Bożena Karwat-Woźniak,

Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics – National Research Institute (IAFE – NRI),

Warsaw, Poland,

E-mail: karwat@ierigz.waw.pl

Changes in the socio-economic characteristics

of persons employed in the Polish agriculture under

the conditions of growing competition

ABSTRACT. The Polish agriculture is still characterised by considerable structural fragmentation. Activation of the desired transformation is more and more often connected to the quality of human capital. The characteristics of persons working on a farm not only condition the achievement of a competitive advantage, but also the possibility to increase the level of their non-agricultural activity. These circumstances precondition the pro-effective reconstruction of the production structures of the Polish agriculture. Ipso facto the aim of this paper is to show that the changes in the group of people employed in family farming permanently at a full-time level imply the chances of agricultural structures improvement. At the same time, the characteristics of persons who are unused labour resource potential make their inter-sectoral mobility more probable. The paper uses mainly the results of IAFE-NRI’s research carried out on a sample of ca. 0.2% of the actual number of individual farms. On the basis thereof it was stated that the rise in competition has contributed to the processes of work professionalization in the Polish agriculture. Despite some signs of aging of the family labour force it may still be considered relatively young. The level of schooling improved both for persons permanently employed on a full-time basis, as well as persons considered as redundant on a farm. This will most likely act in favour of modernisation processes in agriculture, diversification of economic activity and outflow of people from agriculture.

Received: June, 2014

1st Revision: September, 2014

Accepted: November, 2014

DOI:10.14254/2071-789X.2014/7-3/5

JEL Classification: J19, J24, J43

Keywords: persons working on family farm: permanently at a full-time level and seasonal, demographic structure, level of general and professional education, farm redundant labour force.