Spatial determinants of farmers' interest in European Union's pro-investment programs in Poland

PLoS One. 2021 Mar 18;16(3):e0248059. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248059. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to investigate spatial determinants of farmers' interest in pro-investment programs co-financed by the EU, by identifying and describing the territorial clusters of rural areas in Poland where the applications rates for these programs were above or below the national average. We tested for spatial autocorrelation using Moran's global spatial autocorrelation index, while the search for clusters was done using a local version of Moran's statistics. The results show significant regional variation in the farmers' interest in these programs in Poland. This interest was higher in regions with a greater level of agricultural development and better agrarian structure. In Poland, both of these factors are related not only to natural conditions, but also to strong historical context. We conclude that the pro-investment programs contribute to the deepening of development differences in Polish agriculture in the territorial dimension, which is not in line with the basic assumptions of cohesion policy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture*
  • European Union
  • Farmers*
  • Humans
  • Investments*
  • Poland
  • Policy*
  • Spatial Analysis

Grants and funding

Initials of the authors who received each award: E. K-D Grant numbers awarded to each author: 2017/25/B/HS4/02513 The full name of each funder: National Science Centre, Poland URL of each funder website: http://www.ncn.gov.pl/?language=en The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.