Land productivity in the EU in the context of financial support through direct subsidies

Abstract

The main research objective of this study is to present the dynamics of land productivity changes in EU agriculture in the years 2012-2020 and evaluate the influence of direct subsidies received by farmers on land productivity. The source data for 2012-2020 are secondary and come from Eurostat. The research results were prepared for the entire European Union (EU-28), and divided into 'old' countries (EU-15) and 'new' countries (EU-13). The results were developed using the method of assessing convergence (in terms of differences in land productivity in individual countries) using the coefficient of variation and the relative index of changes in individual Member States in relation to the EU average over the period under study. Results showed that between 2012 and 2020, average land productivity in the EU increased by 7%. At the same time, differences in land productivity between EU countries decreased. The correlation analysis confirmed a statistically significant relationship between land productivity and the amount of direct payments per ha of agricultural land. Additionally, results of the correlation between productivity per 1 ha and the total area of agricultural land in EU countries confirmed the law of decreasing marginal productivity of land.

Keywords

• agricultural payments
• convergence
• efficiency
• financial resources