Competitiveness of Polish Agriculture before Integration with the EU: Efficiency, productivity, and price adjustement

The main question this study seeks to answer is whether or not the competitiveness of the Polish farm sector during the transition period (1990-2003) improved and wheter the Polish farmers were ready to compete at the EU market afterwards. They had to face the pressures from various sources as global markets development (e.g. low international agricultural prices) as well as from Polish systemic reforms (stabilisation, liberalisation, privatization, etc.), and adjustments related to the EU (quality of products adjustments, environmental standards, tariffs removal, arbitrage, etc.). All those pressures led to between-sector rivalry for the best domestic production factors (labour and capital in particular). Giving all that the book studies farm level determinants of the total factor productivity and efficiency changes in agricultural sector. The book concludes with policy recomendations which may be useful for new EU candidate countries which are in general more agricultural and rural in their nature than the old EU memeber states.