REGIONAL DIFFERENTIATION OF PRODUCTIVE POTENTIAL OF AGRICULTURE AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ITS USE IN POLAND

The aim of this study was the identification of spatial differentiation of agricultural productive potential and the assessment of effectiveness of its use in Poland. According to the EUROSTAT data in 2011 Polish agriculture comprised 8.35 % of agricultural area of the European Union and 20 % of the labour force of the EU agricultural sector. At the same time Poland's share in the EU agricultural production was only 5.79 %. In order to evaluate the differentiation level of agricultural productive potential as well as the effectiveness of its use a synthetic measurement was employed that used the TOPSIS method. The research was based on the statistical data obtained form the Main Statistical Office for the year 2011. Based on the synthetic measure 4 typological groups of regions were singled out due to their productive potential. The measure used ranged from 0.27 to 0.63 and for the majority of voivodships it did not exceed the average value for Poland. The research shows that Poland is also a country that is extremely diverse as regards the effectiveness of use of production capacity of agriculture. The synthetic measures showed here a strong differentiation ranging from 0 to 0.86. Moreover, the research findings indicate that the effectiveness of productive potential in agriculture in the highest in the regions characterised by a high socioeconomic development.