The Land Transfer from the State Treasury to Local Government Units as a Factor of Social Development of Rural Areas in Poland

Abstract

Sustainable rural development (with the development of social functions) is currently one of the basic objectives of the rural areas policy in Poland. The main purpose of this article is to determine the level of social development of rural areas and to examine whether the National Support Center for Agriculture (NSCA) activities (in the form of transferring land to communes for the implementation of social goals) have an impact on that development, and to what extent. In this article, an assessment of the social development level of rural areas using the Hellwig method was carried out. The research covered the years 2005 and 2018, on the districts of the Warmian-Masurian voivodship located in the northeastern part of Poland. The detailed analysis also covered the rural and rural-urban communes of Lidzbark, Kętrzyn, and Bartoszyce districts. The obtained results were compared with the area of land transferred by the NSCA Regional Office Olsztyn to local government units in 2004-2017, for the implementation of social goals. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used for a comparison. The results are presented in tabular form and visualized using GIS software in the form of carto-diagrams (diagram maps). Results show a positive influence of NSCA on social development of rural areas.

Rural-Urban Migration and its Effect on Land Transfer in Rural China

“…This study could provide beneficial enlightenment for the formulation of policies related to the system and mechanism for making the elements of "talents, lands and funds" flow to the rural areas in "Rural Revitalization Strategy". Additionally, in addition to China, many countries in the world (including developed countries such as Europe and the United States) have reported land abandonment or cannot find a suitable successor, one of the most important reasons is population migration [58,59]. In this context, the rational transfer of land can be regarded as a feasible way to prevent land abandonment and ensure food security [1,3,5].…”

Economic Sustainability of Dairy Farms in the EU

“…Pomianek et al (2016) used the Hellwig's method to compare semi-urban and rural gminas in Poland analysing their socio-economic development. An assessment of the social development level of rural areas using the Hellwig method also was carried out (Rząsa et al, 2019). Pawlewicz (2015) measured the differences in development levels of urban gminas in Warmińsko-Mazurskie voivodeship in Poland.…”

Change in the Level of Agricultural Development in the Context of Public Institutions’ Activities—A Case Study of the NASC Activities in Poland

“…As a result, the Hellwig's method, an approach proposed in 1968 by the Polish scientist Zdzisław Hellwig, was chosen for this study. This method is common in such type of research [25,30,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. The Hellwig's method is based on the calculation of a synthetic development index which allows the user to present a situation of diversity in the level of the phenomenon studied, covering many categories, e.g., economic, social, ecological, and spatial ones [51,52].…”

“…Therefore, the authors additionally studied the relationship between changes in the level of agricultural development between 2006 and 2018 and activities of the NASC. Based on the review of the literature [7,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], it can be concluded that advancement in agriculture entails elements concerning land use, socio-demographic factors, economic factors describing agriculture, and factors determining the level of agricultural production. Following the perusal of the literature, the authors determined which features would be reliable and usable in the study.…”