The Objectives of Farm Operations—Evidence from a Region in Poland

Abstract

The objectives set by agricultural producers directly translate into the directions of the development of farms. What is particularly important: Is there a conflict between the economic and environmental objectives of farm operations? This issue is not resolved in the literature on the subject and still is a challenge for policymakers. The main aim of the article is to identify the preferences of farm managers concerning the objectives of farm operations, as well as to examine their mutual relations. The article employs the results of surveys carried out on farms from the Wielkopolska region (Poland). The analysis of Spearman’s rank, cluster analysis, also the classification tree method, and multidimensional scaling were applied. The research shows that the relations between the income and assets objective turned out to be moderate in terms of strength, while the environmental objective turned out to be statistically insignificant related to economic objectives (in the context of their perception by respondents). There are differences in this respect, including also a group of the respondents in which income and environmental objectives have been ranked simultaneously high. It is, however, difficult to state clearly whether there is a complementarity between the income and the environmental objective from the perspective of perception by respondents. Although when the context of the real action is taken into account then the answer should be positive. Therefore, there is a gap between the farmers’ perception of reality—choice of the hierarchy of objectives, and the real activities, e.g., in terms of pro-environmental activities. It is a new issue that points to the need to stimulate the environmental objective, in particular, through support at the level of agricultural policy instruments.