FEATURE
Polish Pesticide Use
The Polish market has huge potential for the crop protection industry.
Which companies, and which products, are winning market share asks Martin Chrobot
I
n October 2006, the consulting company possessing over 300 hectares grow mainly same is true for winter oilseed rape (see Figure
Martin&Jacob carried out research into winter wheat, winter oilseed rape and maize. 4). In the vegetation season 2005–06, the total
pesticide use on larger Polish farms There is also a high interdependence between crop area for winter wheat was approximately
(with more than 50ha). The research was the size of the farm and winter wheat crops. 840,000ha, for winter oilseed rape it was
commissioned by several multi-national crop In general, as the farm size increases, the approximately 442,000ha and for maize it was
protection companies and involved conducting percentage share of winter wheat grows. The 416,000 ha.
face-to-face interviews with a representative
sample of 611 farmers. There are 21,500 farms
with more than 50ha in Poland and together
they account for over 25% of the country’s total Figure 1: Arable acreage in
arable acreage (see Figure 1 for a breakdown of
particular provinces (hectares)
the total arable acreage in particular provinces). 0 200000 400000 600000
Martin&Jacob decided to carry out this project
Zachodniopomarskie 544564
because no other company in Poland conducts Welkopolskie 481551
dedicated research on this market segment
Warmisko-Mazurskie 457406
and because the number of larger farms has
Dolnoslaskie 407509
increased substantially in the past few years and
Lubuskie 291852
Pomorskie 281326
looks set to continue increasing in the future.
Kujawsko-Pomarskie 279079
Opolskie 229471
The research covered the most significant
Lubelskie 108990
crops in Poland, mainly winter wheat, sugar Mazowieckie 108634
beet, oilseed rape and maize. The majority Podlaskie 78408
of the farms (over 60%) were 50–100ha in
Slaskie 69857
size, with the second largest segment (around
Lodzkie 62696
Podkarpackie 60151
17%) comprising farms from 101ha to 200ha
Malopolskie 27446
hectares. As the farm acreage increased, the
Swietokrzyskie 18559
number of farms decreased (see Figure 2).
Different size farms tend to be spread fairly
Figure 2: Percentage of farms
regularly over specific provinces, with farms
in particular acreage segments
of up to 200ha dominating in all provinces.
1001ha
Farms between 50ha and 100ha are the most
3%
numerous, whereas farms of over 1,000ha are
501–1000ha
the rarest. In some of the provinces, mostly in 5%
301–500ha
eastern and southern parts of Poland, there are 7%
no big area farms (or they are very scarce). The 201–300ha
most balanced distribution of farms is found in
6%
central, western and northern regions of Poland
(see Figure3) .
101–200ha
50–100ha
17%
62%
In general, all the interviewed farmers grew
cereals, mainly winter wheat (74% of farms),
spring barley (58%) and winter triticale (48%).
However, the specific proportions of each crop
change with increasing farm acreage. In farms
with up to 300 hectares, the main crops are
winter wheat and spring barley. Whereas farms
www.agrow.com • September 2007 59
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