advisory Centres
• The Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture manages the Farm Information System and the
(education-extension)
• territorial
Some chambers
of the run 20 ofare
FAS advisors theuniversity
Territorialand
Advisory
collegeCentres (support
staff or systems-extension)
teachers of agricultural
• 21 researchschools
vocational institutes are part of the state universities and colleges (education-research)
(education-extension)
• The Hungarian
The Ministry ofChamber
Rural Development owns
of Agriculture nine research
manages the Farminstitutes, supervises
Information Systemthe
andARDA
the
and HNRN
territorial and runs
chambers runsome
20 of of
thethe vocational
Territorial schools
Advisory (support
Centres systems-research;
(support support
systems-extension)
• systems-support
21 systems;
research institutes support
are part of thesystems-education)
state universities and colleges (education-research)
• The Ministry
The research of
institutes of the Ministry
Rural Development ownsofnine
Rural Development
research institutes,claim to have
supervises thetheir
ARDA own
extension
and HNRNactivities
and runs(research-extension)
some of the vocational schools (support systems-research; support
• systems-support systems;
At some universities support
students systems-education)
can study advisory services as an optional subject for two
• The
yearsresearch institutes of the Ministry of Rural Development claim to have their own
(education-extension)
extension activities (research-extension)
Source:
• Atauthors’ compilation
some universities students can study advisory services as an optional subject for two
6
90,0 33
80,0
50,0
40,0
30,0
20,0
10,0
0,0
0-1 1-5 5-10 10-50 50-100 Over than 100 In all
hectar
Havn't got professional knowlidge Practical experience Basic level Medium level High level
Tóth (2005) found that farmers with primary education demanded extensional
help closely related to their area of agriculture, while those with secondary and
university education received advice in every form of services, i.e. the knowledge
flow was stronger. Managers of larger farms tended to be better educated: more
than three-quarters of farmers farming 5 ha or less (this group accounts for over
90% of Hungarian farmers) have only practical experience at most (figure 1).
The reasons for this are not entirely clear, but the vocational training system
in Hungary is recognised as being very complicated. There are more than 100
vocational schools, but only 19 are under the supervision of the VM. Course
design is restricted by government regulations: the Ministry of National Resour-
ces regulates the length of courses and system of examinations while the VM
strictly defines both the content of courses and the examination requirements.
Courses tend not to be practice oriented, i.e. do not well address the demands
of the farmers, and often certificates are issued for courses of inadequate length
and content. Vocational schools offer a wide range of topics, and courses are
often very specialised e.g. ‘Equine Tour Leader’. Curricula do not include en-
ough training on farm business management i.e. business planning etc. Some
private sector adult training organisations are not up to standard even although
registration is compulsory. Participants tend to be either (a) students aged 14-20,
some of whom go on to be farmers but others of whom do not have a career plan
and (b) farmers and forest holders who attend subsidised adult training courses.
Table 3. Reasons in favour and reasons against the proposal for eliminating
parallel extension services in Hungary
Reasons in favour: Reasons against:
9 Free and ‘against payment’ services are 8 Users have a choice as to where they wish to
presently offering the same types of support, to the source their advice, or in what form they receive it
detriment of the latter, which may provide higher e.g. farm visits v. specialist publications;
quality support; 8 Parallel services could lead to higher demand
9 Certain types of service could be designated responsiveness and quality, and perhaps to lower
as ‘against payment’ and others as free, as costs in a non-monopoly public sector service;
described above; 8 Such a step is likely to need some kind of
9 A ‘core’ of full-time, specialist advisors regulation which may impose constraints on the
could be established to provide business range of services that are available;
development support, whereas most advisors are 8 It is suggested that in Hungary it is the lack
presently part-time; of communication between networks rather than the
9 Cooperation between the various networks parallel services per se which is the problem;
that provide parallel services is presently lacking; 8 Advertising, which may accompany
9 Farmers will be presented with a clear and competing parallel services, may promote farmer
simple ‘offer’ and thus better understand what is awareness of, and participation in, advisory
available and what is their eligibility to access it. services.
Firstly, the market potential for a purely commercial advisory service present-
ly seems to be very limited. Very big farmers have their own advisors and do
not use the FAS which mainly services farms between (very approximately)
30 and 200 ha in size. Very small farmers do not seek technical advice. There
are very few genuinely independent commercial advisors because farmers do
not like to pay for advice. They cannot see the benefit, only the cost. Specialist
advisors operating through the FAS are frequently under-employed because
demand for their services is low. Commercial advisors, if working for, for
example, input suppliers, may give biased advice.
Table 4. Activity data for the Farm Advisory System in Hungary, 2007-2010
Number of
Number of Amount of
Amount of aid contracts with
Year applications support
(HUF million) decision support
(persons) (HUF million)
(persons)
to give the advice (there is little possibility to get advice on technical topics
such as plant protection and soil management) and the fact that the best ad-
visors prefer not to be part of the bureaucratic public sector services. Tóth
(2005) notes that methodological knowledge is not required for getting on
to the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture register of advisors. Székely and
Halász (2010) state that training of the subsidised advisers providing services
against payment usually covers only the explanation of regulatory changes,
opportunities for grant applications and of administrative procedures. Trade-
specific training is inadequate.
When the FAS was introduced, in 2007, a Ministerial Decree established the
definition of ‘agricultural advising’ in Hungary. According to this Decree, only
services that are part of the FAS may be considered as agricultural consulting.
Székely and Halász (2010) believe that this encumbers a clear understanding of
the term. The main purpose of the regulation was to provide a legal foundation
for subsidised farm consulting. The Hungarian experience shows that – although
required by the EU regulations – it is ill-advised to compulsorily establish the
scope of activities to be covered by advisers in the legislation. It would be more
favourable and would better encourage the demand for services if farmers could
decide themselves when and in what matters they wish to seek advice.
Regarding the question of parallel services, Székely and Halász (2010) recom-
mend eliminating parallel activities of the service providers participating in advi-
sing in Hungary. In EU Member States there are many different models for AKIS
and advisory services, as described above. What is of particular concern is that in
Hungary, in spite (or perhaps because) of the identical competences, co-opera-
tion between different parts of the advisory system, and the AKIS as a whole
is only formal or is even entirely lacking (table 3). The EU-funded Farm Infor-
mation Service (FIS) of the Chamber of Agriculture and the long-established
‘Network of Village Agronomists’ were meant to be responsible for awareness
raising, but tend only to publicise their own services. Producers interviewed by
Székely and Halász (2010) principally maintain contacts with the ‘Network of
Village Agronomists’; beyond them, they most frequently consult with the input
producers and distributors. A majority believed (incorrectly) that the FIS might
only be used free of charge by members of the Chamber of Agriculture1. Simi-
larly, they have no contacts with the FAS. Most interviewees attributed the lack
of contacts to their lack of knowledge of the activities of the participants of the
service providers, and to the lack of trust, time and financial resources.
This lack of trust is a recurring theme. Many farmers in Hungary feel that the
system is not there to help them. Several ‘top-down’ possibilities for stimu-
1
According to law number CXXVI enacted in 2012 farmers must be members of the Hungarian Chamber
of Agriculture and have to pay for membership, so this fact will change the current system of Hungarian
extension, but we do not know yet how.
lating take-up of advice have been suggested, such as requiring compulsory 37
qualification levels for acquiring landed property or for starting farming acti-
All of this evidence suggests that the present system does not adequately re-
flect the needs of potential users, especially as these needs evolve over time.
The ‘bottom up’ approach of consulting with users (i.e. farmers) on their needs
remains an important component of achieving an efficient and effective AKIS.
At institutional level, incentives to become more active in the AKIS are also
limited. Universities still tend to be funded mainly on the basis of student
numbers with only some funding determined by a Quality Control Board (re-
search activities, labour market absorption of graduates etc.) Research insti-
tutes agree an annual work plan with the appropriate Ministry and although
in principle if this plan is not completed some sanction could be applied, in
fact this is very rare if not unknown. An official evaluation of the work of the
institutes may take place but this is conducted informally and no results are
published. For experimental stations the level of funding is strongly based on
historical precedent. However, for all institutions, steadily decreasing public
sector budgets is leading to reductions in financing and increasing pressure to
seek external funding through consultancy and projects.
38 There is no routine formal monitoring of the AKIS in Hungary (in terms of
evaluating the activity and impacts of information and knowledge flow bet-
Andrew Fieldsend, Erika Székely
The Hungarian government does not formally report to Parliament on the per-
formance of the AKIS. Each year a ‘State of Hungarian Agriculture’ report is
produced by the Ministry of Rural Development for the Hungarian parliament
which is about 150 pages long. It includes only a few references to AKIS
related issues e.g. the number of research institutes and their budget, and the
budget for the FAS.
Table 5. Frequency of type of requested advice 2007-2009, per cent 39
Type of advice 2007 2008 2009
The need to develop our understanding of what constitutes the AKIS as a whole
in Hungary, and on how the flow of information and knowledge through the
AKIS can be improved, is more pressing than any institutional restructuring.
In Hungarian universities there is a huge amount of information about agricu-
ltural topics which can be disseminated to advisors who in turn should disse-
minate it to farmers. But farmers rarely ask questions of advisors, so advisors
are not aware of their problems and therefore cannot pass on any knowledge
of ‘good practice’ they have obtained. Equally, advisors do not proactively
try to identify problems a farmer may have. Farmers need to articulate their
demands and co-operate and interact with research and extension providers.
Even within the advisory system itself, therefore, the flow of information is
inadequate. It is necessary to both provide farmers with accurate information
about what is available, and to convince them to use the available services,
perhaps by providing ‘good practice’ examples of how take-up of advice has
improved the performance of the farm. Experience to date casts doubt on
whether any of the current major players in the advisory system are able to
fulfil this role.
Székely and Halász (2010) concluded that the flow of knowledge and infor-
mation should be monitored and proposed that a regular (monthly or quarter-
ly) forum should be established and operated that could strengthen co-opera-
tion of the participants, including between research, education and advising.
It could offer a possibility for shaping the needs of farmers and landowners
and forwarding them to the research institutes. A National Advisory Commis-
sion should be set up to serve the purposes of this forum; they note that the
possibility thereof exists theoretically within the Farm Advisory System.
The different components of the AKIS are governed by quite different incen-
tives, e.g. excellence in publications for research, different types of payments
for extension. SCAR (2009) recommends that science based research (a more
traditional linear approach leading in the end to science driven innovation)
should be distinguished from innovation-driven science, where the farming
community and the food industry should be much more empowered in setting
the research agenda.
Policy recommendations
The new EU framework for innovation presently under development, in par-
ticular, the EIP for agricultural productivity and sustainability, could provide
the context within which the changes to the AKIS in Hungary could be imple-
mented. At present, the final shape of the post-2013 EU framework and the
instruments it will incorporate are not yet known. Thus, the recommendations
arising from this study are somewhat of a preliminary nature. However, it
is clear that the opportunity now exists to start planning for a major refresh
of the AKIS in Hungary in order to help the agricultural sector to contribute
to the Europe 2020 objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
We therefore recommend the following:
• A comprehensive review of the AKIS in Hungary should be conducted
which would include an inventory of the actors in the field: basic and ap-
plied agri-cultural research institutes and universities, advisory and exten-
sion services, and other actors influencing research priorities and practical
42 decision making on farms, e.g. co-operations, supply services, farmers’
organisations and groups, etc. The interactions between all these actors
Andrew Fieldsend, Erika Székely
would be described.
• The present system of incentives for knowledge flow through the AKIS
should be urgently reviewed. How can incentives be modified to stimulate
the flows of knowledge (in both directions) between researchers, exten-
sionists and farmers? What measures (including information campaigns)
can be introduced to make farmers more aware of the available sources
of advice and of the value to their business of taking up this advice? Who
should implement these measures?
• Once the EU proposals on the structure and operation of the EIP are fina-
lised, planning of the implementation of the EIP in Hungary should have
the aim of maximising knowledge flows in the light of the state-of-the-art
understanding of the AKIS as multi-actor networks rather than simply as a
unidirectional linear flow. Close attention should be paid to how to engage
all stakeholders, particularly small farmers and rural women in the rene-
wed AKIS.
• New models for creating the conditions for innovation amongst farmers in
Hungary should be developed and tested on the basis of experience from
other EU Member States. Examples include more opportunities for group
learning and group advice, an approach for which there is significant evi-
dence of success (see e.g. Murphy, 2012), and the possibility of providing
grants or loans for small, local innovation projects developed by farmers
or groups of farmers in partnership with extensionists and/or researchers.
This latter possibility is presently under consideration by the cabinet of EU
Commissioner Dacian Cioloş.
• Monitoring of the performance of the AKIS in Hungary should be impro-
ved in two ways. Firstly by identifying indicators and data sets currently
available in Hungary that can help to measure the quality, rather than just
quantity, of information flow, and to monitor these against by clear and
measurable milestones and performance targets. Secondly by adopting
best practice from other EU Member States, such as a CPD programme
for advisors that builds on the success of initiatives such as the BASIS
programme in the UK (BASIS, 2010).
• An annual report on the performance of the AKIS should be prepared
by the Hungarian government and submitted to Parliament. The benefits
would be those of most reports that monitor: they give the ministry and
parliament an insight into the effectiveness (and perhaps efficiency) of the
policies that govern the system and - if developments in society are re-
ported too - an opportunity to discuss if the system is still robust for future
developments. By linking trends in innovation, productivity and compe-
titive position in the food sector with the performance of AKIS and the
policies that govern the system. Best practices could be identified and pro-
moted.
Acknowledgements 43
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Dockès A-C., Tisenkopfs T. and Bock B. (2011). SCAR-CWG on AKIS
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Coutts J. A. (1995). Agricultural extension policy as a framework for change.
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Andrew Fieldsend, Erika Székely
Chapter 3
The use of ICT
in Mazovian agriculture1
Abstract: The main objective of this paper is the diagnosis and evaluation of ICT
use in farming. The area of research presented in the study covers the region of
Mazovia, which represents different types of rural areas and diverse forms of
agriculture. Mazovia region is characterised, on the one hand, by the highest va-
lue of GDP per capita indicator in Poland and, on the other, the biggest internal
differentiation.
In our analyses, a variety of research methods were used as well as data sour-
ces - both commonly available (secondary source), as well as data from own
studies. For detailed identification of farm equipment level in ICT and its use by
farmers, primary research was conducted among farmers and local authorities in
20 deliberately selected municipalities. In each municipality, individual in-depth
interviews were conducted with representatives of local government. The second
research method was a survey aimed to be completed by individual farmers – al-
most 1300 were completely filled by farmers.
Own research carried out among farmers in Mazovia showed that nowadays
infrastructural determinants still remain the crucial problem in access to the
Internet – a significant majority of farmers does not have the possibility of choo-
sing the Internet services provider or is forced to use the forms of access that do
not ensure a stable connection and high-speed data transmission. Most farmers
use a computer and the Internet, if the household is equipped in them. However,
1
Publication prepared under the research projects: N 306 058637, Information and Communication Tech-
nologies as an element of modernization and multifunctioning of agriculture. Spatial diagnosis and assess-
ment of the use of ICT in agriculture, financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
46 there are used primarily in a passive way - mainly to obtain information. Active
forms of computer and Internet use, requiring user interaction, are much less
Mariola Ferenc, Michał Konopski
Konrad Czapiewski, Roman Kulikowski, Jerzy Bański, Maria Bednarek-Szczepańska,Marcin Mazur,
common. Education is a very strong factor in differentiating the level of ICT use
by farmers - poorly educated farmers are less able to acquire information from
the Internet, while the transfer of knowledge with the use of ICT to best educated
farmers is facilitated. Other characteristics of the economic situation of farms,
the dominant production profile, size and location do not differentiate the levels
of computer and Internet use by farmers as clearly as education, although these
factors are important regulators of the frequency of Internet use for strictly oc-
cupational purposes.
Introduction
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are an important deve-
lopment factor in the modern world, supporting the flow of data, services and
people. The role of ICT in rural areas is significant but, more importantly, may
in the near future become crucial. Any changes in the function, improvement
in social and economic situation of particular areas are not possible without
the use of the Internet, the infrastructure of the 21st century, which is a form
of access to infinite resources of data deposited around the world (regardless
of location in space) and enables communication.
The main objective of this paper is the diagnosis and evaluation of ICT use
in farming. The area of research presented in the study covers the region of
Mazovia, which represents different types of rural areas and diverse forms of
agriculture. Mazovia region is characterised, on the one hand, by the highest
value of GDP per capita indicator in Poland and, on the other, the biggest
internal differentiation. The central city of the region, Warszawa, is surroun-
ded by the vast territory of the agglomeration, which has a multi-functional
character, while the peripheral borderland areas display a mono-functional
(agricultural) character, and are much more sparsely populated.
In our analyses, a variety of research methods were used as well as data sour-
ces - both commonly available (secondary source), as well as data from own
studies. Various data from secondary sources allow for the general characteri-
stics of diversity of ICT use and equipment in different spatial scales, referring
to conducted development policy and providing the opportunity to evaluate
web resources. However, in official statistics there is limited information on the
equipment of households of diversified occupational groups in ICT, the use of
ICT by different social and occupational groups, purposes, frequency and time
span of using the Internet or causes for digital exclusion. For detailed identifi-
cation of farm equipment level in ICT and its use by farmers, primary research
was conducted among farmers and local authorities in 20 deliberately selected
municipalities (figure 1). These units differ in terms of location in relation to 47
Warszawa, leading functions as well as level and orientations of specialisation
Nowadays, possession of mobile phone and access to the Internet has become
a requirement for functioning on the labour market and performing daily acti-
vities. Through the use of communication and information devices people can
communicate and gain increasingly more, relevant information. ICT are also
indispensable in modern agriculture. Because of them, a farmer acquires and
broadens knowledge, establishes contacts with other producers, promotes pro-
ducts and services, orders necessary means of production and resolves official
matters (Heilig, 2003).
Taking into account the broader context, it should be clearly noted that ICT
may be important in the transformation processes of rural areas in many di-
mensions. The Internet brings the potential of telecommuting, it is also useful
for acquiring necessary knowledge for management or actions enabling for
functioning in the field of economy (advertising, contact with authorities).
ICT also enables utilisation of resources and local knowledge (Park, 2004;
Akca et al., 2007). This can be especially useful for those rural areas of spe-
cialised crops (e.g. herbs), traditions - can be bound with the use of new tech-
nologies with research institutes, universities, companies, for the purpose of
knowledge transfer and its use to create new products (e.g. medicines).
Thus, considering changes in the functioning of the economy and society, the
Internet is seen as one of the significant factors in allowing the socio-econo-
mic development of rural areas. It enables gaining knowledge and new skills
or even acquiring certified education, at the same time helping to overcome
adverse situations associated with the peripheral location of rural areas.
The Internet access to half of the examined farms is provided by the Polish
Telecom (TP) - mainly in form of Neostrada services and in a small percen-
tage as a dial-up access (via a modem). In 36% of cases, access to the Internet
is provided through a radio or cellular network. Only a minor share is repre-
sented by fixed connections of other operators than TP or via mobile phone.
Almost 90% of farms were using a single form of access to the Internet; in
cases with more than one type of connection, the modem and Neostrada were
mainly mentioned.
One of the greatest barrier to the full use of some websites is a low speed
data transfer. Among the surveyed farmers 78% had Internet access with data
transfer rates of less than 2 Mb/s. In 2010, i.e. at the time of the study, these
values were low.
The most common activity performed on the computer by farmers was to use
a search engine - 93% of Internet users pointed to that skill. Around 45% of
farmers using the computer perform such activities as installation of external
devices, copying or moving a file or folder and using e-mail and sending an
e-mail (figure 2). Less than 20% of surveyed farmers used a spreadsheet and
10% performed a multimedia presentation. Some of these activities were also
50 the subject of the Central Statistical Office (CSO) analyses conducted on a lar-
ger population, representing different social and occupational groups in Poland.
Mariola Ferenc, Michał Konopski
Konrad Czapiewski, Roman Kulikowski, Jerzy Bański, Maria Bednarek-Szczepańska,Marcin Mazur,
Although the results of the CSO cannot be directly compared with the outcome
of surveys conducted in Mazovia, in general it can be stated that the level of
computer and Internet skills among farmers is lower than in society overall.
It should however be noted that the levels of computer and Internet skills among
farmers increase with the duration and frequency of using the above. Farmers
using computers on a regular basis for more than seven years have the full range
of skills necessary for proper and basic handling of the computer and Internet.
The key step in the widespread use of computer and Internet among farmers is
to convince them to start using ICT. In the next stages, with the time span and
regularity of computer and Internet use, their skills level increases and these
devices can become one of the primary tools used on the farm.
Figure 2. Percentage of Internet users (in the case of web search engine) and
computer (in other cases) able to perform activities mentioned among respon-
dents surveyed by the CSO (A) and farmers surveyed in this study (B)
1 – Using a web search engine, 2 – installing external devices, 3 – Copying a file, 4 – Using
e-mail, 5 – copying an extract of text, 6 – Handling a spreadsheet, 7 – Creating a multimedia
presentation.
Source: own elaboration based on data from the Central Statistical Office (Społeczeństwo
informacyjne..., 2010) and surveys.
Farmers surveyed indicated that the main purpose of their Internet use is to
obtain information – such an answer was given by 83% of respondents. Fur-
ther down were: career goals (agricultural) and entertainment. All three of the-
se objectives can be classified as passive forms of Internet use - the user only
acquires information on websites. Significantly fewer respondents mentioned
more active forms of the Internet use - contacting other people, shopping, e-
banking, official matters disposal - requiring interaction from the user.
Respondents most often seek information via the Internet concerning new 51
technologies and means of production (51%), EU subsidies (46%), sales of
Farmers with no less than secondary education more often than the surveyed
group with at most vocational education use the Internet for occupational pur-
poses. The differences in activity between the two groups were observed in
all actions indicated by the respondents. However, the most noticeable is the
disparity in active forms of Internet use - farmers with no less than secondary
education are almost three times more likely to advertise their own products
and to sell them online compared to less educated respondents. Increased fre-
quency of selected occupational activities on the Internet is also characteristic
for respondents with agricultural education but in this case the absolute dif-
ferences are smaller compared to the analyses of general level of education.
Among the factors affecting the level of equipment and the use of ICT, the
weakness of rural areas should be emphasised in terms of capacity and cost-
effectiveness of a large part of the initiatives related to the provision of access
to the Internet. A lack of large, innovative companies operating in the field of
advanced technologies that could become initiators of creating a network ba-
sed on fibre optics or other solutions enabling broadband access to the Internet,
and the lower density of conventional telephony and satellite television are
the obstacles in developing an information society in rural areas that would
be equivalent to the urban one. Therefore, it is clear that the rate of Internet
diffusion in rural areas is much lower compared to urban areas (Czapiewski,
Janc, 2009). This is due to: accessibility to infrastructure, and appropriate la-
bour market and knowledge transfer (Forman et al, 2005). If, however, the
infrastructural and financial difficulties are overcome, ensuring full access to
Internet service in rural areas, then the socio-demographic factors will largely
determine the level of information society development. In terms of demogra-
phic and social conditions it can be expected that in the future the disparities
will consolidate at the disadvantage of rural areas. The process of migration
of young, enterprising and educated people from peripheries to the areas of
economic success will strengthen depopulation and population aging in rural
areas. Therefore, it should be clearly stressed that of all factors analysed above
influencing the development and use of ICT, in the future the most important
will be the socio-demographic factors such as level of education, age, and the
so-called mental, social and cultural resources.
Figure 5. Causes for the lack of access to the Internet of respondents surveyed
by the Polish Central Statistical Office (A) and farmers surveyed in this study (B)
Source: own elaboration based on data from the Central Statistical Office (Społeczeństwo
informacyjne..., 2010) and surveys.
Among the farmers surveyed in Mazovia the significant causes of the lack of 55
Internet connection were more often technical and economic conditions than tho-
Conclusions
Information and communication technologies are an important factor in social
and economic development. It should be noted, however, that the benefits of
ICT are not available for all – in the case of rural areas, the equipment is not
as important (diagnosed using such elements as cost, speed, quality and band-
width) as the possibility of using existing resources in the Internet. A signifi-
cant aspect in this context is the level of education, understanding the needs,
benefits and skills. It is worth noting that the full equipment in ICT is not
a development factor itself, however the lack of such equipment is certainly
a serious barrier. First of all, appropriate skills are required in order to make
effective use of the existing infrastructure (Malecki, 2003).
The studies conducted at a general level showed that the spatial distribution of
ICT equipment in Mazovia and the levels of its exploitation and utilisation by
residents are similar. Both features determining the level of information socie-
ty development reach top values in highly urbanised areas, whereas the lowest
are noted in rural areas of peripheral location with low population density.
It should be emphasised, however, that the first aspect of information society,
meaning the level of infrastructure accessibility will slowly lose its signifi-
cance – gradually the broadband service will be commonly accessible across
the Mazovia region. Analyses concerning the level of schools’ equipment in
computers with Internet access are an example of such a process. Therefore,
56 it is expected that the socio-cultural aspects related to the use of ICT in the
future will to the greatest extent differentiate the level of information society
Mariola Ferenc, Michał Konopski
Konrad Czapiewski, Roman Kulikowski, Jerzy Bański, Maria Bednarek-Szczepańska,Marcin Mazur,
On the other hand, our own research carried out among farmers in Mazovia
showed that nowadays infrastructural determinants still remain the crucial pro-
blem in access to the Internet – a significant majority of farmers does not have
the possibility of choosing the Internet services provider or is forced to use
the forms of access that do not ensure a stable connection and high-speed data
transmission. Most farmers use a computer and the Internet, if the household is
equipped in them. However, there are used primarily in a passive way - mainly
to obtain information. Active forms of computer and Internet use, requiring user
interaction, are much less common. Education is a very strong factor in diffe-
rentiating the level of ICT use by farmers - poorly educated farmers are less able
to acquire information from the Internet, while the transfer of knowledge with
the use of ICT to best educated farmers is facilitated. Other characteristics of the
economic situation of farms, the dominant production profile, size and location
do not differentiate the levels of computer and Internet use by farmers as clearly
as education, although these factors are important regulators of the frequency of
Internet use for strictly occupational purposes.
Based on the conducted analyses it can be stated that the farmers surveyed are
at the initial stage of developing their Internet skills. There may be two rea-
sons for such a situation: (1) low levels of knowledge and computer skills do
not allow farmers to actively exploit the opportunities offered by information
and communication technologies, and (2) farmers do not see the benefits of
using more advanced Internet tools for purchasing or selling agricultural pro-
ducts and consequently do not use them. Taking into account the experience
of farmers from Western Europe and the growth of e-services (including e-
commerce) in Poland among all users, it can be assumed that the first of the
presented explanations is the more probable.
Assuming that the Internet plays a major role in agricultural production (and
more importantly - in the near future may be even more significant, as evi-
denced by the wide range of agricultural support institutions websites) and the 57
main factor affecting the intensity and effectiveness of the Internet use are skills
Literature
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– współwystępowanie przestrzenne. IERiGŻ-PIB. Warsaw. (manuscript in
Polish).
Forman C., Goldfarb A., Greenstein S. (2005). Geographical Location and
the Diffusion of Internet Technology. Electronic Commerce Research and
Applications 4, p. 1-13.
Fujita M., Krugman P., Venables A. J. (1999). The Spatial Economy. Cities,
Regions and International Trade. The MIT Press. Cambridge.
Heilig G. (2003). Information society and the countryside: can internet-
based system bring income alternatives to rural areas?, (in:) J. Bański,
Owsiński J. (eds.), Alternatives for European Rural Areas. Rural Areas and
Development. 1. ERDN. Warszawa, p. 65-79.
Johnson T. G. (2001). The Rural Economy in a New Century. International
Regional Science Review, 24, p. 21-37.
Malecki E. J. (2003). Digital Development in Rural Areas: Potentials and
Pitfalls, Journal of Rural Studies, 19, p. 201-214.
Park S. O. (2004) Knowledge, networks and regional development in the pe-
riphery in the internet era. Progress in Human Geography, 28, p. 283-286.
Społeczeństwo informacyjne w Polsce. Wyniki badań statystycznych z lat
2006-2010. (2010). GUS. Szczecin. (statistical publication in Polish).
59
Vladimír Székely
Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Štefánikova 49, 81473
Bratislava, Slovak Republic
szekely@savba.sk
Chapter 4
Urban-rural relations as a source
of transfer of knowledge: some
examples from rural surrounding
of Bratislava
During the second half of 20th century the movement from rural areas to the
towns was typical feature of spatial organization of (not only) Slovak society.
Concentration of economic activities and huge building of real estates in the
towns represented visual manifestations of industrialization and urbanization
processes in Slovakia. Selected in-migration young people with their know-
ledge, habits, attitudes and behaviour influenced the form, image and life of the
towns. From the beginning of this century we can observe (but only in indivi-
dual cases) the opposite spatial movement – urban population emigrates from
towns to rural environment. The process of suburbanization is important mainly
in the surroundings of the biggest towns (Bratislava, Košice, …). The reasons
are very heterogonous: from retirement migration to the places of birth, through
commercial relocation of entrepreneurial activities and residential relocation of
their actors to more advantageous rural places, to preferences of young families
to live in healthier (and cheaper) rural environment. Number of rural population
in the hinterlands of the biggest towns is increasing by not-autonomous inhabi-
tants with different hierarchy of values, style of life, knowledge, and interests.
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
negative impact of in-migrants and their knowledge transfer into the rural
environment. Results of newspaper monitoring about the “two tier” rural so-
ciety, together with an overview of relevant studies in geography, economy,
and sociology, and additional face-to face interviews with rural inhabitants
are used.
The two processes are not spontaneous; they depend on existence of certain
conditions, an aiding environment, which are helping to their development.
According to the European Environment Agency (2006) drivers of urban
sprawl are:
• Macro-economic factors (economic growth, globalisation, European inte-
gration)
• Micro-economic factors (rising living standards, price of land, availability
of cheap agricultural land, competition between municipalities)
• Demographic factors (population growth, increase in household formation)
• Housing preferences (more space per person, housing preferences)
• Inner city problems (poor air quality, noise, small apartments, unsafe en-
vironments, social problems, lack of green open space, poor quality of
schools)
62 • Transportation (private car ownership, availability of roads, low cost of
fuel, poor public transport)
Vladimír Székely
Each of the quoted factors has its own specific, difficult to measure signi-
ficance. However, in assessing their impact is essential that individual fac-
tors do not operate in isolation and only his partial power. Synergy between
them significantly enhances their overall effect, which influences the spatial
changes and new relations between the towns and their rural hinterlands.
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
ties., 2. investigation of suburbanization and its consequences for the changes
of socio-spatial structure of the metropolitan territory – with a special accent
on increasing differentiation of individual parts of the region., 3. investigation
of suburbanization effects on way of life and changes of social relationships
in the society-wide level (Sýkora, 2003).
Figure 1. Location of potential rural suburban municipalities (Gajdoš and Mora-
vanská, 2010)
Source: http://www.sociologia.sav.sk/cms/uploaded/1242_attach_suburbanizacia.pdf
64 Extensive sociological research carried out via electronically mailed questi-
onnaires to representatives of rural self-administrations (rural municipalities)
Vladimír Székely
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
him) a “consciously organized development”. Hrdina criticizes lack of jobs in
rural municipalities, which is both the cause and consequence of regular com-
muting to cities. Commuting overloads the road traffic. The existing transport
infrastructure is not able to face and solve the problem of redistribution and
mobility of population (favourite the use of private cars), which is the logical
consequence of the limited offer of public transports. Improvement of trans-
port systems though, runs into the barriers like shortage of finances and other
accumulated problems that are given priority by self-administrations. This
situation slows down building of transport infrastructure and deepens the exi-
sting problems (Hrdina, 2010). The subject of the Hrdina´s critical assessment
is mainly Bratislava and its suburbanised rural hinterland.
SK
AT
HU
Figure 2. Bratislava (SK) and its (rural) surrounding – object of the study
Source: www.maps.google.sk
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
1980 Census of population, houses and flats the population number increased
to more than 380 thousand; that is by almost 25 %. The trend of a continuous
increase also existed in the following decade and at the time of the following
Census in 1991, the population of Bratislava amounted to more than 442 thou-
sand. Signals of slow depopulation of the capital (?) were also recognizable
in the results of the 2001 Census, when Bratislava’s population experienced a
decrease for the first time. However, this decrease was not only the result of
demographic processes. An important share in overall decrease of population
is ascribed to the reluctance of people residing in the city in leased houses and
flats to acquire the status of permanent residents. At time of the 2011 Cen-
sus when the population number decreased to around 412 thousand, doubts
whether the data were correct were also accompanied by rather considerable
unwillingness of people to participate in the Census procedure what, as some
experts assert, might have affected the final data. Nevertheless, in spite of it,
the increase of population number in the neighbouring rural municipalities is a
reality, which insinuates not only deconcentration of population but also sub-
urbanization, out-migration of Bratislava’s inhabitants into adjacent, hence
accessible, rural municipalities. The phenomenon is also spurred by shortage
of flats and consequently their extreme prices in the territory of the capital.
Number of inhabitants 305 932 380 259 442 197 428 672 (?) 411 228 (???)
Source: Štatistický úrad SR (Statistical Office of the SR)
Rural municipalities, just like all spatial units, grow due to combination of na-
tural and migration gains. While the natural gain (which is the difference bet-
ween the number of births and number of deaths) indicates the appropriate age
structure of population, migration gain (the difference between the number of
in-migrants and out-migrants) gives evidence of territory’s attractiveness, ca-
pacity to attract new inhabitants due to its inherent offer and living conditions.
Figure 3. Total population changes in rural municipalities (in Slovakia) closest
to Bratislava
Source: Štatistický úrad SR (Statistical Office of the SR)
Figure 4. Rural development (newly registered inhabitants) in the surroundings
of Bratislava in 2003-2011
Source: Štatistický úrad SR (Statistical Office of the SR)
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
xes - podielové dane” (a quota of income tax of natural persons) which
greatly contribute (about 33%) to the sum of the overall municipal in-
come and to the financial possibilities of the rational management of in-
dividual municipalities. Supposing that a rural self-goverment receives
€ 200-250 per a permanently resident inhabitant, it is no surprise that
mayors of rural municipalities try to motivate the residing and unre-
gistered inhabitants to register their permanent residence in the rural
municipality. Ways of motivation vary: from positive persuasion to the
restricted access to rural municipal benefits. A typical example is the
access to local schools and preschool facilities limited to the permanent
residents. Rather than a punishment for the indifferent attitude to finan-
cial participation in the administration of a rural suburban municipality,
such measures represent a tool of selection, use of which is forced by
the unregulated chaotic territorial development of municipalities (under
the pressure of developers) and the limited school and preschool capa-
cities (as a consequence of this “development”).
Figure 5. Rural development (new dwellings) in the surroundings of Bratislava
in 2003-2009
Source: Štatistický úrad SR (Statistical Office of the SR)
Figure 6. Structure of new dwellings in the rural surroundings of Bratislava in
2003-2009
Source: Štatistický úrad SR (Statistical Office of the SR)
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
tive constructor, now the interested person is in the position of a client
who evaluates the alternative localities and then purchases the goods
(a plot, house, flat) prepared by the developers. Aggressive invasion into
the territory is “the result of “an external pressure and inputs”, and rural
municipality is compelled to accept and potentially solve various discre-
pancies of own development” (Falťan, 2010). According to opinion of
locals, aggressive invasion of developers, as an unwanted phenomenon,
disturbs the targeted development policy of rural municipalities and pro-
vokes a number of socio-pathological and spatial problems.
Perhaps the the most sensitively is perceived the situation on the exi-
sting transport infrastructure and transport options from Čierna Voda to
Bratislava. As the mayor of Vajnory asserts, 22 thousand cars daily pass
through this marginal part of Bratislava and approval of another extensive
construction may lead to a permanent jam of Vajnory. This is the reason
72 why the mayor requests the change of the territorial plan, which counts
with a population of 60 thousand in “rural” Chorvátsky Grob in about
Vladimír Székely
Indicator of plot prices, which differentiates hinterlands of big cities and ap-
peals especially to the less solvent clients in their process of spatial decision,
is applied in estimation of attractiveness of localities. Price of building plots
is dynamic; it responses to new facts that determine it both in negative or po-
sitive sense. If place attractiveness increases due to former racional decisions,
the price of the area plot increases too. In contrary, if due to wrong decision
the positive image of quality place of living vanishes, the price of plots drops. 73
This precisely is the case typical for Chorvátsky Grob, a rural municipali-
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
ty sometimes referred to as “a good example of a wrong approach to rural
municipality’s development”.
Picture 1. Chorvátsky Grob – old, traditional part of the rural municipality, 2012
(photo: V. Székely)
Picture 2. Chorvátsky Grob – Čierna Voda – new, suburban part of the rural mu-
nicipality, 2012 (photo: V. Székely)
One of the causes of the existing situation in social life and social relationships in
the rural municipality is that the people pass the majority of time in urban environ-
ment. Limited work opportunities and limited shopping and leisure time options
prohibitively increase commuting. The need of flexible movement makes peo-
ple depend on cars. Use of cars and absence of newcomers in the village reduce
the possibilities of sharing company with others, of building social links and so-
cial cohesion (engagement in public affairs) in the place of permanent residence.
On the other side, thanks to the modern ICTs, the limited number of people in
a limited space does not define social links anymore. A trend of comparatively
extensive even dominant existence of relationships independent on space prevails
among - regardless of their educational level - young people. The existing social
links can acquire nature of weaker (more superficial?) ties among a greater number
of conventionally and unconventionally communicating persons that declare in-
dependence on spatial distance. If the community of municipality inhabitants is
considered a local spatially determined solidarity network, its relative weakening
can be hypothetically presumed in the sense of the ongoing developments - immi-
gration of prevailingly young people (Galčanová, 2012) - with the corresponding
consequences in terms of interest in communal affairs and active participation
in solution of problems. In this way, the broad-defined non-endogeneuos human
potential of newcomers from urban environment may be wasted in terms of the
communal development with the negative consequences for the management
of communal affairs and the vision of rural sustainable development.
Cross-border suburbanization – example of the Hungarian 75
rural municipality Rajka
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
Rajka is a peripheral rural municipality situated on the border between Slo-
vakia and Hungary, which lost on an average more than 50 inhabitants a year
in the first decade of the 21st century due to internal out-migration (Központi
Statistikai Hivatal, http://www.ksh.hu). People moved to places more attrac-
tive for permanent residence (for instance to the neighbouring town Moson-
magyaróvár). The increasing interest in purchase of Rajka’s real estates by
Bratislavians most probably also contributed to out-migration of the natives
of Rajka. Excentric peripheral position of the village and the resulting advan-
tageous prices compared with those on the real estate market in Bratislava
were the reasons why there is a great conformity between supply and demand.
Both, the purchasers and sellers are satisfied with their decisions. Friendly pri-
ces of houses and their accessibility on the market motivated first Bratislavi-
ans to purchase and reconstruct old houses. Only later Rajka becomes a place
of developer projects and construction of residential complexes (picture 3).
Picture 3. Hungarian Rajka with Slovak (automobiles and) imigrants, 2012 (pho-
to: V. Székely)
Regarding the preferred living in Rajka (population of 2,550 in 2011), “the re-
verse side of cheap plots” is ever more often mentioned. The reverse side more
or less disturbs the influx of new immigrants from Slovakia. It has several fa-
cets the most serious seems to be the feeling of general threat and problematic
perceiving of general safety. Relationships between Hungary and the Slovak
Republic are not ideal and provocations (mentioned in media) on both sides
of the frontier are comparatively frequent (not only nationalist extremists, but
also significant political representatives). Example from October 2012: part
of Hungarian inhabitants of Rajka protested against the unfortunate and con-
troversial billboard slogan of the real estate agency PASS Reality promoting
76 dwelling in Rajka. It referred to Rajka as the “6th district of Bratislava” (the
administrative territory of Bratislava is divided into 5 districts). Reactions to
Vladimír Székely
the campaign varied from the innocent albeit unconsidered publicity strata-
gem, which totally ignored the present international relationships of the two
countries, as well as empathy with the Hungarian population, to the protesters’
insinuations about changed state frontiers and occupation of the Hungarian
territory by annexing Rajka to Bratislava.
A publicity slogan and advertising campaign, witty and innocent for some
can be provocative or misleading for others. Part of debaters condemns the
creators of publicity campaign from Slovakia for irresponsibility and point to
other theoretically possible variants of Hungarian advertisement agency, as
“Komárno as the second district of Komárom, Šťúrovo as suburb of Eszter-
gom, or Slovenské Nové Mesto as the north-eastern quarter of Sátoraljau-
jhely”. Similar “creative” promotion of Slovak places as parts of Hungarian
towns would most probably also provoke protests of Slovaks.
Commentaries like: “The EU also offers me the option to pursue work, better
living conditions and cheaper house- and this is in Rajka - so I go there live
… no matter whether I am Hungarian, Slovak or Romany” point to the new
political situation and utilitarian preference in the process of spatial choice be-
haviour of an economically thinking person. Social and cultural dimension of
at least a partial breach of human relationships and their significance for a life
quality of a human reduced exclusively to a consumer is suppressed in such
attitudes. Simultaneously it is obvious that the decision to assume permanent
living in the territory of other country can also evoke an idea of hazard. The
opinion that “Our people (citizens of the Slovak Republic) move here only
because of lower prices of plots and dwelling. Any rationally thinking person
must also expect some problems. The fact that we are an EU member state
does not mean that we are safe, although we should be. The idea of the Euro-
pean cohesion and solidarity sometimes fails due to primitivism of individuals
and groups”, is quite frequent and it expresses a self-contained and prudent
estimate of Rajka as a place of permanent residence for foreigners (at this
moment Rajka is “exclusively” attractive as place of living only for Slovaks).
On the other side, stereotypic perception of Hungary, which according to
some discussants is “an economically and politically unstable country which
went bankrupt, experienced extremely high inflation and poverty” also evokes
a number of (un)founded questions regarding rationality of such locational
choice especially in comparison with Austria, image of which, as a place of
permanent residence, is far more positive in the eyes of most Slovaks citizens.
On the other side, research accomplished (Ira et al, 2011; Hardy, 2012) sug-
gests that the people living in Rajka maintain standard neighbour relationships
free from mutual animosities. It may be caused by the newcomers’ way of
life, who are more active in the Slovak territory and they only come to Rajka
to spend the night. Communication with locals is hindered by the language
barrier and lack of time, causes why not only deeper mutual enrichment and
engagement in solution of local issues but also any aspiration to participate in 77
or even take over control in the communal sphere are out of question. All in
Urban-rural relations as a source of transfer of knowledge: some examples from rural surrounding of Bratislava
all, life in Rajka is a conflictless co-existence of two ethnicities that instead of
living together live side by side.
Conclusion
Spatial changes observed in the immediate rural hinterland of Bratislava are
not exceptional in the European context. Numerous studies point to the subur-
banising processes ongoing practically in every European country. However,
national differences may appear in the level of rational management of urban-
rural space and in contribution of new in-migrants with significant human and
social capital (with acquired knowledge and experience in urban environment)
to sustainable development of rural municipalities. The surviving model of
a monofunctional residential suburb connected with the dominant commuting
to work, school and services from rural environment to urban areas creates
numerous pressures on the rational functioning of the affected areas and is
negatively perceived by both experts and laymen. The outlasting absence of
comprehensive development of suburban rural municipalities most often pre-
sented as the consequence of wrong approaches in the past and the present
lack of funds represents an important threat for their sustainable development.
Elimination of such threat requires diffusion of recent knowledge and inno-
vative approaches to accumulated problems. It also requires educated and en-
gaged creative people capable of modifying their living space. But research
revealed that spatial distribution of such people is extremely irregular and that
creativity is not something that can be simply imported into the rural space.
(also negatively) affect functioning of the urban-rural space and life quality
of its population.
Acknowledgement
This article was prepared as part of the Project No. 2/0086/12 „Endogenous
potential and exogenous factors of local and regional development in Slo-
vakia“, funded by the Slovak VEGA Grant Agency. The author thanks to the
Slovak VEGA Grant Agency for its financial support.
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81
Monica Mihaela Tudor1, Violeta Florian2, Mihai Alexandru Chitea3
Institute of Agricultural Economics – Romanian Academy, Calea 13 Septembrie 13,
sector 5, 050711, Bucharest, Romania
1
monik_sena@yahoo.com
2
florian_violeta@yahoo.com
3
mihai_chitea@yahoo.com
Chapter 5
Acceptance of innovation diffusion
in rural areas - a Romanian
Case Study
Methodology
The proposed methodology is specific to the qualitative analysis because it is
considered most appropriate for studying this phenomenon. We use 2 types of
methods for data collecting and for data handling and processing.
The columns of this matrix contain some of the most important actors that
make up the agricultural knowledge system and the lines reflects the different
categories of failures depicted in the ISP matrix: the infrastructure, the institu-
tional context like laws, rules and regulations, values, norms and culture, the
interactions and networks and the capabilities of actors.
Source: according with Woolthuis et al. 2005: 610-611; & Hermans et al. 2011: 11-21
Background/Context
Knowledge and innovation creation and transfer in Romania
In the agricultural and rural innovation literature, as elsewhere, the linear view
of innovation (i.e., agricultural R&D generates technologies that agricultural
extension transfers to agricultural producers for subsequent adoption) is being
criticised as the thinking about innovation processes has become broadened
from processes of knowledge diffusion and knowledge transfer to processes of
knowledge co-creation and social learning (Leeuwis and Van den Ban, 2004;
Smits and Kuhlmann, 2004; Knickel, Brunori et al., 2009).
A recent Review of the Research, Development & Innovation (RD&I) sector 85
in Romania2 concludes that Romania’s RD&I sector is in a silent crisis, with
2
World Bank (2012). “Functional Review of the Research, Development & Innovation Sector”, http://
www.sgg.ro/docs/File/UPP/doc/rapoarte-finale-bm/etapa-II: 7
3
National Authority for Scientific Research (2012). “Evolution of Romania’s R&D and Innovation Sy-
stem”, National Conference of Innovation and Research, November, 7-9, 2012, Bucharest, http://cnci.ancs.
ro/downloads/raport_conferinta.pdf
4
Idem
5
European Commission (2012) “Innovation Union Scoreboard 2011”, Research and Innovation Union
scoreboard, http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/files/ius-2011_en.pdf.
86
Monica Mihaela Tudor, Violeta Florian, Mihai Alexandru Chitea SIRIUS project (in brief)
This study is based on data collected on ongoing FP7 Project called SIRIUS
– „Sustainable Irrigation water management and River-basin governance: Im-
plementing User-driven Services”. SIRIUS is a trans-national research project
involving 18 partners from 13 countries around the world, aiming to develop
innovative and new Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)
service capacities for the user community of irrigation water management and
sustainable food production, in accordance with the vision of bridging and
integrating sustainable development and economic competitiveness (figure 1).
The SIRIUS project, has the following main objectives: to prepare the service
environment by strengthening the participatory process which is necessary for
efficient and affective irrigation water resources management and by jointly
developing users' requirements portfolios that lead to sustainable future com-
munity agreements for irrigation farming practices assisted by GMES services
in each pilot area, based on cooperation of all stakeholders; to strengthen the
current version (global, local, portable modes) of the System of Participatory
Information, Decision-support and Expert knowledge in River-basin manage-
ment (SPIDER, developed in PLEIADeS) in two ways: placing it robustly
within the overall framework of the GMES SDI, while ensuring it is operational
on the ground with the network of local ppgis communities; to further develop,
validate and consolidate the product generation algorithms for the SIRIUS port-
folio and to operationalize them as far as possible while maintaining user con-
trol procedures where needed; to set up and implement SIRIUS portfolio pro-
duction line, including purpose – oriented quality control, merging data streams
from EO (virtual constellation concept), non EO (in – situ,survey) and models;
to generate products for participatory service assessment with users during one 87
growing season; to develop and deploy a framework of business strategies to
Currently, in Romania, the price for access to water from the irrigation system
is high for farmers and represents around 1/3 of the production cost/ ha (accor-
ding to the information provided by farmers from our pilot area). This reality
is the result of the current situation of the irrigation system:
• Irrigation system in Romania was built in the communist period - conse-
quently irrigation infrastructure is old, outdated and highly energy-inten-
sive due to the deficit of investments in the modernization of the irrigation
system after 1989 (MARD, 2011)
• Irrigation infrastructure was designed to serve the large farms from the
communist era and, currently is inadequate of today's system of land pro-
perties dominated by small dimensions farms
88 • Large consumer of electric power because it is based on extracting water
from the river beds (Danube) and pumping it into irrigation channels –
Monica Mihaela Tudor, Violeta Florian, Mihai Alexandru Chitea
consequently the total cost of access to water from the national irrigation
system is very high (MARD, 2010) (electric power represent 90% of the
price paid by farmers for the irrigation water)
• Water running through open channels and physical wear of the irrigation
infrastructure generates losses - the loss of water is estimated at around
40% on Braila’s Terrace (our pilot area) (MARD, 2007:15)
This situation resulted in the irrigated area representing only 9% in the year
2012 of these 3.1 mil. ha that had been equipped with irrigation facilities in
the communist period. Furthermore, following the depreciation, physical de-
struction of the national irrigation system nowadays, only 30% of these areas
were classified as "viable“ for irrigation (MARD, 2011: 43)
The SIRIUS innovative solution for Romanian pilot area is in accordance with
the short term objective of national strategy for irrigation and consists of:
improving the efficiency of irrigation water use at farm level by: facilitating
the access of farmers to satellite information regarding irrigation water requi-
rements; selecting and processing the satellite information that is relevant to
the project’s aim; training the farmers for accessing and using the information
via computer
The SIRIUS pilot area in Romania is located in Brăila County (red circle in
figure 1), in a plain zone, with continental climate, with higher temperatures
and lower rainfall in recent years, multi-year averages. Under the conditions
of climate aridity tendency, in which the soil moisture deficit during the gro-
wing season reaches about 350mm/season, irrigation is absolutely necessary
(Symposium, 2007).
Over 90% of the agricultural and arable land areas in Brăila county (92.6%
and respectively 93.3%) have, according to NIS data, available facilities for
irrigation. According to MARD, Brăila is the county in which, by far, irriga-
tions represent an important component of farming, having the largest irriga-
ted area (65% of the actual irrigated area at national level in 2010 – NIS 2012
data base) and the largest quantity of water pumped (46% of water used for
irrigation in 2009 at national level – MARD 2011). However, in the same year
(2010), the use of the irrigation system in Brăila was very low. Effectively
irrigated areas with at least one watering represented only 15% of the total ag-
ricultural area equipped for irrigation at the county level, respectively, 16.4%
of arable land provided with such facilities (NIS, 2012). Given the records of
the irrigation system in the county with the largest area of operation and its use
– Brăila: the irrigation system is still functional in much of the area with such
type of facilities (in 2009, for 62.4% of the county area with hydro-technical
facilities, the irrigation system was classified as “viable”, capable of use and
recipient of the investment in system rehabilitation – MARD 2011).
The Romanian SIRIUS pilot area consists of 4 rural communes (namely Caz-
asu, Silistea, Vadeni and Tudor Vladimirescu) with a total population of 11000
inhabitants. The demo-social capital of this area is defined by:
- a balanced structure of genders, the female population share being 50.2%
90 - critical demographic phenomena: the birth rate in the rural area is 8.5‰
and the death rate is 13.9‰
Monica Mihaela Tudor, Violeta Florian, Mihai Alexandru Chitea
While at the level of the statistical analysis one can identify problems that
emerged as a result of the lack of jobs, the supply is not diversified and mul-
tiple, at the social analysis level much more complex problems were establis-
hed. In the formal leaders’ opinion, the vulnerability is based on the lack of
funds, poverty, incorrect application of agricultural policies.
The defining social capital for the investigated rural communities is characte-
rized by social relations with positive effects (information dissemination,
knowledge and information exchange, internalization of the interests of the
group the rural actors are part of) and negative effects (their sticking to the
traditionality matrix results in the emergence of an „anti-novatory” behaviour
and the low internalization of values referring to natural environment preser-
vation). The first category of social relations is based on the organization of
water users into formalized entities (there are 6 irrigation water users’ asso-
ciations in our pilot area) and on the establishment of producers’ associations
(“Association of sheep and cattle raisers”).
Results
Our paper aims at measuring the degree of acceptance of innovation diffusion at
the main actors involved in the new knowledge transfer and implementation of in-
novations in agriculture. In order to reach this objective, we opted for the systems
approach in agricultural innovation from the perspective of which we make the
difference between the players involved in innovation production and transfer, on
one hand, and the very process of the production and transfer of the new know-
ledge towards agriculture. Thus, the analytical approach is divided into two parts:
1. Actors’ analysis - the goal of this review is to investigate the current orga- 91
nisation and functioning of the AKS actors.
6
An innovation intermediary, according to Howells (2006) is "an organization or body that acts as an agent
or broker in any aspect of the innovation process between two or more parties. Such intermediary activities
include: helping to provide information about potential collaborators; brokering a transaction between two or
more parties; acting as a mediator, or go-between bodies or organizations that are already collaborating; and
helping find advice, funding and support for the innovation outcomes of such collaborations."
92 Often innovation systems do not act as systems and display imperfections or
system failures that hinder learning and innovation. Creating and fostering
Monica Mihaela Tudor, Violeta Florian, Mihai Alexandru Chitea
The links between knowledge creators and users were broken with the downfall
of socialist agriculture. Technological innovations, but also innovations regar-
ding farm management in irrigation and produce marketing only reach a small
fraction of farms (especially big farmers that operate large areas of land).
The research in the area of irrigation is funded from different national (public)
or international programs. Since the early 90s World Bank developed more
projects in Romania for the evaluation, reform and rehabilitation of irrigation
system. The main Romanian public institution involved in the research for
irrigation is the National Institute of Research and Development for Land Re-
clamation (ISPIF), which currently experiences great problems in relation to
funding its research activities, due to the public budget restrictions.
Source: own assessments according with the literature review, interviews with the main
actors representatives, focus group with stakeholders, participatory observation. For
more details see Annex 1.
The direct beneficiaries of SIRIUS project are the farmers and the Irrigation
Water Users Associations (IWUA) from the pilot area – Cazasu from Braila
County (see red circle in the figure 1).
The farms structure from our pilot area is dominated by farms that operate
more than 50 ha, are the main beneficiary of water from the irrigation sy-
stem, have good farming skills and knowledge about the functionality of
the irrigation system. The small farms are more dominated by a subsistence
agricultural activity; they rely on a traditional agricultural model, having
a deficit of agricultural skills and mostly empirical knowledge regarding the
irrigation system.
94 The Romanian irrigation infrastructure was designed to serve the large farms
from the communist era and it is inadequate for the post-communist land opera-
Monica Mihaela Tudor, Violeta Florian, Mihai Alexandru Chitea
tion system. Out of this reason, beginning with 1999, the Irrigation Water Users’
Associations (IWUA) was set up, as private associations of farmers with access
to irrigation facilities. The IWUAs were established on territorial criteria (location
in the area served by pumping / repumping water station) in order to facilitate the
supply of water to the farms located in the coverage area of the repumping stations
and to enable the calculation of the delivered water price to farmers (water price is
different from one pumping station to another and depends on the altitude of water
pumping from the extraction source). The IWUAs became the owners of tertiary
irrigation infrastructure in their territory, and by this the farmers (IWUA members)
become responsible for the maintenance and repair of the irrigation infrastructure
that belongs to the IWUA. IWUA activity funding is from own sources and it can
also apply for investment programs in the irrigation system rehabilitation funded
by the Ministry of Agriculture, with 50% co-financing from IWUAs. Unfortuna-
tely, the farmers’ financial capacity to pay from own funds for the rehabilitation of
an irrigation infrastructure in which no investments have been made even before
1989 is low, and the funds made available by the Ministry of Agriculture for this
purpose are quite difficult to access.
The farmers, as potential users of water from the irrigation system and the
farmers’ associations have to bear the consequences of the current situation
of the Romanian irrigation infrastructure - old, out-dated, highly energy-in-
tensive, costly and with great water losses. The direct consequence of this
situation for the end users consists in a high price of the access to the national
irrigation system and a high irrigation water cost (in Romania, the price that a
farmer has to pay for 1000 m3 water from the national irrigation system is ten
times as high compared to Hungary). SIRIUS Project provides an innovative
solution for increasing the efficiency of irrigation water consumption, which
can help farmers to lower their costs in the case of this agricultural input.
An increased efficiency of irrigation water use at the level of farmers also
lowers the costs of their associations.
Because of the aim of our paper, we place policy makers in the category of
indirect beneficiaries, governmental institutions can interact with other actors
in evaluating the innovation developed under SIRIUS project and can include
this innovation in their strategic action plans if SIRIUS solutions are consi-
dered viable for the entire irrigation system in Romania. Thus, the Ministry of
Education and Research could better orient its public policies from its activity
field on the sustainable water use and development of research exploring the
opportunities to extend and adapt the results of such projects as SIRIUS at
national level.
The Ministry of Agriculture succeeded in designing a coherent strategy for the 95
irrigation system only in the year 2011, although the project that targeted its
establishment was initiated even in 1997 under the World Bank consultancy.
Moreover, the SIRIUS innovation consists of a more efficient use of water re-
sources. Thus, SIRIUS contributes to the sustainable use of resources, which
is one of the main goals in the Regional Operational Program, managed by the
Ministry of Development. The lack of convergence and coordination between
different strategies can become a restriction for a mutually agreed strategy on
the importance of innovation adoption at national level.
After 1990, the land reclamation sector suffered frequent changes as regards its
organization, management, responsibilities, financial support. While at the begin-
ning of this period the land reclamation was a public affair in totality, at present
this responsibility is split between public and private institutions, but their attri-
butions and relations are still not clear defined and functional. At present, in the
irrigation area, the main operator in land reclamation is represented by the Natio-
nal Land Reclamation Agency (NLRA), which was established in 2011 as public
institution under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. NLRA is
responsible with management of the primary and secondary irrigation infrastruc-
ture, is financed from subsidies from the state budget (for “public utility” invest-
ments for land reclamation) and from own revenues (from the price of delivered
water for irrigation to IWUAs). The major public investments in the rehabilitation
of primary and secondary irrigation infrastructure keep still awaited.
restructuring of the national irrigation system and they have to pay for the
economic inefficiency.
The system analysis through ISP matrix is a tool that provides insights into
the actors and factors that are working against the innovation adoption: the
inhibitors (the system failures) and, on the other hand, the driving forces, and
the system opportunities that actually encourage the acceptance of knowledge
transfer.
In the next section we shall proceed to the inventory and analysis of system
failures and system opportunities from the perspectives of implementation op-
portunities in Romania of an innovation of high technological level in agricu-
lture using, as analytical foundation, the experience in the implementation of
a computer-assisted efficient irrigation water management service.
• Infrastructural failures
Both the absence of regulations in terms of extension and advice for farmers
and the frequent modifications of the rules in case of land reclamation gene-
rates institutional vacuum, in the first case, the themes of interest for farmers
are not the object of extension services (for instance, the deficient operation
of the information channels on the new regulations, norms, finance opportuni-
ties, etc.); in the second case, the change of the organization form and attribu-
tions of land reclamation operators need periods of institutional reconstruction
and construction of organizational culture.
Weak incentives for researchers make them less willing to work with farmers.
For direct beneficiaries (farmers), the institutional failures consist of: legis-
lative and institutional ignorance, in the case of small farmers who manage
their business in a traditional manner and are not interested to know the new
regulations); “legal corruption” phenomenon in the case of larger farmers who
have influence upon the decision makers.
In the segment of policy makers and of the innovation generators for agriculture,
Romania experiences an excessive formalization of organizations norms and
values that affect their creativity in the interactions with other stakeholders and
their ability to promote new ideas in their work. The attempt to impose Western
values in the operation of institutions from Romania is confronted with a strong
resistance to change of theses institutions (which holds true for the most part
public institutions) and with a superficial internalization of these values.
In the case of NLRA, the organizational culture is under permanent change, 99
due to the frequent modifications of their status. This contributes to fluctua-
In the case of farmers, the organizational culture models are different accor-
ding to the purposes of their business. The small farmers are more traditiona-
list, their values are specific to the empirical knowledge transfer model (from
a farmer to another) and they are rather “prisoners” of the traditional view of
”making agriculture”. Unlike small farmers, the larger farmers are more open
to innovation, as these have profit increase expectations; however, at the same
time, the latter are not so willing to pay for innovation.
The irrigation water users’ asociations are a relational “core” benefiting the
entire rural community.
The main failures in interactions and networking that were identified in the
process of knowledge production and transfer to agriculture (irrigation in par-
ticular) appears in the segment of coordination, creation and extension of the
innovation process.
The policy makers interact more in a formal manner with the other actors from
AKS. These interactions are more frequently based on the traditional relation
between policy makers, on one hand, and public research and extension insti-
tutions, on the other hand. The final beneficiaries’ real needs for innovation
reach the public agenda with difficulty if their interests do not get support
from strong organizations. In the field of irrigations, the farmers began to get
organized as water users only in 1999 and their organizations do not have
enough negotiation power yet.
100 The research in the field of agriculture and irrigations suffers from thema-
tic and methodological isolation due to its funding from national research
Monica Mihaela Tudor, Violeta Florian, Mihai Alexandru Chitea
programs that often are not connected to the final beneficiaries’ real needs.
In Romania, the research brokerage is not a reality yet, and the results of the
innovations resulting from research are often listed in a large research work
that remains locked in a drawer.
The extension and advisory services are poorly connected with the research
institutions and the innovation dissemination to final users is insufficient.
Moreover, the bottom-up approach in research is very difficult to achieve in
this context.
In the case of the irrigation water users’ associations, the relational system
with the oter actors form AKS is functional: “We have very good relations
with the Agricultural Directorate, they keep us informed about the modifica-
tion, each month, help us to draw the documentation and now we also ap-
pealed to them.” (IWUA President Siliştea). “The relations existed, because
there were years when they provided subsidies and had to report to National
Association for land irrigation.” (IWUA member APT Comăneasca, com-
mune Tudor Vladimirescu).
The farmers have close links with each other, they frequently interact due
to the physical closeness, and they exchange information and knowledge.
The large farmers appeal to the extension and advisory services in the problems
they are interested in, but most frequently they received the necessary informa-
tion from the other farmers or they looked for information on the internet.
The policy makers have only little reflexivity on the AKS functionality be-
cause they do not have the ability to request a feedback and to learn from
experiences. Universities have nearly no practical orientation and the research
suffered from inadequate mechanisms for the delivery of research outputs (eit-
her as new knowledge or new technologies) to farmers through demonstration
or via advisors, trainers and educationalists.
IWUAs suffered for a weak organizational capacity because they do not have
the networking skills for this type of activity yet, they do not have specialized
staff for this and do not have the ability to mobilize all their members to invest
in innovation. In the case of small farmers, the capabilities failures consist in:
low level of formal agricultural education, lack of knowledge demand capaci- 101
ty, low professional qualifications in the key-problems. Large farmers benefits
Conclusions
The innovation and the mechanisms by which it is produced, transmitted and
promoted among farmers can be considered the key-factor towards a sustaina-
ble development of this economic sector.
There are strong barriers in the dissemination of information through the top-
down channels of the classic system for transfer of knowledge and innovation
in Romanian agriculture and rural development. One of the main reasons is
the bureaucratic structure of this system and the deficiencies in the qualifi-
cation and involvement of the leadership and employees from these public
institutions.
we plotted in blue colour the actors and rules that are addressed on SIRIUS
project.
Figure 4. The observed system failures and strengths vs. the actually addressed
points in knowledge transfer through SIRIUS project in Romania
because of the lack of linkages between the public actors from AKS (research,
extension, advice, policy makers) weak network failures appears due to the
fact that the actors mentioned above are not well connected and fruitful cy-
cles of learning and innovation may be prevented because there is no creative
recombination of knowledge and resources
the final users from our case study (farmers – irrigation water users) have
close links between with each other and acts as closed networks in which the
learning process is more related to the confidence in the other members of
this small community, this fact causing myopia and blocking new ideas from
entering.
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in innovation policy." International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Po-
Monica Mihaela Tudor, Violeta Florian, Mihai Alexandru Chitea
Annex 2. The observed system failures in the process of the acceptance of knowledge transfer through SIRIUS project in Romania
Actors Farmers
Research Institutes and Extension and
Rules IWUA’s NLRA Government
Small farms Big farms Universities advice
(system failures)
Infrastructural failures Dispose of Good infrastructure Difficult access to Financing the - Bureaucratic - Insufficient public - Structural void
irrigation including IT knowledge funds for maintenance activity system investments in research - Inefficient
equipment in investments in the for irrigation - Lack of infrastructure segmentation of
a small modernization of infrastructure, operated convergence - Excessive segmentation entities
degree tertiary irrigation by NLRA, is of thematic
infrastructure considered as state aid-
it is not allowed by EU
Institutional Laws, rules Legislative - Well informed, but not by Frequent modification -Formal framework -Weak incentives for Institutional
failures and and official channels of duties -Legislative researchers vacuum
regulations institutional -“Legal corruption” abundance
ignorance phenomenon -Empirical
inadaptability of
laws
Values, norms Traditional -Open to new if they -Young Lack of -Excessive - Weak motivation
and culture values benefit from organization organizational culture formalization of - Good intentions
specific to - Not so willing to pay for - Organizational values values - Segmented
empirical innovation solidarity and -Inadequacy of formalization of norms
knowledge -Acculturation phenomena: cohesion imposed values - Superficial
modern values internalization of
superimposed on traditional modern values
ones
Interactions and networks Have close Closed networks Functional Bureaucratic Weak (formal) - Inadequacy of - Lack of
failures links each interaction formalization of the linkages with other dissemination forms connectivity
other relations between actors - Thematic, - Weak
actors methodological isolation coordination and
correlation
Capabilities failures Weak - Limited time that can be Weak Weak technical Formal, stated Weak technical capacity Socially
educational devoted to innovation organizational capacity interest inefficient
capabilities - Specialized university capacity strategies
education, IT users
Source: own determination according to ISP matrix methodology, blue color marks the identified strengths in the process of innovation creation
and transfer, red color highlights the system failures
107
Marie Trantinová1, Marie Štolbová2
Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information, Mánesova 1453/75, 120 56
Praha 2, Czech Republic
1
trantinova.marie@uzei.cz
2
stolbova.marie@uzei.cz
Chapter 6
Assessment of farmers role
in relation to the support
of rural communities
Abstract: All EU countries prepare new Rural Development Plan 2014-2020 for
agriculture and rural areas incl. LEADER. An integral part of the planned docu-
ment is analysis of rural areas and the LEADER programme. Some key questions
were solved during the analysis. Such as: “How to target financial support to ru-
ral areas to achieve high effect in the social, economic and environmental terms.”
The analysis requires objective documented data of results of many studies and
surveys. Experience shows that often it is not easy to obtain the required data
concerning awareness among applicants, the potential of social capital or the
needs to improve infrastructures or level of enterprise in rural areas. Very impor-
tant source was the RDP 2011 Mid-term review in the Czech Republic. The main
results of the analysis showed that it is vitally necessary to increase employment
in rural areas by strengthening rural economy and social capital. It is very impor-
tant to exchange experience among European countries during the preparation,
implementation delivery and evaluation of the RDP.
In accordance with the Europe 2020 strategy there were set the following six
priorities for the rural development in the period 2014-2020: (European Com-
mission, 2011):
1. support of sharing of knowledge and innovation in agriculture, forestry and
the rural areas;
2. enhancement of competitiveness of all types of agricultural activity and
improvement of viability of agricultural companies;
3. support of organisation of food chain and risk management in agriculture;
4. reconstruction, preservation and enhancement of ecosystems dependent on
agriculture and forestry;
5. support of efficient utilisation of resources within the branches of agricul-
ture, food industry and forestry and transfer to low-carbon economy resist-
ant to climate changes;
6. support of social inclusion, poverty reduction and stimulation of economic
development in rural areas.
This article focuses on results of the work achieved in detailed analyses of the
problem related to the 6th priority. Both the elaborated analyses of the present
situation in agriculture and in rural areas of the Czech Republic, as well as
the findings on operation of the programme cycle measures concerning rural
communities and provided under the existing Axis III of the RDP 2007-13,
that were obtained on the basis of negotiations with representatives of the
concerned institutions and stakeholders, were used as basis for framing of
measures for the next programme period. Authors of the article are involved
in preparation of programme documents for the RDP of the Czech Republic
for the period 2014-20.
This work tries to define - what is a barrier to more effective utilisation of 109
subsidies of the RDP in order to increase employment and improve living
Apart from this general typology of rural communities, there were also used
other definitions, e.g. according to size of the community with regard to
number of inhabitants. In 2011, there were 5.578 communities with less than
2.000 inhabitants in the Czech Republic, which represented nearly 90% of all
municipalities in the Czech Republic and nearly 73% of acreage of the Czech
Republic. There lived 26.4% of inhabitants of the country.
In the last decades the rural communities in the Czech Republic became re-
markably polarised, namely depending on their geographic position. While
communities within urban proximity are growing, numbers of inhabitants in
communities and whole micro-regions in peripheral areas (Musil, Müller 2008;
Jančák et al., 2008) stagnate or even drop. This is accompanied by worsening of
socio-demographic indicators in individual communities (ageing of inhabitants,
higher unemployment rate, loss of employment opportunities etc.).
Figure 2. Educational structure of inhabitants according to size of communities
in 2011
Source: CZSO 2011
112
Marie Trantinova, Marie Štolbová
Figure�����������������������������������������������������������������������
����������������������������������������������������������������������
3. Rate of unemployed population to economically active population ac-
cording to administrative areas of communities with extended powers in 2011
Source: CZSO, Population and Housing Census 2010
The income level in rural areas is lower compared to towns and cities
(in 2010 people in rural areas achieved 89.9% of gross and 91% of net income
of population in towns and cities). The highest share in incomes of population
of rural areas comes from incomes from employment (employees) and their
share is slightly growing. On the other hand incomes from private businesses
stagnate. However, viable rural areas are highly depending on development of
small and medium businesses in these areas. Development of such economic
activities in predominantly rural areas is more complicated compared to other
regions. For example the predominantly rural Vysočina region has the small-
est number of micro-businesses per 1.000 inhabitants (15.9), while indicators
in the significantly rural regions reach the values 16.9-21.9.
More than one half of the Czech territory has soil and climatic conditions
unfavourable for agriculture.�����������������������������������������������
The
����������������������������������������������
ratio of mountain regions in the Czech Re-
public puts it to the 10th position among the EU 27. The mountain regions
with conditions unfavourable for agricultural production in many cases cor-
respond with areas with the high unemployment rate and a negative migra-
tion rate.
The Czech Republic belongs among countries in which the absolute major-
ity of agricultural land, even in the LFA, is managed by bigger farms, unlike
for example in Slovenia, Poland, Italy, or Austria. In the Czech Republic the
farms over 500 ha manage 70% of land registered in the LPIS. At the same
time, according to the Farm Structure Survey (FSS) of the CZSO of 2010, 113
70.9% of agricultural land in the Czech Republic was managed by legal enti-
Farming is not the dominant economic activity in the Czech rural areas any-
more. The number of people employed in agriculture dropped remarkably.
In the period of 10 years (up to 2010) it dropped by 43% and according to
the structure survey of the CSZO FSS 2010 there were 108.000 workers
(AWU) in agriculture. The drop in number of agricultural employees con-
tinued even after accession of the Czech Republic to the EU and it applies
to all its regions (figure 4). According to the FADN in the recent years the
average number of workers is 3 workers per 100 ha UAA and lowers in all
natural conditions.
Figure 4. Development of number of workers per 100 ha UAA
Source: FADN 2001-10, calculated by Stolbova
Figure 5. Development of subsidies calculated per a worker
Source: FADN 2001-10, calculated by Stolbova, an exchange rate of CZK 25 per EUR was
used for the calculation
The champions among the Czech agricultural companies are the big and very
big farms, as they manage to maximise their income from subsidies with
a minimum number of employees. We cannot expect that the existing trend
of decline of livestock production which demands more workforces can be
easily diverted. Withdrawal of more farming workers will create pressure on
increase of unemployment in rural areas.�������������������������������������
������������������������������������
In future the problems of rural com-
munities should be solved by the RDP measures that are directly targeted at
rural communities.
The smaller the community, the less facilities present. Technical infrastructure
facilities are the lowest in the smallest communities.�����������������������
For
����������������������
example small com-
munities up to 200 or�����������������������������������������������������
����������������������������������������������������
500 inhabitants are in many cases absolutely depend- 115
ing on the local water sources (wells). There is also unfavourable situation
It is also due to the fact that mayors of small communities only execute their
duties after their own working hours and they cannot devote their full capacity
to needs of the village.
There is also limited utilisation of the local natural resources, e.g. for energetic
purposes, as a potential source of incomes and working positions for rural
population.��������������������������������������������������������������������
The
�������������������������������������������������������������������
problems of utilisation of the local energy production are usu-
ally high costs and problematic distribution of energy within rural areas.���������
Dis-
tribution of heat produced locally is difficult due to technological issues and
little effective in rural areas with low density of potential consumers.
More detailed analyses (Konečná, Pražan 2009) show that regions with high
human capital utilise most of the funds, while the regions with low economic
activity do not show demand for suitable development projects nor capacity
to draw such subsidies.����������������������������������������������������
���������������������������������������������������
One of the causes is the low human capital – insuf-
ficient competence, insufficient experience in funding policy of individual ap-
plicants, public administration representatives (especially small communities,
which do not have sufficient personnel even for the ordinary agenda and no
capacity for development activities), as well as of businessmen and farmers
and smaller voluntary non-profit organisations (associations, church organisa-
tions, associations of voluntary firemen etc.).
Even though in the absolute numbers the number of farming subjects, that
became LAG members, increased, their increase was the lowest among all the
sectors and in fact their relative rate is decreasing. Nevertheless it is also due
to limited number of farming subjects in rural areas and due to the fact that
unlike other business and non-business subjects it is harder to increase their
numbers.
4. Insufficiently developed LEADER principles 117
On the other hand thanks to the RPD support there substantially increased
absorption capacity to 112 supported LAGs (DHV, 2010). Currently there is
established 150 LAGs in the Czech Republic.
On the bases of the elaborated analyses and observations gathered from actors in
the sphere of policy focused on support of rural communities, at central as well
as regional level, there was assessed the programme cycle of these measures.
It aimed at identification of weak points of the existing policy and to point at them
so that these findings could be taken into consideration for the programme period
2013-20. The general scheme of the programme cycle is shown in figure 6.
Figure 6. Programme Cycle Scheme
Source: amended according to the OECD
Identification of Problem
Proposal of Measures
It was also proved that too detailed formulation of legible expenses together
with inconsistent interpretation of the rules in individual regional branches
of the SAIF (State Agricultural Intervention Fund) caused complications in
the first phase of the programme and even caused financial losses due to non-
recognition of the expenses and imposed sanctions.
The LAGs did not have access to methodologies and instruments for project
evaluation, utilised by the SAIF, which caused high failure rate in applying for
support from the LEADER. With regard to problems and needs of rural areas,
LEADER did not become horizontal priority of the RDP implementation, it
was not successfully promoted in other rural areas (outside the area of compe-
tence of the supported LAGs) nor was it organically included in the system of
management of rural areas.
Only drawing of resources for regular reports for the European Commission
was formally monitored. Apart from this the monitoring committee of the
Ministry of Agriculture carries out annual evaluations of the LAGs. On the
basis of the multi-criteria point evaluation, the LAGs are classified into four
groups.
Group A 150-130 the best functioning LAGs
Group B 129-105 well functioning LAGs
Group C 104-80 average LAGs
Group D 79-0 LAGs, these should re-consider their attitude, as the only meet
the formal rules.
The figure 7 shows that work of the LAGs gradually improved in the past
years.
The Ministry of Agriculture did not submit research tasks or more profound
methodical and methodology studies of influence of subsidies in rural com-
munities. There were not elaborated studies which could explain why certain
policy achieved or did not achieve the required results. Within the mid-term
assessment there were only made single surveys in order to answer monitoring
questions.�����������������������������������������������������������������
These
����������������������������������������������������������������
assessments did not prove presupposition that for communi-
120 ties, where certain LAG is working, such a LAG is the best mediator of plan-
ning, the most liked favourite of the council, or the most frequent mediator
Marie Trantinova, Marie Štolbová
Within the LAG sphere, there were not set uniform monitoring indicators,
therefore it is very difficult to make clear assessment of success of the LAGs
and compare the proposed measures.
We may say that contribution of farmers to employment in rural areas and de-
velopment of business activities in rural areas of the Czech Republic is quite
negligible. It is not only due to permanently dropping numbers of employees
in agriculture. We also have to take into consideration that most of the farming
land in the Czech Republic is managed by big farms. Their employees, apart 121
from the management and owners, have no chance to make decisions on focus
Analysis of the programme cycle related to measures of the Axis III of the
RDP proved that the Czech Republic experienced failing of policy in nearly
all of its phases. The analyses of the state were in majority based on intuition
of proponents of relevant measures. There was not, and still is not, established
a long-term research which would deal with causes of success or failure of the
proposed measures. Some areas were not covered. Proposals of the measures
did not include well estimated amount of total financial sources needed. Some
conditions and rules proved to be over-complicated. This was also proved by
initial chaos in implementation of the measures. It became evident that there
was not properly defined competence of individual funds in rural areas. The
implementation phase was missing adequate counselling. Therefore the grants
were successfully obtained by areas with sufficiently strong social capital at
the expense of areas lagging in this sphere. ������������������������������
�����������������������������
The monitoring primarily con-
sists of collection of administrative data on number of applications for indi-
vidual types of projects, the sum required and progress of their administration.
Certain surveys were carried out only once with the aim of answering the
evaluation questions inquired by the Commission. However, these evaluation
questions do not seem to be well set-up. The Ministry of Agriculture does not
require any detailed research of effectiveness of individual measures. All of
these findings are currently being incorporated into the RDP proposals for the
period 2014-20.
122
Marie Trantinova, Marie Štolbová Literature
Chapter 7
The role of science in sustainable
development of agriculture according
to the Polish scientific community
indicated by the opinions about increasing need for further engaging all scientific
fields that were analyzed. Experts claim that in the future the role of sociology and
rural sociology in implementing concepts will increase most significantly, which
may indicate that a better understanding of social order will be required.
Introduction
In recent centuries the development of science and technology has contributed
to improvement in the living conditions and life expectancy of a large part
of the human society, but simultaneously, in many places it has led to dete-
rioration in the quality of the natural environment. Therefore, the concept of
sustainable development, which was developed in the second half of the 20th
century, and which is a reaction to more and more noticeable ecological dan-
gers, stresses the need for further economic and civilisation development but
with respect to the rights of nature. Numerous definitions of the phenomenon
(Paszkowski, 2001; Piontek, 2002; Zbierska, 2007; Majewski, 2008; Fiedor
and Jończy, 2009) stress the need to balance three substantial orders (eco-
nomic, environmental and social) and point to the need to ensure long-term
(intertemporal) durability of the development. In this context the reference of
the general rules of sustainable development to agriculture is important, be-
cause the issues of sustainability (correlations between the individual orders)
and durability are particularly significant. Agricultural production takes place
in the natural environment. Therefore, its quality (above all the fertility of
soil and weather conditions) has stronger influence on the production capa-
city and economic results achieved by individual entities than in many other
sectors of economy. Apart from that, the specific symbiosis between the farm
and household, which is characteristic of the European model of agriculture
with the dominant individual (family) form of proprietorship, encourages the
search for balance between the economic order (the possibility to achieve in-
come from the agricultural activity) and the social order (pursuit of life aspi-
rations by members of a family of farmers). Besides, agriculture is a branch
of production which caters to the essential – nutritional needs of every person.
This fact is an argument speaking in favour of ensuring the appropriate eco-
nomic conditions of production in terms of quality and quantity and to reta-
in the production capacity in the future. Simultaneously, this means that the
assumptions of sustainable development of agriculture should be considered
in the context of its nutritional function, assuming a long, multi-generation
perspective. The systems of conventional agriculture which are currently
used in developed countries were formed as a result of the implementation of
numerous scientific and technological achievements. They consist in a wide
application of external means of production (which do not come from the
farm) and mechanisation based on the application of non-renewable fossil 127
fuels (Zegar, 2012). The chief merit of those systems was the fact that they
The role of science in sustainable development of agriculture according to the Polish scientific community
enabled increase in the scale of agricultural production and in consequence,
they eliminated or considerably limited famine and malnutrition. Inappropri-
ately applied technologies, including above all simplifications in the sowing
structure, which ignored the rules of crop rotation or excessively applied che-
mical growth substances, contributed to the degradation of the agricultural
environment in many places. Not only did they have negative influence on the
health quality of products, but also and above all on the fertility of soil, which
had consequences in the possibility of satisfying the demand for food in the
long run. Therefore, it was necessary to work out the rules of sustainable de-
velopment of agriculture, which would simultaneously ensure the appropriate
supply of food and respect the environment, retain the qualitative parameters
of agricultural products and give producers a possibility to gain appropriate
agricultural income.
The main problem related with the practical implementation of these rules is
that as entrepreneurs the farmers who make current and strategic decisions are
mainly interested in the current microeconomic calculations (Poczta and Sa-
dowski, 2007; Sadowski, 2009), which in many cases diverge from the need
to protect the environment and are in disagreement with the long-term interest
of the farm, which is chiefly related with retaining fertility of the soil. The-
refore, in order to realise this concept it is necessary to apply the instruments
of agricultural policy, both in the form of support schemes and the current
regulations and required agricultural practices. Science plays an equally im-
portant role in creating the rules of sustainable development of agriculture,
mainly because of its multidimensional character, multitude of purposes and
long perspective. It is necessary to mention the fact that the complexity of the
issue requires engagement of representatives of many fields of science and an
interdisciplinary and holistic approach, which will encompass the problem of
agricultural development in all its aspects, above all including environmental,
technological, organisational, economic and social issues as well as those re-
lated with the agricultural policy.
Therefore, the aim of the research was to identify the opinion of the scientific
environment about the essence of the issue of sustainable development of ag-
riculture and the factors responsible for this development, above all including
the scientific disciplines which play a role in the development of the concept.
Due to the wide area of interest and the assumption of a holistic approach to
reality the issues related with sustainable development of agriculture may be
considered from different points of view. Therefore, the research attempted
to determine the diversification of opinions between the representatives of
socioeconomic sciences (understood as the people who chiefly investigate this
fragment of reality which was created by man or which is only characteristic
of the Homo sapiens species) and life sciences (the people who chiefly inve-
stigate the aspects of the world which are independent of the human activity or
which are dependent on the human only to a certain, limited extent).
128
Arkadiusz Sadowski, Agnieszka Baer-Nawrocka, Wawrzyniec Czubak Methodology
The ranking questions, which prevailed in the questionnaire, applied the most
popular Likert scale, where 1 is the least significant (insignificant) factor and
5 is the most significant (very important) factor.
During the research the results were statistically analysed in order to deter-
mine the significance of differences in the answers given. The λ2 test was
applied, which is the most common in the analysis of qualitative variables.
(!!!)!
λ2 = !
where:
E – expected (theoretical) cell frequency
O - observed cell frequency
Its essence boils down to the comparison of expected and observed frequen-
cies, with the zero hypothesis, which assumes no correlations between the
variables (Stanisz, 2006). The level of significance α = 0.005 and the number
of degrees of freedom df = r-1 were assumed (where r is the number of classes
into which the values in the sample were divided; in this case these are repre-
sentatives of socioeconomic and life sciences). The zero hypothesis is rejected
if the value of test probability is p<0.05 (Kot et al., 2011). The obtained results
were also processed into descriptive statistics with the coefficients of variation
and skewness.
Results
The role of science in sustainable development of agriculture according to the Polish scientific community
tain sectors justifies disaggregation, which takes place in the case of agricu-
lture due to its specific position in the natural environment and the strategic
and irreplaceable role in the functioning of society. A vast majority of the
surveyed representatives of sciences share this point of view. Regardless of
the discipline they represent, more than 80% of them think it is justified to
make analytical reference between the rules of sustainable development and
particular sectors (table 1).
The representatives of science who were surveyed also mostly agreed that it
is possible to put the rules of sustainable development of agriculture and rural
areas into practice now or in the foreseeable future (table 2). This approach
simultaneously points to the legitimacy of scientific research aimed at show-
ing the directions and mechanisms of sustainable development.
social problems causes the need to make regulations which will eliminate or at
least limit them. Therefore, due to the specific view of business entities the re-
presentatives of the scientific community ranked farmers’ decisions at a lower
level. In spite of the fact that it is the farm where actions with direct influence
on both the economic results and condition of the environment are taken (abo-
ve all this concerns agro- and zootechnical procedures as well as investments
made), most of the respondents thought that producers’ autonomous decisions
are mostly (or exclusively) motivated by current economic needs. Therefo-
re, as such they are a less important factor than regulations or scientific and
technological achievements. In spite of the fact that sustainable development
refers to general social purposes and in agriculture it concerns such impor-
tant issues as the health quality of food products and the social acceptance of
applied procedures and their effect on the condition of the environment, the
average rank of such factors as the pressure of the non-farming part of society
and the pressure of recipients of agricultural products was the lowest of all
suggestions. This may mean that similarly to farmers, their market partners
and consumers in their individual decisions are mainly guided by the econo-
mic premises, where health and environmental aspects are less significant.
These views may result from the fact that in Poland there is not a strong lobby
group promoting cost-consuming practices ensuring environmental protec-
tion or the production of higher quality but more expensive food products.
Scientific Socioeconomic
1.6 4.8 19.0 34.9 39.7 63 4.06 23.8 -0.9
research and sciencesa 1.824092
implementation 1.6 1.6 16.4 31.1 49.2 61 4.25 21.4 -1.2
of new Life sciencesb p=0.76807
technologies Total 1.6 3.2 17.7 33.1 44.4 124 df=4 4.15 22.6 -1.0
Socioeconomic
0.0 3.2 20.6 36.5 39.7 63 4.13 20.6 -0.6
sciencesa 4.581728
Political
decisions Life sciencesb 4.9 6.6 23.0 34.4 31.1 61 p=0.33297 3.80 29.1 -0.8
Total 2.4 4.8 21.8 35.5 35.5 124 df=4 3.97 25.1 -0.8
Socioeconomic 6.7 16.7 23.3 23.3 30.0 60 3.53
Farmers’ 35.9 -0.4
sciencesa 1.640018
individual 3.4 11.9 27.1 28.8 28.8 59 p=0.80158 3.68
decisions Life sciencesb 30.5 -0.5
Total 5.0 14.3 25.2 26.1 29.4 119 df=4 3.61 33.1 -0.4
Socioeconomic
4.8 11.3 32.3 32.3 19.4 62 3.50 30.9 -0.4
Pressure of non- sciencesa 3.139318
farming part of 5.0 20.0 36.7 26.7 11.7 60 p=0.53479 3.20
Life sciencesb 33.0 -0.1
society
Total 4.9 15.6 34.4 29.5 15.6 122 df=4 3.35 32.1 -0.2
Socioeconomic
Pressure of 8.1 16.1 24.2 25.8 25.8 62 3.45 36.6 -0.4
sciencesa 4.111555
recipients of
agricultural 3.2 11.3 27.4 38.7 19.4 62 3.60 28.7 -0.5
products (mainly Life sciencesb p=0.39112
processing)
Total 5.6 13.7 25.8 32.3 22.6 124 df=4 3.52 32.7 -0.5
a
As in Table 1
b
As in Table 1
Source: Authors’ own calculations based on questionnaire survey, n=128
Besides, the low level of social self-organisation is related with limited possi- 131
bilities to exert a pressure in this aspect. It is necessary to mention the fact that
The role of science in sustainable development of agriculture according to the Polish scientific community
there are no statistically significant differences in views between the representa-
tives of life and socioeconomic sciences at the level of defining the factors deci-
sive to the possibility of implementation of the rule of sustainable development.
and rural areas are important for several reasons. First of all, the vast majority
of them thought that such development is possible. Second of all, among the
factors contributing to the development the role of science was particularly
stressed. Third and probably most important of all, the sustainable develop-
ment requires a holistic approach both at the stage when it is investigated
and defined and at the stage of implementation. Therefore, the recognition of
the roles of different disciplines, not only those represented by a particular
person, is a significant contribution showing the directions of exploration of
the problem under investigation. In this context it is particularly important
to analyse the differences in views between the representatives of life sci-
ences and socioeconomic sciences. Above all, it is necessary to notice rather
considerable diversification in the views concerning the disciplines with di-
rect connection with agriculture (table 4). The researchers of nature attribute
a more important role to the sciences related with the productive and techno-
logical aspects of agriculture (chiefly to agronomy, zootechnics, veterinary
science and agricultural chemistry), which may be connected both with the
recognition of their own research areas and with the belief that the ecological
order plays a principal role. This fact is also confirmed by the relatively low
rank given by the representatives of life sciences to the other two orders (rural
and agricultural sociology, agricultural economics, economics and sociology).
In view of the fact that the concept of sustainable development was developed
as a reaction to the deteriorating condition of the environment, such views
may be considered to be justified. As far as the representatives of socioecono-
mic sciences are concerned, it is possible to observe greater balance in the opi-
nions about the role of individual sciences (the mean value of responses does
not exceed 4 in any case). This may result from the very character of research
areas of interest, because understanding the problems concerning the functio-
ning of economy and society (this fact is particularly noticeable as far as ag-
riculture and rural areas are concerned) requires at least general knowledge of
the issues related both with technology and organisation of production as well
as the rights of nature, whereas detailed exploration of biological and agricu-
ltural problems does not always have to be connected with economic and so-
cial consequences. Both of the researched groups ranked ecology as the most
important, which points to the fact that the representatives of socioeconomic
sciences also recognise the significance of the environmental order in sustai-
nable development. At the same time this means that a considerable number
of the respondents think that researching the problems of agriculture and rural
areas should go beyond the disciplines strictly related with the subject (i.e.
agronomy, zootechnics, veterinary science and agricultural chemistry, agri-
cultural technology, agricultural economics, rural and agricultural sociology)
and make use of the achievements of other, more general sciences. However,
the relatively low significance of sociology as well as rural and agricultural
sociology may be intriguing, especially if we take into consideration the fact
that these disciplines are directly related with one of the three orders of su-
stainable development. On the other hand, the representatives of both groups
under investigation ranked political sciences lowest, which seemingly stands 133
in opposition to the declared high significance of political factors. Such opini-
The role of science in sustainable development of agriculture according to the Polish scientific community
ons of the scientific community may result from the fact that politics is chiefly
treated as a domain of practical activity. Therefore, the scientific exploration
of this issue does not have significant influence on the concept of sustainable
development of agriculture and rural areas.
Table 5. The distribution of responses to the question: ‘At which level should the
condition of sustainability of agriculture chiefly be considered?’ - the respon-
dents grouped according to the branches of science
Respondents Percentage of responsesc Coefficient
Level Number Chi2 Mean Skewness
representing: 1 2 3 4 5 of variation
Socioeconomic
7.8 10.9 31.3 18.8 31.3 64 3.55 35.5 -0.4
sciencesa 2.457924
World 6.8 18.6 23.7 23.7 27.1 59 p=0.65219 3.46
b
Life sciences 36.6 -0.3
Total 7.3 14.6 27.6 21.1 29.3 123 df=4 3.50 35.9 -0.3
Socioeconomic
3.1 12.3 27.7 24.6 32.3 65 3.71 30.8 -0.4
sciencesa 1.932771
Continental 3.3 19.7 21.3 27.9 27.9 61 p=0.74812 3.57
Life sciencesb 33.3 -0.3
Total 3.2 15.9 24.6 26.2 30.2 126 df=4 3.64 31.9 -0.4
Socioeconomic
3.0 1.5 16.4 37.3 41.8 67 4.13 23.0 -1.3
sciencesa 4.697068
National 0.0 4.8 22.6 27.4 45.2 62 p=0.31982 4.13
Life sciencesb 22.6 -0.6
Total 1.6 3.1 19.4 32.6 43.4 129 df=4 4.13 22.7 -1.0
Socioeconomic
1.5 1.5 13.6 33.3 50.0 66 4.29 20.4 -1.3
sciencesa 2.549712
Regional (e.g.
province) Life sciencesb 1.6 6.5 11.3 37.1 43.5 62 p=0.63576 4.15 23.5 -1.2
Total 1.6 3.9 12.5 35.2 46.9 128 df=4 4.22 21.8 -1.2
Socioeconomic
0.0 3.1 9.2 32.3 55.4 65 4.40 17.9 -1.2
Local (e.g. sciencesa 2.390386
commune, 3.2 3.2 9.5 27.0 57.1 63 p=0.66437 4.32
Life sciencesb 23.1 -1.7
village)
Total 1.6 3.1 9.4 29.7 56.3 128 df=4 4.36 20.5 -1.6
Socioeconomic
1.5 3.1 7.7 24.6 63.1 65 4.45 19.9 -1.9
sciencesa 2.242346
Farm 4.8 6.3 9.5 20.6 58.7 63 p=0.69128 4.22
Life sciencesb 27.4 -1.5
Total 3.1 4.7 8.6 22.7 60.9 128 df=4 4.34 23.7 -1.7
Socioeconomic
3.2 9.7 21.0 22.6 43.5 62 3.94 29.4 -0.8
sciencesa 4.637022
Field/animal 11.1 9.5 12.7 28.6 38.1 63 p=0.32661 3.73
Life sciencesb 36.4 -0.8
Total 7.2 9.6 16.8 25.6 40.8 125 df=4 3.83 32.9 -0.9
a As in Table 1
b
As in Table 1
c
As in Table 3
Source: Authors’ own calculations based on questionnaire survey, n=128
In spite of the fact that the concept of sustainable development concerns glo-
bal issues, the experts thought it should mainly be considered at the natio-
nal, regional, local and farm level (table 5). On the one hand, this approach
exemplifies the slogan ‘think globally, act locally’, but on the other hand, it
mainly confirms the significant role of politics in creation of the character of
the concept of sustainable development. The levels where binding decisions
concerning the creation of economic policy or local and regional development
strategies are made were considered to be important. However, the significant
rank given to the farm level may be intriguing, especially in view of the opi-
nions about the small significance of farmers’ individual decisions. A closer
134 look at the issue shows that this contradiction is not only apparent, but it also
indicates the importance of political instruments in a certain way. It is a true
Arkadiusz Sadowski, Agnieszka Baer-Nawrocka, Wawrzyniec Czubak
fact that producers’ autonomous decisions chiefly take into consideration their
current economic interests, but they are made in a specific political and legal
environment. Thus, they also concern such issues as the microeconomic con-
sequences of the functioning of both support schemes and regulations limiting
the freedom to make economic decisions or imposing certain standards in pro-
duction procedures. In this case aid actions are particularly important, because
due to their voluntary character, farmers will make decisions whether to use
them. Although ‘restrictive’ instruments such as quality standards or a set of
procedures which need to be followed are obligatory, it is also in this case that
producers need to make a decision whether to abide by the regulations in force.
Conclusions
As results from the research, the opinions of most respondents representing
selected branches of science are in general assumptions compatible with the
commonly recognised interpretation of the concept of sustainable develop-
ment. This proves the fact that as an idea the issue well describes both the
current state of affairs and the desirable trends of actions. Both the represen-
tatives of life sciences and socioeconomic sciences mostly agreed that in spite
of the holistic character of sustainable development, it is justified to make
disaggregation and to refer the assumptions of sustainable development to
particular sectors of the economy, including agriculture. Among the factors
contributing to its development the respondents above all listed political de-
cisions and scientific progress, which is also compatible with the common
interpretation of the concept of sustainable development. Due to its long (mul-
tigenerational) perspective and possible conflicts between the current micro-
economic needs and social purposes the practical implementation of the rules
of sustainable development requires regulations. The multi-aspect character
of the issue causes the need to provide theoretical background and new tech-
nological solutions, e.g. related with precision agriculture, the application of
which with a proportionally large scale of production may not only reduce the
costs of production but also reduce the impact on the environment by limited
application of the means of production. The significant role of political factors
was confirmed by the fact that the issue of sustainable development of agri-
culture needs to be considered above all at the national, regional, local and
farm level, i.e. in those places where either autonomous decisions are made or
where the effect of the instruments of agricultural policy can be observed (this
applies to the farm).
The role of science in sustainable development of agriculture according to the Polish scientific community
approach, because among the significant disciplines they indicated those which
investigate the environmental, productive, social and economic aspects of agri-
culture. On the other hand, the representatives of life sciences thought ecology
and the disciplines related with applied biology (mostly agronomy and agricu-
ltural chemistry) to be the most important, which may point to the particular
recognition of the need to scientifically explore the issues concerning the envi-
ronmental order. At the same time, it is necessary to mention the fact that the
views of the representatives of socioeconomic sciences are closer to the idea of
sustainable development, which consists in the holistic approach to civilisation,
especially to its economic, social and environmental aspects.
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Sadowski A. (2009). Gospodarstwa rolne w koncepcji polityki równoważnego
rozwoju obszarów wiejskich. Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Develop-
ment 2 (12).
Zbierska J. (2007). Geneza idei i edukacja na rzecz zrównoważonego rozwoju.
Fragmenta Agronomica 4 (96).
Zegar J. S. (2012). Współczesne wyzwania rolnictwa. PWN.
137
Marcin Żekało
Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics – National Research Institute,
Świętokrzyska 20, 00-002 Warsaw, Poland
zekalo@ierigz.waw.pl
Chapter 8
Requirements of organic farming
and impact on direct costs
of organic production
Abstract: Information and knowledge are now considered the most important fac-
tors for the development of the farm, and in the economic aspect they often allow
to build competitive advantages. Naturally, the requirements of today's food pro-
duction sector go beyond the economic effects of the production and also apply
to meeting the environmental requirements. Organic farming as a holistic system
can be such a proposal for management, but it places high demands on farmers.
Restricted legislation in organic farming regulates in detail the manner of pro-
duction, impacting directly on production character and also economic results
achieved in organic farms. Farmers using theoretical and practical knowledge
are needed to meet all formal requirements and they want to achieve the best eco-
nomic results of production. We can point out the strengths of organic production,
which by using natural resources, best agricultural techniques and sustainable
plant and animal production can lead to a reduction of direct costs of production.
The results of studies on the AGROKOSZTY system, relating to the economics
of organic production, indicate lower than in conventional farms direct costs of
production, as well as good income performance from particular production ac-
tivities.
As with any sector of the economy, in order to meet increasing demands of the
agri-food sector, the producers have to seek information and acquire knowledge.
Organic farming is a specific area of operation of agricultural producers, who
on the one hand have to demonstrate a wide knowledge of nature, farming and
breeding, and on the other hand meet all the legislation requirements. In the
case of the agricultural sector we are dealing with very specific legal provisions
that govern the management at each stage. There are many formal limitations
for this type of farming, which may directly affect the economic results of the
production. Therefore, obtaining the relevant information and using it is a very
important part of the proper functioning of the farm, also in terms of the eco-
nomics of agricultural production. Information resource of the economy can be
considered in the category of economic resource (Oleński, 2000). It is a collec-
tion of various pieces of information potentially useful for the economic activi-
ties in the broad sense of the word. As part of this potential we can distinguish:
general knowledge, professional skills, information resources of the social and
economic entities, information resources of those involved in the information
sector of the national economy, infrastructural collections/systems of informa-
tion, infrastructural information systems of the state and supranational organi-
sations. At the level of an organic farm, the farmer obtains general knowledge
needed to operate the farm and professional qualifications allowing him to ap-
ply the knowledge in practice. Knowledge needed for agricultural activities is
very extensive, especially in organic farming. Economic and production result
in organic farming depends, among others, on the use of proper crop rotation,
prudent fertiliser management, selection of plant varieties, proper organisation of
farm and other factors (Tyburski, 2007). Of course, the value of such information
and knowledge comes not from the fact of having it but from using it (Materska,
2005). However, to some extent, the measure of the possible use of the data and
building of needed information is the level of education of farmers. Education of
farmers is undeniable potential, necessary for the efficient running of the farm.
Therefore, the education and expertise is of great importance. Based on a survey
of organic farmers participating in the studies of the AGROKOSZTY system in
2006-2008, we can note their high commitment for learning – figure 1.
60
50
40 primary
30 vocational technical
in %
secondary
20
university
10
0
2006 2007 2008
Figure 1. Education of farmers in surveyed organic farms in AGROKOSZTY
system in 2006-2008
Source: Nachtman, Żekało 2009
We need to emphasise that in each year the percentage of farmers with pri- 139
mary education was small. In the last year of the study - 2008 – as much as
Figure 2. The key parts of transferring the agricultural information and knowledge
Source: Roling, Engel, 1991.
A part of the services and assistance, the farmer can obtain information about
organic production technology and also on formal participation in organic
farming system, inter alia, associated with submitting the application and
making agri-environmental commitments in the field of organic agriculture.
Access to such information is also an important element in obtaining the fi-
nancial support, for which farmers pursuing organic production can apply (ha-
ving an organic farm covered by the control system). Producers can apply for
a subsidy per hectare of organic production, joining the agri-environmental
programme and selecting a package of Organic Agriculture. Applying for
grants is voluntary, however, raising additional funds is economically justi-
fied, and the majority of organic farmers tries to take advantage of such op-
portunity – see figure 3.
140
20956
2010 20566
Marcin Żekało
2009
17423
16908
2008
15206 number of organic farms
14947
2007
12121 number of applications
12073
9194
2006 8789
2005
7182
6706
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
Figure 4. The structure of the control and certification system for organic
farming in Poland
Source: www.minrol.gov.pl
These state authorities comprise the control and certification system for or-
ganic farming in Poland. The system of control and certification of organic
farming is the primary guarantor for the consumer that the products on the
market are manufactured in accordance with the applicable rules on organic
farming and are free of contaminants, such as: residues of pesticides and hor- 141
mones, and that fertilisers and genetically modified organisms were not used
A very important element of plant production is the origin of seed and seed-
lings. It is possible to obtain such material from one’s own organic farm or to
purchase certified seed. Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 specifies the
manner of obtaining seed and vegetative propagation material. To this end,
the mother plant, in the case of seeds, and the parent plant, in the case of ve-
getative propagating material, is grown in accordance with organic farming
principles for at least one generation, and in the case of perennial crops, for at
least two growing seasons. The manufacture of organic products (other than
seed and vegetative propagation material) should use eco-friendly material,
though in derogation conventional seeds are also approved (in the absence of
appropriate seed produced organically).
Eco-friendly way to keep the animals on the farm puts high demands
for farmers. The most important from the point of view of livestock
production restrictions in organic farming is to provide animals with
organic feed. Securing a sufficient own forage area in the farm is thus
very important for economic reasons. Therefore, farmers in organic
farms ensure diverse crop rotation. With regard to the type of bree-
ding of herbivorous animals (ruminants) one should use pastures, and
at least 60% of the dry matter in daily rations is to consist of rougha-
ge (green fodder, silage or hay). Purchased organic feeds are relatively
expensive and their availability in the market is still very limited.
It has been increasingly noted that breeding animals based on permanent
pasture is good for the environment as well as for economics of production
[Radkowska 2009]. Pasture forage is one of the best and most valuable
roughage, and at the same time is cheap. The sources of protein in animal
nutrition in organic farms include legumes: beans, peas, lupins. The prima-
ry concentrate feeds should be cereal grain and legume seed (crushed or as
meal). Also by-products of the food industry are used, such as bran, dried
beet pulp and oil-cake from oilseeds (e.g. rapeseed, sunflower). An impor-
tant component of animal feed is the prohibition of industrial concentrates
and complete mixes and feed manufactured with GMO crops. Since it is
forbidden to use growth promoters, synthetic amino acids and antibiotics,
animals grow slowly, retaining the natural resistance and durability. In ad-
dition, all young mammals must be fed with natural, preferably maternal
milk, for a reasonable period of time specified in the Council Regulation
(EC) No 834/2007. Maximising the use of animals (longer production life-
time), such as dairy cows, is an advantage of organic breeding. This is as-
sociated with low culling rate, which reduces the cost of herd replacement
(Żukowski, 2009). An important determinant of animal welfare is to ensu-
144 re appropriate livestock buildings, including appropriate stocking density
and providing access to outdoor runs. Living conditions of animals should
Marcin Żekało
take into account their needs and natural behaviour. Organic livestock pro-
duction should pay attention to proper selection of animal breeds their
adaptability, vitality and resistance to disease. First, preference is given
to native breeds. In accordance with the provisions of Council Regulation
(EC) No 834/2007: The organic livestock production system should aim
at completing the production cycles of the different livestock species with
organically reared animals. It should therefore encourage the increase of
the gene pool of organic animals, improve self reliance and thus ensure the
development of the sector.
Taking into account the factors (strengths and weaknesses) of organic farm
production as well as the current state (opportunities and threats) of orga-
nic farming in Poland, we can point out the relation with the economics of
production, especially the direct costs incurred in organic farming. The big
advantage of organic farms is the ability to reduce production costs through
the pursuit of self-sufficiency on one’s own farm. However, the development
of the organic production sector is dependent on the development of market
and interests of consumers.
Table 1. Agricultural production in organic farming in terms of direct costs incur- 145
red - SWOT analysis
+ possible use of available farm manure and - in case of need to use approved fertilisers
appropriate cultivation technology - lower e.g. lime fertilisers - high cost of
costs compared to expensive means of transportation and purchase
production - in case of need to use approved
+ limited use of plant protection products - protection products - high cost of purchase
prevention methods based on natural resources - limited capacity and difficulty in
proper agriculture technique and selection of obtaining organic breeding animals
varieties - low cost
- insufficient forage area on the farm in
+ longer production lifetime of farm animals - case of increasing production
lower cost
- exclusion (waiting period) from
+ production of feed mainly on own farm - production in case of the need for
lower costs treatment of animals
+ properly chosen and properly maintained
animals do not require treatment
Opportunities Threats
Under the AGROKOSZTY system, the methodology used for calculating the
gross margin was consistent with the EU rules (Augustynska, Goraj, Tarka, Pokr-
zywa, Skarzynska, 2000). It is the first income category, calculated by deducting
from the value of production the corresponding direct costs. In crop and animal
production, the production value depends on the yield and the selling price
for products (annual average transaction prices or ‘at the farm gate’ prices).
Among direct costs of crop production we can distinguish: costs of seeds,
mineral fertilizers, organic fertilizers, crop protection products, growth regu-
lators and other direct costs (insurance, special expenditure, special services).
For livestock production, direct costs are as the following: livestock replace-
ment, feeding stuffs (purchased and produced on the farm), other direct costs
(livestock insurance, rent for the use of forage area, medicines and veterinary
services, special expenditure and services). Additionally, corresponding sub-
sidies were taken into account. The item of subsidies only comprised those
which directly concerned particular activities, mostly supplementary pay-
ments. In case of organic production also agri-environmental payments were
taken into account.
For this study two agricultural activities were selected – winter wheat and
dairy cows, which are very common in both conventional and organic farms.
The basic data of selected activities were presented in table 2.
The scale of production (in the meaning of area under cultivation or number of
dairy cows) in organic farms was significantly smaller, the same as the yield
(see table 2). The selling price for winter wheat was about 46,6% higher than
conventional, but the price for milk was 13,6% lower in surveyed group of
farms. The level of direct costs of production in surveyed farms and economic
results of particular activities on gross margin level were shown on graphs
(see figure 5 and figure 6).
Winter wheat 147
200 178
100 79 conventional farms
54 64
organic farms
50 20 9 13
0
0
SEEDS MINERAL FERTILISERS CROP PROTECTION OTHER DIRECT COSTS
Dairy cows
250 204
200 178
EUR
ininEUR
Figure 5. The level of direct costs of winter wheat cultivation (per ha)
and milk production (per dairy cow) on organic and conventional farms surveyed
in AGROKOSZTY system
Source: AGROKOSZTY database.
907 Winter wheat
1000 795
800 635 660
583 542
in EUR
600
400 324 253 conventional farms
200 93 77
organic farms
0
TOTAL TOTAL DIRECT GROSS MARGIN SUBSIDIES GROSS MARGIN
PRODUCTION COSTS WITHOUT
VALUE SUBSIDIES
581 557
500 299 210 conventional farms
63
organic farms
0
TOTAL TOTAL DIRECT GROSS MARGIN SUBSIDIES GROSS MARGIN
PRODUCTION COSTS WITHOUT
VALUE SUBSIDIES
2. The use of farmer’s knowledge and the own farm potential become
a strong side of organic farm. This allows to lead an extensive production
as largely independent of external means of production (from purchase).
In this case, lower direct costs of production may be a strong side of or-
ganic farm management. However, the yielding remains at a relatively low
level compared to conventional production. While increasing the produc-
tivity of the unit (crops or animals) or increasing the scale of production
(number of hectares or animals) may require the purchase and high costs
that organic farmers cannot afford. This may be the weaker part of organic
production, which at the present stage of development of the organic mar-
ket is a major barrier for producers of organic products.
Literature
Augustyńska-Grzymek I., Goraj L., Tarka S., Pokrzywa T., Skarżyńska A.
(2000). Metodyka liczenia nadwyżki bezpośredniej i zasady typologii gos-
podarstw rolniczych, FAPA, Warszawa.
Krzyworzeka A. (2011). Funkcjonowanie wiedzy rolniczej, "E-mentor" nr 3
(40).
GIJHARS. (2011). Raport o stanie rolnictwa ekologicznego w Polsce w latach
2009-2010. Warszawa.
IAFE-NRI. (2004). Wyniki uzyskane przez indywidualne gospodarstwa rolne
prowadzące rachunkowość w 2002 roku, Warszawa.
Materska K. (2005). Rozwój koncepcji informacji i wiedzy jako zasobu orga- 149
nizacji, Nauka-Dydaktyka-Praktyka, Warszawa.
Chapter 9
Knowledge transfer and innovation
network on the example
of the EU-project TECH.FOOD
Abstract: The project “Tech.Food - Solutions and interventions for the techno-
logical transfer and the innovation of the agro-food sector in South East regi-
ons” was running in the framework of the EU-South East Europe Transnatio-
nal Cooperation Programme, financed by the European Regional Development
Fund (ERDF). It aimed at setting up a transnational network for building links
among enterprises and research bodies of a wide area. It represented an oppor-
tunity to improve the partner’s institutional capacity to be effective in promoting
innovation. The direct involvement of enterprises represented transnationality,
concurring to create innovation and internationalization opportunities to local
productive systems. Partners of eight countries under coordination of an Italian
lead partner implemented the project ideas of elaborating regional profiles of
needs and weaknesses concerning research, development and innovation of the
agro-food sector. Transnational networks, technological transfer nodes, technical
focus groups as well as best-experience data base and tool development for rai-
sing the innovation potential should contribute to the project aims.
The main objective was to support and improve the competitiveness of agro-
food enterprises of the partner countries, in line with the strategic objectives
of the Lisbon process. The concrete aim was to improve products quality and
to implement processes and services more efficient and sustainable. The pro-
ject realisation should contribute to renew consumers’ confidence by allowing
a more mature perception of products quality and an increased awareness of
a high technological food production and should provide sector operators with
new methodological and technical-scientific tools to improve competitiveness
and security of food production and should ensure better monitoring of the
technological research and support to innovation activities.
Methods
In order to develop an exchange of knowledge among the partnership a funda-
mental analysis of the innovation needs and potentials of each of the involved
regions has been elaborated. It was implemented through a study of the agro-
food sector for each participating region (regional profiles and case studies)
and was carried out by a mutual interaction among the stakeholders. It descri-
bed the agro-food vocations, the technological characterization of food pro-
ductive systems, and paid particular attention to traditional food chains. The
studies lead to address further project activities and strategic choices of public
and private actors promoting innovation in the food sector.
Knowledge transfer and innovation network on the example of the EU-project TECH.FOOD
An Innovation Toolbox aimed at identifying tools able to foster innovation.
Analytical tools were developed and implemented via training seminars to im-
prove awareness on innovation needs, while intervention tools were addressed
in order to promote the application of best methodologies for innovation and
knowledge management.
The profiles stated that the industrial Research & Development sector is weak
and that companies have low technology capabilities. Developed countries
employ the vast majority of their researchers while this is not true for other
countries and at the same time only a low percentage of researchers work in
the business sector, compared to the EU average. In addition, it is possible
to introduce some considerations valid also for all the other TECH.FOOD
partners, for example the fact that research and innovation activities for many
companies are justified as a way to increase or retain market share and the
product range expansion.
In some countries, there are great efforts directed toward creation of business
networks, such as clusters, which should contribute to increase of competi-
tiveness especially of small and middle companies. These types of networ-
king companies’ organisations are of a great importance because all operators
along food supply chains, regardless if they have regional, national or global
scope, can benefit from common actions, such for example a common ap-
proach towards food safety and quality. Improved networking is essential for
positioning a supply chain’s product in highly competitive markets and ensu-
ring consumer protection in already globalised food markets.
One of the main goals of the food sector should be the creation of a productive
structure system, such as industrial districts, that involve many of specialised
and independent small and medium-sized businesses, concentrated in specific 155
areas and operating in the same sector, either collaborating or competing. The
Knowledge transfer and innovation network on the example of the EU-project TECH.FOOD
districts are characterised by a strong vertical integration along the value chain
and they grew in the past around some localized industrial segments. Such
industrial districts have contributed to the socio-economic development of
many regions in terms of widespread wealth and employment and the ability
to compete at the international level, generating a considerable international
openness of the economy. These regions now boast strong industrial speciali-
sation throughout the production chain, in many cases located in specific areas
where companies found their excellence on a system of knowledge based on
local expertise. The main features of the district system are its flexibility and
adaptability of the changes of the market.
These various research aspects were the background for discussions with
more enterprises oriented presentations and discussions in national “local fo-
cus groups” and on international level in “technical focus groups”, organised
by “transnational technological transfer managers”. Enterprises were invited
and had the chance for information and national and international networking
too. In this way a lot of information material and possibilities were created
156 with the aim to mitigate the lack of a common language that usually exists
between institutions, research organizations and enterprises.
Klaus Wagner
“Modena Innova“ is a local initiative that provides free advice of experts aimed
at companies in the manufacturing, production services, energy, construction,
commerce, tourism, food and public services.
Knowledge transfer and innovation network on the example of the EU-project TECH.FOOD
and external analysis, the way to define strategies and innovation budgeting
as an intervention tool.
The “Fit For Innovation - Self Assessment Test” is an analytical and interven-
tion tool developed by CATT & Johannes Kepler University that has the focus
on 5 topics for self assessment of enterprises.
Training activities with these tools have been conducted in all partner regions
in the course of the TECH.FOOD project.
Examples of excellence
The database of excellence examples provides activities and projects showing
innovative solutions in organisation, management, co-operation, production,
product development and marketing with the aim to disseminate technolo-
gical knowledge and to facilitate competences flows and business relations.
The free access database on the TECH.FOOD web page contains more than
120 most interesting and innovative recent examples of TECH.FOOD partner
countries with type, sector, innovation topic characteristics, a short descripti-
on and contact details. For example an Austrian Mountainherb-association is
described as well as the food cluster Upper Austria which is a platform of re-
search, science and enterprises to exchange their knowledge and needs. Other
examples are the Italian research centre on animal production, the Italian mar-
keting organisation Research to Business, the consortium Parmiagiano-Reg-
giano, the Serbian traditional meat production Zlatiborac and the Istrian Agro
Cooperative Centre which concentrates on marketing and logistics for organic
vegetables and fruits of Istria. The Hungarian Kalle enterprise concentrates on
research of packaging materials and systems. The Greek lipid forum conducts
research on lipids and oils and brings together all Greek scientists and enter-
prises on this topic. Some Romanian activities concentrate on research and
marketing concerning pig and pork production as fully integrated processes.
More than 100 events and initiatives – at local and international level - have
been organized; expert working groups produced and disseminated a flow
of information on traditional food productions, regional and typical behaviour
of food industries but also on the state of application of the food laws and
principles and requirements in different EU-regions.
Literature
Arveson P. (1998). The Deming Cycle, http://www.balancedscorecard.org/
thedemingcycle/tabid/112/default.aspx [3.7.2012]
Etzkowitz H. and Ranga M. (2011). “Spaces”: A Triple Helix Governance
Strategy for Regional Innovation’, In: Rickne A., Laestadius and H. Etzko-
witz (eds), Regional innovation systems: The Swedish experience of policy,
governance and knowledge dynamics, Routledge.
TECH.FOOD. (2012). Final publication (project report), www.techfoodpro-
ject.eu
159
Krzysztof Hryszko
Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics – National Research Institute,
Świętokrzyska 20, 00-002 Warsaw, Poland
hryszko@ierigz.waw.pl
Chapter 10
Evolution of state policy on GMOs
and its impact on the potential
of rural areas in Poland
Abstract: In the last dozen years or so the world experienced a dynamic growth
in cultivations of genetically modified plants. Agricultural producers, achieving
measurable economic benefits, have developed the production of genetically modi-
fied plants to an increasingly great scale. The number of supporters of the GMOs
use has been increasing systematically, not only among farmers noting the potential
to improve income owing to this technology, but also among politicians noting the
chances for agriculture to contribute to providing solutions to basic problems of the
world today, e.g.: ensuring food and energy safety. Genetically modified food and
food produced with the use of raw materials obtained from GMO plants has become
a permanent element of our diet and forms an increasing part of food consumed to-
day. Currently, it is difficult to produce poultry and pig meat, in particular in Europe
and other highly-developed countries, without feed containing genetically modified
soy. The list of highly processed food products has been expanding quickly and the
number of opponents of releasing genetically modified organisms into the envi-
ronment has been on the raise. Social concern about unknown, long-term effects
of unnatural genetic manipulations on natural environment and consumer health
has been growing, though so far, despite numerous tests, no significant evidence
of their negative impact on human and animal health was found. For several years,
Poland has been one of the opponents of using modified plants and has been trying,
by means of national legal provisions, to prevent from using this technology both
in agriculture and food processing, which makes the respective provisions of acts
on feedstuff and the act on seed contradictory to the EU legislation.
This article provides a revision of evolution of views on GMO, current legal state
in the European Union and Poland as well as proposed changes in this regard.
160 Development of genetically modified plants production in the world was also ana-
lysed, both in terms of species cultivated and countries using them in agricultu-
Krzysztof Hryszko
ral production. Selected economic and social effects, a given state policy may
have on the current and future potential of rural areas in Poland, were presented
against this background.
In 2011, genetically modified plants were cultivated within the area of 160 mil-
lion ha, and the number of countries in which their use was permitted increased
to 29. Average annual pace of increase as regards these cultivations since 1996,
i.e. when commodity production with the use of modified plants was first launched,
reached over 35%, i.e. ca. 10 million ha. In this period a total of 1.25 billion ha
was subject to cultivation with the number of farmers involved in non-conventi-
onal production exceeding 110 million. According to estimations, global bene-
fits of using GM plants in cultivation reached nearly USD 10.8 billion in 2009,
and since 1996 they exceeded USD 64 billion in total. Under Polish conditions,
from the point of view of economic aspects the problem of whether to use GMOs
in field crops or not, is considerably insignificant, yet political decisions on possi-
ble prohibition of marketing of GMO products, especially including protein feed
components, may have negative impact on farmers involved in commodity animal
production (poultry and pig livestock, to a lesser extent bovine animals).
Introduction
Development of research and use of genetically modified plants – GMOs,
in agricultural production made biotechnology become an important part of
the world agri-food economy in recent years, affecting not only the purely
agricultural or processing area, but also more and more often fulfilling the role
of political and social game. Conflict between the supporters and opponents of
using GMOs has been increasing, resulting in even more evident global gap
between countries using new technologies in cultivations (North and South
America, Asia) and countries where the concern and social opposition in this
regard (Europe) has been growing. The main benefits of cultivating GMOs
include: improvement of profitability and effectiveness as regards carrying
out agricultural activity, limitation of negative impact of natural fertilisers and
plant protection products on the natural environment, improvement of energy
supply self-sufficiency and security, limitation of CO2 emissions and conse-
quently counteracting the effects of global warming. On the other hand, there
is still no long-term research guaranteeing environmental and health safety
of using plants and products containing GMOs, the impact of these cultiva-
tions on biological biodiversity, issues of co-existence of crops using modified
seed with conventional farming, in particular organic. Role of global seed
companies and producers of plant protection products as well as their patent
ownership remains a serious problem, which makes it necessary for farmers to
purchase these means from specific producers. As a result of these issues Eu-
ropean Union policy has recently become less strict. The EU considers legal
changes allowing Members States to introduce potential prohibitions on GMO 161
crops within certain areas of states.
Evolution of state policy on GMOs and its impact on the potential of rural areas in Poland
Global development of GMO crops
Commodity plant cultivation with the use of genetically modified seed was
initiated in 1996. The first countries to apply the new production technology
included the USA, Argentina, Canada, China, Australia and Mexico, and the
initial sown area reached ca. 2 million ha (James, 2011). Confirmation of so-
cio-economic and environmental benefits of GM plants cultivation (Brookes,
Barfoot 2011) resulted in dynamic growth of farmers’ interest in such cultiva-
tions throughout the subsequent 15 years. In 2001, genetically modified plants
were cultivated within the area of 160 million ha, and the number of countries
allowing their use increased to 29. Average annual pace of increase (Luderer,
Nollau, Vetters, 2009) of these cultivations between 1996 and 2011 was over
35%, i.e. ca. 10 million ha. In total, 1.25 billon ha was allocated for cultiva-
tion in that period, with the number of farmers involved in non-conventional
production exceeding 110 million. Inasmuch as in the first period of GM plant
production growth the technology was reserved mainly for highly developed
countries (ca. 80% of crops), in the subsequent years the sown area increa-
sed faster in developing countries, and in 2011 the share of these two coun-
try groups became equal. In developing countries, these are the small farms
that benefit from technological progress in the majority of cases. There farms,
for the reason of relatively lower labour costs, are not only able to satisfy to
a greater extent the basic food needs, but often to sell a part of harvest, which
contributes to the improvement of economic situation. The share of arable
land intended for GM plants cultivation currently exceeds over 10% of world
land resources.
plants in the respective countries varies. Over 90% of soy crops in the USA
and Argentina and 70% in Brazil cover GM varieties. In Argentina the GM
varieties also dominate maize crops, and in the USA this share exceeds 85%.
Legal conditions and social reluctance (in majority outside agriculture) has
prevented the development of plant production with the use of modified seed
on a considerable scale in the EU MSs. In recent years it has ranged from 80
to 110 thousand ha, unexpectedly exceeding the level of 114.5 thousand ha in
2011, i.e. by 25% than in the previous year. In the European Union only two
GM varieties are approved – maize and potato, yet nearly all crops cover mai-
ze (in 2011, modified potatoes were used only within 17 ha). Among all the
MSs, GMO crops were noted in 6 (Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland,
Slovakia and Romania), and Spain has for years been the leader with an 85%
share in sown area.
200
State 2000 2009 2010 2011
y = 10,198x - 8,0625 USA 30.3 64.0 66.8 69.0
148 160
160
2
R = 0,9944 134 Brazil - 21.4 25.4 30.3
125
114 Argentina 10.0 21.3 22.9 23.7
120 102 India - 8.4 9.4 10.6
90
81
Canada 3.0 8.2 8.8 10.4
80 59 68
40 44 53 China 0.5 3.7 3.5 3.9
28 Paraguay - 2.2 2.6 2.8
40 11
2 Pakistan - - 2.4 2.6
0
South 0.2 2.1 2.2 2.3
Africa
'96 '97 '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11
Uruguay <0.1 0.8 1.1 1.3
Total 44.2 134.0 148.0 160.0
Figure 1. World area of crops and main producers of GM plants (million ha)
Source: James C. 2001-2010: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops; no. 21,
39 and 43, ISAAA.
1
Annual monitoring report on the cultivation of MON 810 in 2010 Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, and Spain, Monsanto Europe S.A., July 2011.
approach is based on the assumption that GMOs are perceived as any other 163
element of a given product and as such are subject to existing regulations
Evolution of state policy on GMOs and its impact on the potential of rural areas in Poland
on the whole product as part of legal schemes on food, plant protection, etc.
In practice it means that the use of the same modified organism may be in-
terpreted differently, thus a certain comprehensiveness of control is lacking.
Such an approach is preferred e.g. in the USA. On the other hand, horizontal
approach recognises GMO as a whole, irrespective of their use, and regulati-
ons of this kind are used in the EU legislation and that of respective Member
States. However, they do not exclude effective sectoral regulations, which
often have fundamental meaning for GMO functioning in a given state.
Controversies related to cultivation and use of GM plants made the legal regu-
lations focus mainly on assurance of tight control of the whole process of cre-
ating new plants and their products, beginning from laboratory works through
the possibility of their transition to finished products on shelves with relevant
labelling.
The field of GMOs has been regulated quite thoroughly in the EU legislation4
(Dzwonkowski, Hryszko, 2011). The rules of conduct as part of closed use of
genetically modified organisms and deliberate GMO release into the environ-
ment were first established in 1990. In the years to come, the provisions were
2
Drawn up in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 (OJ No 184, item 1532 of 6 November 2002).
3
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Diversity, drawn up in Montreal on 29 January
2000 (OJ No 216, item 2201 of 4 October 2004).
4
GMO-related issues are, in a way, also regulated by international acts. This includes the Convention on
Diversity of 1992 (ratified by Poland in 1995, OJ No 182, item 1532 of 6 November 2002) and Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety signed as part thereof (ratified by Poland in 2003, OJ No 216, item 2201 of 4 October
2004). The purpose of the convention is “conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its com-
ponents and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources,
including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, tak-
ing into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding”. Meanwhile,
the protocol specifies the rules and procedures regarding safe transfer (in particular cross-border transfer of
organisms), provision and use of living modified organisms which may have negative impact on maintenance
and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking into account threat to human health.
164 supplemented and amended, and the currently applicable ones are those of
2001 and 2009. Conditions for carrying out laboratory tests were strictly de-
Krzysztof Hryszko
One of the effects of Poland’s accession to the European Union was the ne-
cessity to adjust national legal provisions to Community regulations and to
assume the rule of primacy of the European Union law over the relevant provi-
sions of national legislation. This basic rule is, however, often broken, and in
many cases the provisions of national legal acts are in conflict with the direc-
tives and regulations of the relevant EU authorities, which in turn leads to the
necessity to decide cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union
5
OJ L 125/75, 21/05/2009.
6
OJ L 106, 17/04/2001, pp. 0001 – 0039.
7
OJ L 268, 18/10/2003, pp. 0001 – 0023.
8
OJ L 268, 18/10/2003, pp. 0024 – 0028.
9
OJ L 287, 05/11/2003, pp. 0001 – 0010.
10
Commission Recommendation on guidelines for the development of national strategies and best practices
to ensure the coexistence of genetically modified crops with conventional and organic forming. Brussels,
23 July 2003.
11
OJ L 043, 14/02/1997, pp. 0001 – 0006.
and expose Poland to possible financial penalties. Legal acts relating directly 165
or indirectly to issues pertaining to the use of GM plants provide example of
Evolution of state policy on GMOs and its impact on the potential of rural areas in Poland
such divergences of recent years.
Polish legal provisions regulating the rules of conduct as regards GMOs date
back to the 1980's, when partial provisions on their controlled use were intro-
duced, but only in 1997 it was necessary to obtain consents for field tests. The
issues of GMOs were regulated comprehensively in 2001 with the subsequent
stages of national law harmonisation with Community law. The act on geneti-
cally modified organisms12 systematised the closed use, deliberate release, mar-
keting, exporting and transit of GMOs as well as tasks of governmental admini-
stration bodies. The act was accompanied by five implementing acts, elaborating
on the tasks resulting from the act (Dzwonkowski, Hryszko, 2011). Pursuant to
the act, the body responsible for GMOs in Poland, in the scope of closed use and
deliberate release, shall be the Ministry of the Environment, while the procedure
of marketing GMO products is uniform in all Member States and adopted by
voting at the Commission (by qualified majority of votes). Product allowed to
be marketed pursuant to application of a given state is simultaneously allowed
to be marketed within the whole EU. Decisions are issued for the period not
exceeding 10 years. Contrary to legal framework applicable in the EU, sectoral
acts in Poland have fundamental meaning for the functioning of GMO. Pursu-
ant to the position of the government of 200813, Poland strives after obtaining
a status of non-GMO state, i.e. one that prohibits cultivation, marketing and
releasing into the environment for experimental reasons. Only laboratory works
are supported. In order to implement these premises, the sectoral laws (feed-
stuffs14 and seed laws15) introduce provisions allowing the production, marke-
ting and use in animal feeding feedstuffs containing GM seed and possibili-
ty to enter GM plants in the national register of cultivated plant varieties and
marketing of seed material were prohibited. Even though by the end of 2012
moratorium on the application of provisions of the act on feedstuffs will be in
force and import of GMO feed is allowed, both acts, in their disputable parts,
are noncompliant with Community case-law. Currently, three proceedings are
pending before the Court of Justice. Next to the seed16 and feed acts, the Com-
mission expressed reservations as to the incomplete implementation of direc-
tives on the contained use of genetically modified micro-organisms - Directive
2009/41/EC (Kraińska, 2012). The Polish government, in its attempt to align
Polish vision of non-GMO country to the EU provisions, carries out legislation
works on amendment of problematic provisions of the acts. In 2011, the act
on seed was amended by allowing the possibility to enter GM varieties in the
12
Dz.U. of 2007, no. 36, item. 233.
Document adopted by the Council of Ministers on 18 November 2008 (http://gmo.mos.gov.pl/pobierz/
13
GMO_RAMOWE_STANOWISKO_POLSKI.pdf).
14
Act of 22 July 2006 on feedstuffs (Dz.U. 2006, no. 144, item 1045), as amended.
15
Act on seed of 26 June 2003 (Dz.U. 2007, no. 41, item 271), as amended.
16
The judgement was made on 17 July 2009 (Case c-165/08). The Commission awaits the implementation
of the new law.
166 catalogue of cultivated plants, yet also the prohibition on purchase and sale of
GM seed was introduced. The act therefore remains non-compliant with the EU
Krzysztof Hryszko
legislation, which provided basis for a veto by the President of the Republic of
Poland. Works on a draft new basic law regulating the entirety of GMO-related
issues have been carried out for several years. Without it and in the current state,
national legislation is mainly leaky and the number of institutions supervising
and controlling the observance of law results in the fact that in practice GMO is
used on uncontrolled basis. Proposals made for the new law, in compliance with
the position of the government, strive to eliminate GMO plants and product use
in Poland by way of introducing a ban on crops and marketing of genetically
modified organisms. If such provisions were adopted, it would result in further
conflict with the EU legislation.
Evolution of state policy on GMOs and its impact on the potential of rural areas in Poland
the natural environment. Biotechnology has significant impact on these areas
by modifying the current model of agriculture and the area of social relations
in rural areas.
Benefits of using GM plants for Polish farmers would now only concern mai-
ze under reference no. MON810, which demonstrates features of resistance
to Lepidoptera insects (e.g. Ostrinia nubilalis). This pest poses serious thre-
at to size and quality of maize harvest in Poland, in particular grain maize
(Bereś, 2011), and the area of its cultivation covers 14 voivodeships (except
for Pomorskie and Kujawsko-Pomorskie). It is most often found in the South
of Poland, where plant damages may reach 40-60% of crops, and in extreme
cases even up to 80-100%. Conventional methods of eliminating this pest are
comprehensive and combine chemical and biological measures with preventi-
on measures, but often fail to bring the desired results. Consequently, farmers
have become increasingly interested in cultivation of genetically modified
plants. According to research carried out by a seed company between 2005
and 2006 within three voivodeships - Małopolskie, Podkarpackie and Lu-
belskie (Bereś, Gabarkiewicz, 2008), GM maize varieties demonstrated high
resistance to pests, and its effectiveness ranged from 97.9 to 100%. Field re-
search results provided basis for simulation of calculation of direct surplus in
field cultivation of GM maize in Poland (Brookes, 2007). From the economic
point of view, the greatest benefits of these crops would be produced within
the areas of Poland with high pest presence, where the increase of harvest by
nearly 1/4 would cover, with large surplus (up to 78%) the increase of produc-
tion costs of necessary purchase of more expensive seed. In voivodeships of
the North, farmers would, however, obtain lower direct surplus (up to 18%)
as compared to conventional crops. Research of other EU Member States de-
monstrates that average growth of the level of direct surplus between 1998
and 2006 was from 12% (Spain) to 22% (Portugal). In 2005, a simulation was
168 produced for Polish conditions as regards the use of also other GM plants resi-
stant to herbicides: rape, sugar beet and maize (Anioł, Brookes, 2005). In the
Krzysztof Hryszko
case of rape and sugar beet the possible harvest growth would be by 15-30%
and direct surplus would increase by 30-90%. Meanwhile, as regards maize
crops, both grain and silage maize, harvest growth should not be expected,
which in a slight percentage of farms may lead to deterioration of production
profitability as compared to conventional plants. Theoretical growth of value
added on the use of GM plants in Polish agriculture (with 65% adoption in
rape and sugar beet crops, 35% for maize resistant to herbicides and 10%
share for maize resistant to pests) could reach from 0.5 to 1.0% of the value
of agricultural production. Under the current legal scheme and use of maize
resistant to pests only the surplus may reach ca. EUR 3-4 million per annum
(Józwiak, 2012). The fundamental issue concerns, however, the possible cost
of co-existence of GMO crops with conventional and organic farming, as well
as who would incur those costs. This refers e.g. to the level of a farm (e.g.
necessity to maintain spatial isolation18), control of transport and processing
in feed plants as well as food production. Research reveals that in order to
maintain 0.9% threshold of quantification of GM content in products, average
food processing holding in the European Union would have to incur costs
from EUR 50 to 880 thousand per annum (Then, Stolze, 2009).
The issue of whether to use or not GMO in field crops is considerably insi-
gnificant in Poland from the point of view of economic aspects, yet political
decisions to possibly prohibit marketing of GMO products, in particular prote-
in feed components, may have negative effects for farmers carrying out com-
modity animal production (poultry and pig livestock, and bovine animals to
a lesser extent). Every year Poland imports 1.8 – 2.0 million tonnes of soya
bean meal, i.e. ca. 50% of national demand for protein meal. Replacing such
great quantities of GM raw materials for feed production with non-transgenic
plant varieties or other species of protein plants and raw materials of animal
origin, under current market conditions, would result in the increase of feed
production costs from the level of 3 to 10% (non-GMO soy) to 15-30% in
the case of use of other plants or fishmeal (Dzwonkowski, Hryszko, 2011;
Seremak-Bulge 2008). In the years to come, further growth of prices of non-
GMO soy as compared to modified soy should be expected. Current price
differences stand at ca. 20%, yet assuming that availability of non-GMO raw
materials on the international market will decrease, the differences may incre-
ase to 30-40%. Consequently, the ban on import of GM meal will have consi-
derable impact on deterioration of profitability of animal production and feed
processing in Poland and limitation of competitiveness of our products on the
Community market. According to IAFE-NRI (Józwiak, 2012) calculations,
18
According to Recommendations of the European Coexistence Bureau (ECoB) it should be from 15 to 50
m, which would allow obtaining the level of 0.9% of GMO content in food and conventional feed (threshold
quantification value). Limitation of the level of mixing crops to even lower levels (e.g. to the value of 0.1%
- considered the threshold of quantification) is possible with the application of even greater distance (from
100 to 500 m). According to research carried out in Spain (2002-2004) the cost of maintenance of such
buffer zones in maize cultivation would be EUR 84 per ha (Gómez-Barbero, Rodríguez-Cerezo 2006).
assuming that there would be a ban on import of GM soy bean meal between 169
1999 and 2009, income in agriculture would decrease in total by ca. PLN 6.8
Evolution of state policy on GMOs and its impact on the potential of rural areas in Poland
billion, i.e. by the average of 5% per annum in the pre-accession period and
ca. 3% in the years to come.
19
In 2009, Swedish company Lantmannen detected 3.9% share of modified seed in maize declared as GMO
free imported from Poland.
170 of the so-called superweed, and this will consequently require the increase or
substitution of products with more toxic ones and consequently not to the de-
Krzysztof Hryszko
Conclusions
Genetically modified plants have quickly become part of the global agri-food
economy by arousing much controversy and discussions. Seed companies, in
order to retain their economic existence, strive after presenting their products
in the best possible light, while numerous social groups oppose to technical in-
terference in the natural environment. Between these groups there is a country
which should provide for rational use of the new technology without discrimi-
nating any of the parties through legal provisions. Many years of conflicts bet-
ween the respective interest groups in Poland lead to the application of legal
regulations which unfortunately fail, above all, to guarantee whether a given
product was produced with or without GMO ingredients. Willingness to make
Poland a non-GMO state through certain legal provisions lead in practice to
uncontrolled release of GMO into the environment, without due control, regis-
tration and information. Farmers, making use of primacy of Community law
over national law, draw benefits from GM plants cultivation, risking possible
losses of other farmers involved in traditional and organic farming. Polish side
has, so far, failed to benefit from a number of possibilities offered by the EU
legislation as to the formal ban on crops or marketing of GMO products and
active participation in shaping the new policy on the European forum in this
regard. Law was chosen, which may soon result in measurable financial costs
in the case of unfavourable judgments of the Court of Justice, ordering the
Polish side to modify the faulty law. However, it should be borne in mind that
there are certain agricultural producers and processing plants (poultry, pork
producers, feed industry), for whom the lack of possibility to use GMOs may
signify the loss of good competitive position on the market. Large numbers of
unknown effects of long-term use of GMO should, however, speak in favour
of caution while establishing law.
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traits in Polish arable crops. PG Economics Ltd.
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public, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain. Monsanto Europe
S.A., July 2011.
Assessment of the Economic Performance of GM Crops Worldwide. Ecologic
Institute, Berlin, 2011.
Bereś P. (2011). Omacnica prosowianka – zagrożenie dla plonów kukurydzy. 171
Raport Rolny, nr 7, p. 38-39.
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Bereś P., Gabarkiewicz R. (2008). Preventing spread of Ostrinia Nubilalis
Hbn. by cultivating of Bt transgenic maize – first field experiments in sou-
theastern Poland. IOBC/WPRS Bull. 33.
Brookes G. (2007). The benefits of adopting genetically modified, insect resi-
stant (Bt) maize in the European Union (EU): First results from 1998-2006
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Brzóska F., Świątkiewicz S. (2011). Możliwości wykorzystania pasz GMO
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konieczność", Balice.
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ronmental impacts 1996-2009. PG Economics Ltd, United Kingdom.
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GMO. Program Wieloletni 2011-2014, IERiGŻ-PIB, Warszawa.
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Gómez-Barbero M., Rodríguez-Cerezo E. (2006). Economic impact of domi-
nant GM crops worldwide: a review. European Commission DG JRC-IPTS.
James C. (2001-2010). Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops;
nr 21, 39,43, ISAAA.
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Kraińska A. (2012). Prawne aspekty uregulowania kwestii GMO w Polsce.
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Lisowska K., Chorąży M. (2010). Genetycznie zmodyfikowane uprawy
i żywność – przegląd zagrożeń. Nauka, nr 4, p. 127-136.
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mists. Springer, Chemnitz, Dresden, p. 34.
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ekonomiczny związany z uprawą roślin transgenicznych. IERiGŻ-PIB,
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173
Marcin Wójcik
University of Lodz, Department of Regional and Human Geography,
ul. Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź, Poland
wojcik.moskwa@gmail.com
Chapter 11
The Farmers’ Calendar as an example
of a cultural factor shaping
the knowledge about the countryside
and agriculture in Poland1
The last 30 years in the social sciences have been a kind of a methodological
revolution, manifested primarily in the interest in culture in different contexts
and dimensions. The whole theoretical and methodological transformation
that occurred during this period often referred to as the "culture change". The
number of research problems undertaken by cultural researchers (anthropo-
logists, sociologists, geographers) is so huge that it is difficult to construct
a clear classification of such studies. The common denominator of most of the
work is appealing to everyday life as a specific social scene. Various fields of
knowledge "discover" and interpret everyday life in relation to a variety of its
manifestations. One of them is the search for meaning, which is denominated
by the people in the process of organising (structuring) the surrounding reality
(Rose, 2010).
The key element of this entire more or less conscious process of taming the 175
reality by humans is actually the visual sphere. The nature of the images that
The Farmers’ Calendar as an example of a cultural factor shaping the knowledge ...
surround us as well as their public perception is, according to many resear-
chers, an important element of the cultural process of the social life construc-
tion in the Western civilisation (Forster, 1988; Cosgrove, 2006; Rose, 2010).
G. Rose (2010, p. 20-21 after Foster 1988) suggests that visuality relates to dif-
ferent ways of constructing the image, what is seen, and this in turn is split into
a number of perspectives, depending on who sees, how one sees, what one sees,
what one wants to see, etc. The saturation of reality with the enormity of pictures
and the ways they are viewed is one of the most characteristic elements of the
era in which we live. Complex visuality, as one of the key aspects of social life,
creates a special kind of the postmodern culture in which the image is used, in its
various forms, in the development of modern societies, their tastes, habits, ideas.
As a result, visual culture, and especially the tools it possesses today (especially
the electronic media), is a powerful weapon in the hands of the "wizards" of the
social reality. On the other hand, the democratisation of the process of creation
and dissemination of images means that the right things, people, events, etc.,
have different, often opposite images. The forms of representation (transmit-
ting meanings) in the visualisation process are in constant collision (attrition)
of views, values and attitudes towards the world. The way of reporting is, thus,
a reflection of certain ideas, and the struggle between the competing views mo-
ved today largely into the realm of iconography (Cosgrove, 2006).
The purpose of this article is therefore to present some way of communicating and
preserving knowledge about the countryside and agriculture based on a selected
example from the iconographic realm. The paper presents The Farmers’ Calendar
– a source of knowledge about agriculture addressed to farmers, which carries not
only useful information but also a specific cultural transfer. This information is
in fact embedded in the traditional cultural pattern, strongly associated with reli-
gious practices, the sphere of the family values and all the elements which stress
the specific (magical and religious) dimension of the relation between a farmer
and the nature. Although they cannot be regarded as the main source of know-
ledge about agriculture, these materials should be considered as an important
expression of the cultural transmission and the way of thinking of a large group
of people engaged in farming in Poland, especially in the eastern and southern
regions of the country. The information from The Farmers’ Calendar was di-
vided according to different criteria, including the volatility of the information
over time (since the 1990s), the promoted interpretation of the vision of farmers’
work and the changes that have been taking place in the Polish agriculture.
stereotype of the rural idyll, the positive evaluation of the countryside as en-
vironmentally friendly, healthy and close to man (Halfacree, 1993, 1995).
The vision of the rural idyll is an expression of human longing for harmony
resulting from the contact with the nature and social closeness. For example,
K. Halfacree (1993, 1995) gives two types of definitions that describe the
countryside from this point of view. The first one is derived from the critical
realism approach and identifies the countryside with the local social structure.
Localism means being in the place and undertaking local activities.
The second type of the definition is constructed on the basis of the concepts
developed by social psychologists in the poststructuralist methodology. In this
perspective, the concept of the countryside and rusticity refers to the social
idea which can be identified on the basis of what people think and say about
themselves as well as how they express their commitment to the space in
which they live (Halfacree, 1993). The countryside is therefore a represen-
tation of the surrounding environment. This identification refers to a certain
community of residence or history, i.e. the image of the social environment is
built on the relationship with a particular local whole (social and territorial).
The Farmers’ Calendar as an example of a cultural factor shaping the knowledge ...
characteristic for the regions of eastern, southern and central Poland.
and 2012 what is clearly seen is the increased diversity of interpretation of the
functions which calendar should play in shaping the outlook of farmers. In the
early 1990s the calendar’s editors wrote that the content contained within it is
primarily intended to assist in running the farm in a new challenging reality
of the beginning of the transformation. The main message and function of the
calendar was primarily to emphasise the immutability of rural life and work
towards the rapidly changing social and economic environment of agriculture.
This was justified in such a way that family farming and the land which is
in the family’s possession are one of the pillars of the state and the nation's
freedom.
Figure 1. The covers of The Farmers’ Calendar of 1993 and 2012
A specific evidence of the changing content of The Farmers’ Calendar is po- 179
sed by its covers. In the 1990s the dominant motives were patriotic paintings
The Farmers’ Calendar as an example of a cultural factor shaping the knowledge ...
and scenes from the Polish countryside of the 19th and early 20th c. In the
following years, up to now, most of the introductory iconography of the calen-
dar focuses on the contemporary landscape and the unnaturally embellished
crops and agricultural products (see figure 1). To a large extent this was due
to the opening of the publication to the urban population, who have been in-
creasingly interested in the space to implement their social needs (temporary
residence, producing their own organic food, recreation and tourism).
Figure 2. Examples of graphics accompanying the articles relating to the vision
of agriculture in Poland in The Farmers’ Calendar 1993
In later editions of The Farmers’ Calendar, especially those issued after 2000,
the editors were looking for a new vision of agriculture which would combine
the traditional religious way of looking at the work of the farmer with the
180 changes taking place in the Polish countryside. A special role was attributed to
organic farming, which is characterised by limited interference in nature, and,
Marcin Wójcik
Figure 3. Examples of contents promoting ecological farming in The Famers’ Ca-
lendar 2012
Preference for greater effort in agriculture favours at the same time the 181
maintaining of a multi-generational agriculture, woven into the local com-
The Farmers’ Calendar as an example of a cultural factor shaping the knowledge ...
munity, which also has an impact on the maintenance of the countryside as an
important social component in Poland, and the forms that are emanations of
community actions (the local community, neighbourhood, parish). This model
largely corresponds to the preferences towards the development of multifunc-
tional agriculture and rural areas, but the source of this concept is not so much
the idea of progress (modernisation), but far more historical and cultural per-
sistence of the values referring to the community of faith and work, and the
key role of the family. The new interpretation of agriculture speaks with visual
material included in the calendar. In contrast to the 1990s, the graphics moves
away from drafts in favour of photographs. The consequence of this change is
the reduced impact of symbolism, and thus the presentation of metaphorical
scenes in favour of those idealizing the countryside and rural life.
Figure 4. Examples of practical information on organisations connected with the
development of agriculture in The Farmers’ Calendar 1993
1. Local Initiatives Agency - an example of the democratisation of social action
2. The reorganisation of the pension insurance – an example of the changes in public
impact
3. New financial services – an example of economic changes
In the last few years the publishers of The Farmers’ Calendar have put a very
strong emphasis on the information function and, consequently, enhanced the
knowledge of farmers. Practical information can be divided into several types.
The first part of The Farmers’ Calendar includes not only the information on
the influence of the moon phases on farmers' practices (sowing, harvesting,
etc.) and traditional folk sayings and proverbs, but the primarily focus is put
on the monthly economic recommendations to farmers. The Farmers’ Calen-
dar highlights constantly the influence of the objective order (the rhythm of
the cosmos and thus the will of God) on human action. In 2012, for exam-
ple, a lot of space is devoted to explaining the functions and organisational
basis of ecological agriculture, with its traditional (old) as well as the con-
temporary circumstances in accordance with the principles of the European
Union's agricultural policy. Promotion of healthy food production is not just
supported by the Christian philosophy, but what is emphasised is its relation
to the multifunctional development of agriculture. Multifunctionality is thus
presented not as something new, the discovery of the European policy, but as
a continuation of a multi-dimensional rural life, based as much on agricultural
production, as on social persistence in harmony with nature.
One large part of the calendar is devoted to practical information about the
operation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. It especially
presents those activities that contribute to the promotion of Polish rural values
such as organic food production and the creation of action groups on the basis
of informal associations (social capital). The Farmers’ Calendar shows its rea-
ders the leading research and consulting institutions, and the forms of potential
cooperation (cf. figure 5). The publishers of The Farmers’ Calendar show the
directions in which the Polish agriculture can go, using what used to be critici-
sed as an advantage, such as traditional crafts, tradition, community bonds, etc.
183
1 2
The Farmers’ Calendar as an example of a cultural factor shaping the knowledge ...
Figure 5. Examples of practical information on organisations connected with the
development of agriculture in The Farmers’ Calendar 2012
1. Program “Healthy Food” – example of the promotion of Polish food
2. Experimental Centre – example of the innovation centre in agriculture
Conclusions
The paper presents one of the sources of knowledge about agriculture,
addressed to farmers, which brings with it not only useful information but also
specific cultural content. This information is in fact embedded in the traditi-
onal cultural pattern, strongly associated with religious practices, the sphere
of family values and all the elements which emphasise the specific (magic
and religious) dimension of the relation between a farmer and the nature.
These materials, though cannot be considered as the main source of know-
ledge about agriculture, should be treated as an important expression of cultu-
ral transmission, that is the way of thinking of a large group of people engaged
in agricultural occupations in Poland.
Chapter 12
The dynamic of agrifood systems
and institutional impacts
on Romanian vegetable producers
Abstract: The integration into the world trade and particularly along the chain
of products with high value added, such as the vegetables chain, is considered
as a promoter of growth and poverty alleviation (Aksoy and Beghin, 2005), even
though this topic is subject to controversy. The paper’s purpose is to assess the
role of collective organization forms in farmers’ participation in the Romanian
supply chains, more exactly the possibility of farmers to adapt to the dynamic
retail chains using new institutional economic theories. Having given the require-
ments imposed by retail chains to vegetable suppliers in terms of quantity, quality,
frequency, food safety, it is expected that a small farmer cannot afford to partici-
pate individually in the retail chains due to high transaction costs, lack of scale
and institutional changes required. In order to see the determinants of joining
collective actions by vegetable producers, binary logit/probit models were used.
The results signal out a small degree of farmers’ participation in collective forms
of organizations. Also, they reveal a certain degree of uncertainty among sta-
keholders in terms of institutional arrangements and participation in collective
action.
In order to reveal the extent to which the organization of the agro-food eco-
nomy features potential to generate internal or external competitiveness, we
consider it useful to present a brief comparative diagnosis between Romania
and EU-27 average, from the perspective of multi-criterion structure of the
agro-food chain, in two reference years (2005 and 2008) for which the most
recent relevant statistical data are available (figure 1).
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
The dynamic of agrifood systems and institutional impacts on Romanian vegetable producers
percent, and these percentage points are distributed to the other four segments
of the agri-food chain.
The diminution in number of the economic operators from the first segment
of the chain (agriculture), in the conditions of a likely relative release of labor
force, on the basis of productivity increase, induced a favorable effect in the
EU agro-food system, i.e. the primary production of agricultural raw materials
generates value added gain, which leads to the increase of this segment share
(by 2.8 percent in 2008 compared to 2005) in the third criterion of analysis
(“generated value added”).
Romania went through the transition and pre-accession period with a very
rudimentary “agrarian – structural endowment”, the excessive land fragmen-
tation and the still unclear land tenure or land ownership status representing
constraints to the plenary manifestation of the technical – organizational and
managerial progress factors; the unrestricted manifestation of these factors
would also make it possible for our country to experience the situations cha-
racteristic to countries with modern economies and agricultural sectors, in
which a decreasing number of holdings and labour input are able to incre-
asingly provide the necessary agri-food products for the population, under
increasingly restrictive competitiveness conditions.
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Furthermore, the problem is that the diminution of the share (by 0.3 percent)
of the segment agriculture in total operators of the agro-food chain was “out-
flanked” by a simultaneous diminution by 6.2 percent of the share of this seg-
ment in total labour input that consequently led not to a plus of value-added
generation, but rather to a minus (of 5.0 percent).
The other four segments of the agri-food chain, whose cumulated shares with
regard to the economic operators, accounted for 2.5% (2005) and 2.8% (2008),
i.e. a very small number of non-agricultural economic operators put to work
19.1% of the employees from the entire chain, in the year 2005, and 25.3% in
the year 2008, these generating 30.3% (2005) and 35.3% respectively (2008)
of the value added from the Romanian agro-food chain.
Therefore, the brief diagnosis of the structural changes produced in the agri-
food chains confirm certain partial conclusions formulated in other previous
segments of our scientific approach.
In this context, the agricultural sector – in particular, the vegetable sector - finds
itself in a relatively weak negotiation position due to the low level of concen-
tration from which farmers approach the market. This is a weakness that can
only be overcome by resorting to collective actions. Further strengthening of
the coordination and collaboration action between various actors of the supply
chain can come from the collective actions (organizations and agreements),
thanks to which opportunistic behaviour may be countered and reduced, while
encouraging collective behaviour (Dell’Aquila et all, 2011). Collective ac-
tions may constitute a valid and useful counterweight by taking up a strategic
role in restoring balance to market relationships, acting as a contractual power
and for redistributing added value, and contributing towards models of coo-
perative behaviour.
The dynamic of agrifood systems and institutional impacts on Romanian vegetable producers
areas. In this context it is important to know whether collective actions are
important for farmers to face the new challenges of modern retailers to fulfill
their requirements in terms of quantity, quality and frequency of deliveries.
The paper employs a qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to assess
the probability of farmers to participate in institutional arrangements such as
collective actions. In this regard, the objective of the paper is to reveal the
main characteristics of participating in collective actions in order to better
cope with the high level of requirements imposed by retail chains to small
producers which has been most often seen as a barrier to commercialization.
At the same time, the participation in collective action such as producers and
organizations groups may play a role in improving the institutional arrange-
ments with the retail chains.
Review of literature
In addition to the historical problem of low prices and profits faced by far-
mers, agrifood systems are undergoing profound changes, requiring institu-
tional adaptation (Hobbs, 2004). One of the core ideas of New Institutional
Economics (NIE) is that institutions matter, and therefore, they are important
to lower transaction costs (North, 1995; Williamson, 2000). North (2000) em-
phasizes that informal institutions influence the development of formal ones
and highlights the role of innovation to support the development of informal
and formal institutions. An example of an informal institution may be the re-
sistance of farmers to work interdependently knowing their traditional beliefs
of independence (Boehije, 1996). North (1995) points out that while formal
institutions may be changed relatively rapidly, informal institutions may take
longer to evolve. Collective action can exist in different forms such as in-
formal networks, cooperatives, producers groups, organizations and strategic
alliances. In this research, special attention is given to collective arrangements
especially to the producers groups that might facilitate the participation of
small farmers in the retail chains. Regarding collective action, Bardhan (1989)
emphasizes the high propensity of opportunism and free-riding problems in
collective actions that may limit the development of institutions to bring com-
mon benefits. The author mentions the problems of unbalanced power among
agents that NIE seems to ignore in the development of institutions. It is ex-
pected that collective actions in the form of institutional and organizational
arrangements, help reduce transaction costs. Collective forms of organization
can contribute to increasing bargaining power of farmers to negotiate with
their clients through the pooling of produce. Similarly, by bringing together
resources vegetable producers can access key assets that cannot be acquired
on an individual basis.
The dynamic of agrifood systems and institutional impacts on Romanian vegetable producers
producers and high transaction costs also contribute to the need to establish
producers’ groups to participate in collective actions. However, at present,
in Romania, there are only 22 producers’ groups and one organization, whose
members total 711 individual farmers and 10 legal farms. Initially, in 2008, 45
producers’ groups had been preliminarily recognized, yet in 2011 their licen-
ses were withdrawn, and at present only 22 groups remained. Many farmers
are unable to establish producers’ groups or to participate in other types of
collective actions due to the lack of confidence, bad memories related to com-
munist cooperatives, or lack of willingness to cooperate. At the same time,
the National Rural Development Program has a very low absorption of funds
for the measure targeting the establishment of producers’ groups (Measure
142: Setting up producers groups) and the number of applicants is low. Howe-
ver, the National Rural Development Network, started after signing a contract
in 2010, with a 3-year delay is intended to be a platform for encouraging far-
mers’ participation in different types of collective actions.
The dynamic of agrifood systems and institutional impacts on Romanian vegetable producers
found of the existence of farm assistance programs offered by supermarkets.
Interestingly, all producer group representatives indicate that the most impor-
tant benefit of contracting with modern retailers or specialized wholesalers is
that these partners offer written contracts, while the traditional wholesalers
still work with oral contracts. Usually a written contract includes conditions
on price, frequency and quantity of delivery and food safety and quality stan-
dards that need to be respected and they are more elaborated than contracts
between farmers and traditional wholesalers.
For example, the representatives of the producer group point out that the “shelf
fee” can vary between 10%-15% of the price that the farmer will receive from
the modern retailer for his products. Already in 2008, the employer organi-
zations and trade unions indicated that it is very difficult for small farmers to
deliver to modern retailers because they cannot supply sufficient quantities.
They also indicate that the “shelf fees” that modern retailers charge are sub-
stantially higher for local producers that are only able to offer small quantities
to the modern retailer compared to those delivering large quantities which ma-
kes it virtually impossible for small producers to deliver to a modern retailer.
Finally, the producers and their representatives also mention that increasing
quality standards (requirement of several certificates on chemical use) and the
poor packaging and sorting infrastructure are important constraints for small
farmers to deliver to supermarkets (Swinnen and Van Herck, 2010). Signifi-
cant to observe with respect to quality requirements, is that there is no major
difference in the quality that supermarkets requested compared to the quali-
ty that discounters asked for (both demand extra or/and first class products).
Nevertheless they indicate that it is not impossible for small farmers to con-
tract with modern retailers, but they emphasize the importance of cooperation
between small farmers such that they are able to deliver sufficient quantities
to the modern retailers. There can be an important role in this cooperation
for the producer organizations as they already help farmers to connect to the
market by providing assistance programs, such extension services and storage
facilities, and establishing contacts between farmers and modern retailers.
Finally, when discussing the dynamic of agrifood sector and the impact of
retail investments on small and large farmers it is important to keep in mind
it is primarily in the area of fresh fruits and vegetables that there is a poten-
tial direct relationship between the “supermarket” and the “farm”. The weak
bargaining power of local producers contributes also to the efficiency of the
producers groups. There are farmers that sell to a specialized wholesaler who
in turn sell to a supermarket. This is the case of smaller farmers that can pro-
duce vegetables but have serious constraints to enter the retail chains by them-
selves. Other small farmers become members in producers group and there-
fore rely on collective action to overcome these constraints. These farmers
typically receive support from the Romanian Rural Development Program,
if they form producers groups. The support is represented by financial help
to acquire/build individual assets such as irrigation systems and/or collective
194 assets such as storage facilities with cold storage and transportation to deli-
ver produce to supermarkets. In some cases the participant farmer sell aside
Cornelia Alboiu, Filon Toderoiu
the produce thus creating problems for the well functioning of the producers
groups and rising the issue of “free riding” problem within collective actions.
This is the most typical issues raised among small farmers.
From the total sample of the survey, 66% of farmers are organized. A signi-
ficant percentage of these farmers, compared with farmers who sell using
traditional channels, pays membership to their organization, and gets several
services from their producers group (table 1). By participating in collective
actions (formal producers groups) small farmers are reducing transaction co-
sts. When farmers are organized, their probability of participating in the retail
chains is significantly increased (table 2). One should bear in mind that the
figures presented are based on interviews with farmers belonging to producers
groups and this is why the results cannot be extended at the national level.
Also, the qualitative analysis gives hints that there is a strong propensity for
selling aside from the producers group when prices obtained by using alterna-
tive marketing channels are higher and the free riding problem appears very
often. Even though organization is highly important for participating in the
retail chains, there are certain organization measure supports that positively
affect farmer participation in the collective actions.
The dynamic of agrifood systems and institutional impacts on Romanian vegetable producers
gressions are used. In this way the analysis will facilitate to find out the role of
collective action in participating in retail chains. The results presented so far
suggest the importance of organization for participating in the supply chains.
Producers groups provide different kinds of supports to their members; the-
refore, it is important to identify and assess those supports that really have an
effect on the main market channel used by farmers. In this regard, a logit and
probit regressions, including organized farmers, in the form of probability of
selling to the retail chains as a function of support measures were run. Orga-
nizational support regarding inputs and collection and distribution centers is
highly significant for participating in supply chains (table 3).
The results obtained suggest that providing input support and collection and
distribution facilities are particularly important. Collection and distribution
support are mainly associated with negotiation with clients. Small farmers do
not negotiate directly with clients such as retail chains for two main reasons.
First, individual farmers do not have enough scale to negotiate, and therefore
it is too costly for them. Second, for supermarket chains it is difficult (too
high transaction costs) to negotiate with a large number of individual farmers.
Instead, for farmer and client convenience, farmer representatives such as pro-
ducers’ group administrators of farmer producers’ groups do the negotiations.
196 According to the survey, none of the small farmers is selling directly to retail
chains, therefore, confirming the importance of collective action to partici-
Cornelia Alboiu, Filon Toderoiu
Conclusions
The main results may signal out that there is a certain degree of farmers’ par-
ticipation in collective actions. Nevertheless, at the country level the number
of participation in collective actions is extremely reduced. Marketing and
collection and distribution center support offered by organizations have the
specific objective to insert small farmers into the retail chain. From the model
results the importance of transportation for choosing the market channels is
significant. Many farmers are motivated to sell to middlemen at the farm gate,
because the buyer provides transportation. First, transportation is expensive,
and second is not always reliable. One of the main premises of NIE is that
"institutions matter," and therefore, they can help reduce transaction costs.
The results show the importance of collective action for participating in the
retail chains. Participating in collective action, and furthermore, being a mem-
ber of a producer group significantly increases the probability of selling in
retail chains, supporting the hypothesis of farmers ‘perception that the higher
the participation in collective action, the higher the probability of selling in
this kind of market. At the same time, the qualitative results suggest that or-
ganization itself is not enough to facilitate the participation in the retail chains
and many free riding problems occur. The qualitative results reveal that in
Romania’s case there is a high degree of uncertainty among stakeholders both
in terms of institutional arrangements and participation in collective actions.
The share of participation in collective actions is higher in case the institutio-
nal arrangement is initiated by a larger farm.
Following the EU integration, the vegetable supply chain seems the most ne- 197
gatively affected sector, due to the high share of imports and the farmers’
The dynamic of agrifood systems and institutional impacts on Romanian vegetable producers
impossibility or incapacity to maintain stable contractual relationship within
the chain. In addition, many of them are not able to enter or form produ-
cers’ groups or participate in other type of collective actions either because of
lack of trust or willingness to cooperate. Also, the National Rural Develop-
ment Program reveals an extremely low absorption of funds for the measure
aimed at setting up producers group as well as an extremely small number
of applicants.
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vol. 10
ISBN 978-83-7658-378-5
vol. 10 Editors:
Paweł Chmieliński
Agnieszka Baer-Nawrocka