Implementation of the ”soil and water protection” agri-environmental package in Poland

The paper presents the territorial differences in the implementation of ”soil and water protection” agri-environmental package within the scope of the Rural Development Plans, RDP 2004-2006 and RDP 2007-2013, in Poland. The research material involved data provided by the Management Information System of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture developed on 16.04.2010 by the Department of Analyses and Reporting. The main beneficiaries were farmers in the voivodships in the north-western part of the country. The most interesting variant for farmers was the ”stubble catch crop”. The greatest interest in cereals and cruciferous was noted for catch crops. Ratio of area covered by the implementation of the package in the RDP 2004-2006 to agricultural land in farms (%) was positively correlated with the average area of arable land per farm (ha), percentage share of cereals in cropping area and negatively correlated with cattle stock in head per 100 ha of AL. In RDP 2007-2013 this ratio was positively correlated with consumption of nitrogenous fertilizers per 1 ha of AL (kg), average economic size of farm (ESU) and Standard Gross Margin (SGM) of farm (PLN).