PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUAL FARMS IN POLAND: A CASE FOR LAND CONSOLIDATION

The article examines productivity and efficiency of Polish individual farms, contributing to the policy debate on excessive fragmentation and the need for land consolidation. Data of a rural household survey conducted in the spring of 2000 show that Polish individual farms in the size range of up to 100 hectares have positive marginal productivity of land and increasing returns to scale. Among the individual farms surveyed, larger farms report higher household incomes from farm and non-farm sources combined. Rural families cultivating larger land holdings are observed to be substantially better off than families with relatively small allotments