Agricultural engineering in the ecological mountain farms

Mountains and hilly regions in Poland are very important for Polish economy because they do not only account for 8% of Polish territory, but also fulfil a significant role in environmental protection of water supply for the rivers, in tourism and in the ecological chain of plants and animals. The best type of agriculture for such areas is organic farming, which obliges farmers to minimize biological degradation of agricultural lands while allowing to obtain products of highest quality. For proper management of organic farms farmers need specialized machinery and necessary infrastructure. Machinery must fulfil specific requirements, such as safety of work, small overall dimensions and mass, surplus power and reliability. In the first part of the paper specific requirements will be discussed for such machinery as tractors equipped with various cultivation equipment, transport vehicles etc. In the second part we will provide a survey of tractors, machines and equipment produced in Poland, with indication of the development directions