The possibilities of comparative analysis of changes in the number and structure of farms in 1990-2013 in the light of the new statistical definition of an agricultural holding

Because of the new definition, the status of an agricultural holding was lost by holdings of natural and legal persons not running agricultural activity (both of 0-1 ha of UAA and 1 ha of UAA and more) and by private farms (of natural persons) up to 1 ha of UAA running agricultural activity, but executing agricultural production below the set production thresholds. This reduced the number of agricultural holdings and also caused changes, varied in degree, in the level of their provision with land, labour and capital resources. Hence, what changed were the indices illustrating the agriculture development level, including the very universal ones like average farm area, labour inputs per 100 ha, productivity of labour, land and capital, etc. Consequently, majority of data on farms presented in the publications of the Central Statistical Office of Poland until 2013 is not directly comparable with the data drawn up with the use of the new definition. The presented study attempted to analyse the changes in the number and structure of agricultural holdings in 1990-2013 and in their provision with land resources, considering the new definition of an agricultural holding and regional differentiation regarding these changes