The results of existing research predict that the area of abandoned land will increase in many European regions. One of the countries that are the most prone to this process is Poland where agriculture, after many transformations, is still an important sector of the economy. It is essential to determine drivers of the abandonment of agricultural land use in order to effectively counteract this process. Through the Common Agricultural Policy, the European Union financially supports farmers who use agricultural land in accordance with the environmental protection requirements. This study investigated to what extent the land use, the characteristics of agricultural holdings, the demographics as well as economic factors impacted the process of land abandonment in Poland during the period 2002–2020. The analysis was carried out using statistical and spatial data pertaining to the period before and after Poland’s accession to the European Union. Our results demonstrate that the share of abandoned land within the country's agricultural area has decreased from 9.7 % to 1.2 %. Direct payments to farmers and the agrarian structure of farms were the most significant factors affecting this process. Spearman’s rank order correlations between the share of abandoned arable land and the two mentioned variables are close to or higher than 0.5 in each analysed year. The obtained results did not confirm the common conviction that environmental factors play a decisive role in the process of cultivation abandonment.

中文翻译：

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共同农业政策下波兰土地撂荒的趋势和驱动因素


现有研究结果预测，许多欧洲地区的废弃土地面积将增加。波兰是最容易受到这一过程影响的国家之一，该国的农业经过多次转型，仍然是经济的重要部门。必须确定放弃农业用地的驱动因素，以有效抵消这一过程。通过共同农业政策，欧盟为按照环境保护要求使用农业用地的农民提供财政支持。本研究调查了 2002 年至 2020 年期间土地利用、农业持有特征、人口统计以及经济因素在多大程度上影响了波兰的土地撂荒过程。该分析是使用与波兰加入欧盟前后相关的统计和空间数据进行的。我们的结果表明，该国农业区内被遗弃土地的比例已从 9.7% 下降到 1.2%。直接支付给农民和农场的土地结构是影响这一过程的最重要因素。在每个分析年份，废弃耕地份额与上述两个变量之间的 Spearman 排序相关性接近或高于 0.5。获得的结果并未证实环境因素在弃耕过程中起决定性作用的普遍信念。