Quaestiones Geographicae vol. 36 (2), 2017

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    Introduction
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Kołodziejczak, Anna
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    Regional differences in agriculture in Slovakia after its accession to the European Union
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Némethová, Jana; Civáň, Marek
    The Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union is reflected in the development of agricultural production in Slovakia. The development of livestock production faced significant changes reflected in its overall decrease. The decrease in the level of agricultural production in Slovakia between 2002 and 2010 is shown by several indicators assessed in this paper. Its main aim is to highlight differences in Slovak agriculture at the level of LAU I, which are districts of Slovakia, according to the selected indicators of agricultural production between 2002 and 2010. We analyse the development of regional differences in Slovak agriculture that have widened under the influence of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The development of selected indicators of agricultural production was analysed using the change index, which best represents differences in the development of agriculture in the Slovak regions.
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    Current status and prospects for organic agriculture in Poland
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Jezierska-Thöle, Aleksandra; Gwiaździńska-Goraj, Marta; Wiśniewski, Łukasz
    Organic farming is part of a sustainable development model; at the same time it is becoming a prerequisite for the multifunctional development of rural areas. The main aim of this study is to identify the state and analyse changes in the development of organic agriculture in Poland as well as to present the possibilities for its development. The time horizon of the study covers the years 2003 to 2015. The basis of the research was an analysis of the literature, the Report of the Chief Inspectorate of Trade Quality of Agriculture and Food (IJHARS), and national empirical research; it also includes an analysis of the results of surveys carried out on organic farms in the summer of 2016, as well as our own observations. The study showed that in the years 2003–2015 Poland saw a rapid increase in the number and area of organic farms due in part to the introduction of EU subsidies. Spatial analysis of the proportions of farms by voivodeship shows that in 2015 most were recorded in Warmia-Mazuria, Podlasie and West Pomerania. Similar to the increase in the number of organic farms, the years 2003–2015 saw an increased area of organic farmland. Poland is second in the world in terms of growth in the area of organic farms. In the years 2003–2014 the average size of an organic farm remained at about 25 ha and was higher than the average size of conventional farms (10 ha). In 2014 the crop structure was dominated by fodder plants (35.8%), and meadows and pastures (31.5%). In terms of livestock production, cattle and horses had the biggest share.
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    Fragmented agrarian space: Building blocks and modernisation trajectories. The case of Slovenia
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Potočnik Slavič, Irma
    Production, processing and consumption within Slovenian agrarian space are fragmented due to physical constraints (72.4% of the territory categorised as ANC) and socio-geographic factors. Based on available data, five essential building blocks of contemporary Slovenian agrarian space (available land, change management, integrated circular economy, adjustable policies, and flexibility of institutions) are discussed. Interrelations among the building blocks shape the modernisation trajectories of approx. 70,000 agricultural holdings in Slovenia. The coexistence of three modernisation trajectories, i.e. practised autarky, various forms of pluri-activity, and small-scale intensive and innovative modernisation, creates a complex mosaic. The governance of multifunctional and multi-structured agrarian space is becoming more demanding.
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    Spatial diversification of energy crops in Polish agriculture: A study of plantation concentration based on local indicators of spatial association (LISA)
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Kołodziejczak, Anna; Rudnicki, Roman
    The paper deals with the spatial diversification of energy crops and their concentration in the Polish agriculture. The analysis of changes in territorial patterns regarding those plantations involves natural factors, effects of urbanisation, and the level of absorption of European Union funds. The concentration of plantations is presented by means of local spatial correlations of energy crops; for the purposes of this research, local Moran’s statistic (Ii) has also been employed.
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    Productivism and post-productivism in the olive groves of southern Spain
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Martínez, José Domingo Sánchez; Almonacid, Antonio Garrido
    This work examines changes in the cultivation of olive groves in the region of Andalusia since the accession of Spain to the European Common Market (1986). The first phase is marked by the triumph of productivism in which some of the basic elements of this model (specialisation and intensification) are overwhelming, according to the statistical sources used for this research, although the behaviour in terms of corporate concentration can be considered unique. Also notable, as we will explain later, are other less desirable effects of the process, which can currently be considered environmentally unsustainable. As the weaknesses and contradictions of the model have become evident, in the recent years – as a result of the new stimuli provided by the Common Agricultural Policy – more attention is paid to the opportunities offered by rural development. For the moment, the results of this approach have been limited, although the 2015–2020 planning period could be decisive for its reorientation.
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    Changes in the spatial organisation of fruit growing at the beginning of the 21st century: The case of Grójec poviat (Mazovia voivodeship, Poland)
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Wójcik, Marcin; Traczyk, Anna
    This paper is meant to determine trends in changes in the organisation of fruit production at the beginning of the 21st century. It focuses on the determination of those trends as well as their circumstances. The analysis of changes in the organisation of fruit production was made using Grójec poviat as an example. The accession of Poland to the European Union resulted in the intensification of processes of specialisation and concentration in agriculture, due to which the area occupied by orchards started to grow systematically. With the growing area and the intensification of fruit crops, quantities of fruits produced also increased. Currently, Poland is one of the biggest fruit manufacturers in Europe, with Grójec poviat being the biggest producer in Poland.
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    Investigating dairy farmers’ resilience under a transforming policy and a market regime: The case of North Karelia, Finland
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Rizzo, Fulvio
    The European dairy sector is currently facing unprecedented challenges under a transforming policy and a market regime. The expected changes will have relevant consequences for land use, the landscape, and the environment in rural areas dominated by dairy farming. Within this context, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, key characteristics of milk production in the region of North Karelia will be illustrated. Secondly, some light will be shed on dairy farmers’ challenges and adaptations to the dairy sector’s structural changes, and to what extent they contribute to the resilience of agricultural systems. In the light of an evident milk crisis, the findings suggest that farmers’ key challenge is the profitability of running a dairy enterprise. One of the consequences of the poor economic situation is the pressure to make investments in the conditions of a constantly changing policy. Flexibility and the ability to understand future trends are fundamental in adapting to socio-economic changes and unpredictability. Adaptation to unpredictability would not be possible without a key characteristic of farming activity: agriculture is not only a source of an income, but also a way of life, a sense of belonging to the land that significantly affects farmers’ decision-making.
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    Agricultural land on built-up housing lots and the incomes of communes: An example of Rokietnica commune in the Poznań agglomeration
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Maćkiewicz, Barbara; Karalus-Wiatr, Cecylia
    The strong connection between urbanisation processes and the transformation of farmland into built-up areas – mostly residential – has already been tackled in the literature. Still, in Poland this process of farmland loss, generally thought to be irreversible, occurs in a specific, often irrational and not fully registered way. What is more, this development is favoured by legislation, especially rules controlling the exclusion of land from agricultural production and real-estate taxation. Among the many detrimental consequences of those regulations are incomes of communes lower than they should be. The problem tackled in the article is that of the exclusion from agricultural use of only fragments of geodetic lots on which building investments are going on. The cost of the exclusion and the difference in the rates of the agricultural tax and the real-estate tax very often result in the exclusion of only a part of a lot, while the rest of it is formally still in agricultural use, even though its owner does not conduct any agricultural activity there. In this case two taxes have to be paid from one lot: the real-estate tax, on the land taken out of agricultural use and the building erected on it, and another, the agricultural tax, on land that is still a piece of farmland. This situation, especially in areas undergoing rapid urban sprawl, is common in Poland and has unfavourable consequences for the incomes of communes. It also leads to a discrepancy between data from the real-estate cadastre and the actual area of land in agricultural use, which greatly hampers an exact measurement and control of the real losses of land performing the agricultural function, including that with high-quality soils. The conducted research demonstrated that in 2014 nearly 7% (927) of all geodetic lots in Rokietnica commune, situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Poznań, were builtup housing lots, mostly carrying detached single-family houses, with fragments of farmland. Almost a half (49.4%) of the total area of those lots, 42 ha, was still agricultural land in the real-estate cadastre and subject to taxation not by the real-estate tax, but the much lower agricultural tax. Because of this difference in the two taxes, the annual receipts of the commune budget are 186,601 zlotys (43,395 euro) lower. It also turned out that more than 50% of farmland on those lots (21.8 ha) was arable land of the good land-capability class III, which is high for the conditions in the Poznań agglomeration. This not only corroborates the findings of earlier studies highlighting significant losses of good-quality arable land taking place as a result of urban sprawl, but it also means that in the Polish conditions actual losses are much higher than would follow from records in the real-estate cadastre. It can also be stated that the Polish legal rules not only fail to adequately protect farmland situated within metropolitan areas, but even favour its excessive loss.
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    Manorial and grange complexes as a cultural heritage of the agricultural landscape in the management of commune space: A case study of Tarnowo Podgórne, Wielkopolska
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Wilkaniec, Agnieszka; Szczepańska, Magdalena
    Manorial and grange complexes are characteristic elements of the rural cultural landscape; they constitute significant evidence of the farming tradition of a region. Unfortunately, nowadays these complexes have often become dilapidated, their legibility has been obliterated and there have been radical changes in the spatial context. The aim of this study was to determine whether manorial and grange complexes were given proper attention in the development and strategic plans worked out by communes. The commune of Tarnowo Podgórne, stretching along the western boundary of Poznań city, was selected as a case study and research area. An attempt is also made to recognise what protective provisions the local law makes for those complexes. The authors think that the quality of plans concerning the facilities under study is unsatisfactory. The Land Use Plan includes recommendations to protect nonexistent facilities and lists a complex located beyond the commune boundaries. Although the Plan emphasises the significance of manorial and grange complexes, there are no local spatial development plans for most of them. Some plans referring to the spatial structures under analysis are imprecise and incomplete, which results in ineffective protection.
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    Differences in the rural structure of Slovakia in the context of socio-spatial polarisation
    (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, 2017) Máliková, Lucia; Klobučník, Michal
    This study is devoted to socio-spatial polarisation with regard to the rural environment in Slovakia. In fact, ongoing polarisation processes do not take place only in the rural-urban continuum, but within every single category as well. This is evident especially in the rural environment, which has begun to change significantly in terms of its structure and to diversify to a greater extent. As a result, some parts of the countryside began to stagnate and decline gradually. These parts of the rural environment can thus be referred to as marginal, peripheral. With respect to the proclaimed diversity of the rural environment, this study focuses on selected rural structures, namely mountain areas, the borderland, and the area at the intersection of those two structures. Generally, these parts of the rural environment are often confronted with the phenomenon of marginality and peripherality, and because of the given local predisposition are even more vulnerable to its manifestations. Taking into account the dynamism and multidimensional character of this phenomenon, we can further assume that its manifestation changes in time and space. With the use of ANOVA, we examine a set of selected indicators of socio-spatial polarisation and verify whether and to what extent this dynamism depends on the character of diversified rural structures.