Changes in agricultural land ownership in Poland in the period of the market economy Změny ve vlastnictví půdy v Polsku v období tržní ekonomiky Jerzy BAŃSKI Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland Abstract: The article concentrates on the changes of ownership ongoing in Polish agriculture in the period 1989–2004. Since Polish agriculture was above all private in nature throughout the period of communism, the changes in question were actually more limited than in other Central and East European Countries (CEEC). Those that have taken place have first and foremost involved the privatisation of the old State Farms, whose assets were taken over by individually-owned farms or commercial-law companies, with the intermediation of the Treasury Agricultural Property Agency established for the purpose. A major element of the assets undergoing privatisation was agricultural land. The size of the ownership change has varied from region to region. In the West and North, where more than half of all farmland was in the State Farm hands to 1989, there was a marked increase in the share of land under private ownership. On the other hand, in Central and Eastern Poland, the changes were very limited, concerning only the transfer of land between private farms. Important reasons accounting for the limited activity on the market for land in this part of Poland include the agrarian overpopulation and the widespread treatment of land as a form of the “insurance policy” against job losses. The ownership changes have further encouraged polarisation where farm size structure is concerned. Farms increased in size in the regions where the large average area has long been a typical feature. In turn, the areas characterised by the excessive agrarian fragmentation have not seen any more major changes in the size structure over the recent period. A detailed analysis of the changes in ownership over the market economy period is preceded by a discussion of the history of land ownership in Polish agricul- ture, with a particular emphasis being placed on the Communist era. The legal and social bases conditioning ownership change are also discussed. Key words: land ownership, land use, agriculture, land fragmentation, transformation, Central and Eastern Europe, Poland Abstrakt: Článek se zaměřuje na změny vlastnické struktury půdy probíhající v polském zemědělství v letech 1989–2004. Polské zemědělství bylo v průběhu celého období komunismu převážně soukromé, uvedené změny byly fakticky méně významné než v ostatních zemích střední a východní Evropy (CEEC). Ty, jež se v Polsku uskutečnily, se týkaly primárně a převážně privatizace původních státních statků, jejichž majetek převzaly podniky fyzických osob nebo obchodní společ- nosti za spoluúčasti agentury Fondu zemědělského majetku, jež byla pro tento účel zřízena. Hlavním prvkem probíhající privatizace byla privatizace zemědělské půdy. Rozsah vlastnických změn se lišil mezi jednotlivými regiony. Na západě a na severu Polska, kde více než polovina zemědělského půdního fondu byla do roku 1989 ve vlastnictví státních statků, se pro- jevil významný nárůst půdy v soukromém vlastnictví. Na druhé straně ve středním a jižním Polsku byly vlastnické změny velmi omezené a týkaly se většinou pouze transferů mezi jednotlivými soukromými hospodářstvími. Významnými důvody vysvětlujícími nízkou míru aktivity trhu půdy v této části Polska byl vysoký podíl zemědělské populace a rozšířený způsob udržení vlastnictví zemědělské půdy jako určité “pojistky proti nezaměstnanosti”. Změny vlastnictví byly dále podporovány polarizací jejich velikostní struktury. Průměrná velikost farem se zvyšovala v oblastech, kde velké podniky byly dlouhodobě typické, a naopak v oblastech s výraznou fragmentací půdy nebyly v posledním období zaznamenány žádné významnější změny velikostní struktury. Diskutovány jsou také právní a společenské základy podmiňující vlastnické změny. Klíčová slova: vlastnictví půdy, užívání půdy, zemědělství, fragmentace půdy, transformace, střední a východní Evropa, Polsko AGRIC. ECON. – CZECH, 57, 2011 (2): 93–101 93 The last decade of the 20th century and the first provided, a particular attention of course being paid to decade of the 21st century were characterised by the the period under the centrally-planned economy. dynamic social and economic change throughout the Central and East European Countries (CEEC). The fall of the “Iron Curtain” marked the starting point THE CONDITIONING OF OWNERSHIP for these former-communist countries’ changing from CHANGES POST 1989 the centrally-planned to market economy. Among the more important attendant phenomena, there is the Up to 1989, the farm economy in Poland was based process of ownership change, whereby public assets on two main forms of land ownership: the nationalised have been privatised and those seized previously by (involving cooperatives or the State Farms) and the the Communist authorities returned. non-nationalised as represented by the individually- The ownership changes have taken place in all spheres owned farms. The most important element to the of the economy, but they have been at their broadest farm ownership structure in Poland comprised the in agriculture, a sector in which the near-complete individually-owned farms, which accounted for c. state control had characterised the Communist era 76% of the total area of agricultural land in the late in most of the countries of the Central and Eastern 1980s. The overwhelming majority of such farms Europe. Equally, it is true that the scenarios for the were small – of just several or a few hectares. Some changes have differed from one country in the region of them did little more than to offer supplementary to another, these changes being the subject of such work to those living on them. The major role in the studies as Bański (1998, 2003), Lerman (2001), Ingram nationalised agricultural sector was that played by and Ingram (2002) and Kovacs (2005). the Państwowe Gospodarstwa Rolne or State Farms Farmland has obviously been one of the key agri- established from January 1949. These were most typi- cultural assets subject to transfers in the period, and cally founded on the formerly-German land estates. hence also to the frequent and detailed study (Swinnen The assets in the State Farm hands grew steadily as 1996, Swinnen et al. 1997, Tillack and Schulze 2000; the abandoned land was incorporated into them, then Burger 2001, 2005; van Dijk 2003). The main issues the land of different state and Church institutions. connected with the ownership transformation regard- Individual farms were also taken on in the exchange ing land have been privatisation, the restitution of for a pension. By 1960, the State Farms had 2.4 million land, restructuring, the types of transaction on the ha at their disposal, the figure rising still further to market and land registration (Csaki and Lerman 2000). c. 4.3 million ha in 1989 (Bański 2007). Of the latter, If these elements are taken for study together, it is 3.5 million ha were actually farmland. possible for the state policy as regards the present The basis for the ownership changes post 1989 was land market to be evaluated. provided by the freeing up of the market for land, this This article is thus devoted to the ownership changes allowing for the flow between the state-controlled in Polish agriculture, the basis of its thesis being that and private sectors above all. The most important the said changes over the last 10+ years will have legal instruments as regards buying and selling of reduced regional disparities as regards the farmland land are the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of ownership structure, while at the same time polaris- Poland (Konstytucja… 1997), which recognises the ing yet further the spatial differences to be observed family farm as a fundament of the country’s agri- where the farm size is concerned. While the ownership cultural system, the 1991 Act on the Management change has first and foremost entailed the privatisa- of Treasury Agricultural Property (Ustawa… 1991) tion of the state-owned agricultural land, the flow of and the 2003 Act on the Shaping of the Agricultural land between the individually-owned farms and the System (Ustawa… 2003). establishment of new forms of ownership, the fact that Up to 2003, any natural person could buy land in Polish agriculture was always a primarily privately- Poland, with no limits being set on the area held. owned affair means that the scale of the changes here However, the aforesaid 2003 Act on the agricultural was more modest than in the other CEECs. system did introduce certain restrictions. Today, farm- The period of economic transition under study is land may be purchased by those with a basic agricultural that between 1989 and 2004, the former year herald- education, be this at the secondary or tertiary level, or ing the political, social and economic transformation else someone with the experience of farm work. The of Poland and the latter being memorable as the year farm in question may not exceed 500 ha in area. Similar the country acceded to the EU. To facilitate under- limitations seeking to maintain a proper agricultural standing of ownership changes, a short history of the land-use structure are also present in the Western development of land ownership in agriculture is first European countries (Grynberg et al. 2001). 94 AGRIC. ECON. – CZECH, 57, 2011 (2): 93–101 Among the Poland’s individually-owned farms, it The (quite distinct) fear in Poland was that the is those that are the private property of a given fam- markets for land in certain parts of the country would ily that dominate. It is usual for a family member to become dominated by foreign purchasers, by whose inherit. Around 90% of the small farms operate as a standards the prices would seem very low. In the family heritage. Among other ways of obtaining the event, these worries proved unfounded, a 2005 study right of ownership is also of course the purchase of by Rudnicki making it clear that – as of 2002 – foreign farmland.