Społeczno-ekonomiczne uwarunkowania rozwoju rolnictwa

Socio-economic determinants of agricultural development

Summary: The development of agriculture as a branch of the economy depends on socio-economic as well as natural determinants. The latter have been thoroughly investigated by a number of researchers mainly via the use of quality coefficients of agricultural capacity. On the other hand, socio-economic determinants are still not represented by any synthetic type of measure. The main aim of this paper is to propose a measure which would quantify socio-economic determinants for each administrative unit of the designated research area - this area being the Lubelskie Voivodeship (province). A substantial amount of analysis and statistical calculations enabled the selection of twelve diagnostic indicators, representing socio-economic determinants of agricultural development (Table 1). These determinants contain the following factors: human capital, agrarian structure, mechanization, and technical infrastructure (Table 2). Issues concerning the migration of rural populations were ignored on purpose. The relationship between the process of migration in rural areas and the development of agriculture is difficult to quantify and stirs up numerous controversies (Bański 1999). The factors selected were also selected based on the "uniqueness rule". Only factors that are not strongly correlated were chosen (Table 3). Several methods of defining a synthetic coefficient for socio-economic determinants are evaluated in the paper. Two methods are presented in detail. The first method is based on a taxonomic measure of development proposed by Hellwig. The second method is a delimitation approach proposed by Bański (Bański 1999, Hellwig 1968). In both cases, similar final results were obtained. However, in this kind of research, the taxonomic measure of development proposed by Hellwig seems to be the more accurate method. In the investigated region, the worst conditions are found in Polesie Lubelskie (Figure 1, Figure 2). Thanks to numerous attempts supported by essential statistical calculations, the best possible measures describing socio-economic determinants were chosen and a synthetic measure of this phenomena was produced. This measure will be helpful in defining the socio-economic potential of each administrative unit of interest in light of the agricultural development opportunities present in the given area. The next step should be a formal proposal of the method described in this paper. This method includes socio-economic as well as natural determinants of agricultural development.

Słowa kluczowe: rozwój, rolnictwo, uwarunkowania społeczno-ekonomiczne

Słowa kluczowe (w języku angielskim): development, agriculture, socio-economic determinants

Prace Geograficzne, 2009, z. 121, s. 205-215.

Instytut Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej UJ

ISSN 1644-3586

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